Coco Chanel Essay

Coco Chanel Coco Chanel was one of the most prominent fashion designers of the 20th century. Her contribution in the development of fashion can hardly be underestimated. In fact, she revolutionized fashion in a way, since she was one of the first fashion designers who made women think of themselves first rather than think how they look for their men, which was a traditional view on female fashion at the epoch. In actuality, the significance and her great contribution in the development of fashion as well as 20th century culture at large was marked by her contemporaries as well as modern specialists. For instance, she was the only person in the field of fashion design to be named on TME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century (Charles-Roux, 145). In such a way, she gained a public approval and popularity which made her name one of the most recognizable in the fashion world. At the same time, her life was quite difficult, especially during her early years and war time periods. In fact, she witnessed two world wars but she kept working regardless of all the problems and challenges she faced in her life. In fact, her work was her true passion she remained devoted to from her early life until the end. Gabrielle Bonheur â€Å"Coco† Chanel was born on August 19, 1883. She was a second daughter of travelling salesman Albert Chanel and Jeanne Devolle in a small city of Saumur, France (Orecklin, 49). In fact, her family was poor and she was raised in poverty stricken neighborhood along with her five siblings. Remarkably, when she got her birth certificate her name misspelled â€Å"Chasnel† because nobody knew how to spell Chanel correctly. As a result, the mayor of the city had to improvise and added the letter â€Å"S† in her name, which later became a serious problem for her biographers, who could not trace her origin and define genealogical tree because of such an error in her name (Orecklin, 51). However, the misspelling of her name was definitely not the biggest misfortune that happened to her in her early life. She lived in poverty and was practically of an opportunity to get a good education. Moreover, when she was twelve, her mother died of tuberculosis that provoked a serious psychological trauma for the child. At the same time, her father could not stay with the children all the time. He had to work to earn for living and to maintain the family, in which he was the only breadwinner. This is why Coco Chanel was sent to the orphanage of the Catholic monastery of Aubazine, where she spent seven years and where she received her basic education. In fact, it is in the monastery she learned the trade of seamstress. However, she did not spend all the time in the monastery. During the vacations she went to her relatives in a provincial city, where her female relatives taught her to sew with more flourish than the nuns in the monastery were able to demonstrate. In such a way, her interest, her passion to design had started to develop since her childhood as she learned to sew and gradually she became very skilful in this field. At this point, it should be said that she was apparently a gifted person since she managed to develop her skills and abilities to the extent that she became able not only to create traditional wear, but she proved to be able to experiment and find new, original solutions, which were unusual for her time (Dwight, 119). However, at the early started to demonstrate her talent, which though was immature at the epoch. Nevertheless, her professional knowledge, to a significant extent, defined her further life, as her first job was the work at a local tailor, where she was employed at the age of eighteen as she left the orphanage. In fact, it was her first step in her professional career insignificant it seems to be, but still it was very important in regard to her future professional career since she could have hardly find a different work. Moreover, it was the only work where she could realize her full potential and implement her creative ideas while developing new wear. At the same time, it should be said that she could not afford working at a tailor for a long time because she needed to realize her ideas and she wanted to create clothes of her own. However, she could hardly start her own business, if she had failed to meet Etienne Balsan at the tailor’s shop where Coco Chanel worked. In fact, it was an occasional encounter which though outgrew into a love affair which opened Chanel the way to a new, different and better life. Etienne Balsan was rich and quite influential. It is during her life with Balsan, Coco Chanel started to design hats. At first, it was just a hobby which gradually transformed into a true passion for designing new clothe items, especially hats, where she grew more and more skillful. Her early works were characterized by high originality since they were quite different from traditional hats. At the same time, the high quality of her products attracted a lot of customers, while her acquaintance with Balsan allowed her to engage customers representing the upper-class of the French society (Charles-Roux, 210). Nevertheless, her love affair with Balsan failed to evolve into a true love. At any rate, their relationships did not last for a long period of time and Coco Chanel left Balsan, moved to Paris and took over his apartment in the French capital. In 1913, she opened her first shop, where she sold fashionable raincoats and jackets. Remarkably, the originality and quality of her wear contributed to the huge success of her shop which allowed her to maintain relatively high standards of life and she became very popular in Paris, which, at the epoch, was one of the world’s centers of the fashion industry. However, the development of her business in Paris was overshadowed by the outbreak of World War I, which started in 1914 and affected the life of the entire country dramatically (Charles-Roux, 219). Nevertheless, Coco Chanel had never stopped working and continued designing new products which still remained popular and the demand for her wear was traditionally high. But she had to stop her business in Paris because she was deprived of all her properties. Nevertheless, Coco Chanel was not discouraged and carried on her professional work and designing became an essential part of her life. On the other hand, she could live with her ideas only. She needed money to earn to maintain living. In this regard, the assistance of Balsan’s friend, Arthur â€Å"Boy† Capel proved to be very helpful for Coco Chanel. Their friendship evolved into a love affair which made them very close and Capel helped Coco Chanel to open a new shop in Brittany, France, which, similarly to the shop in Paris, became very popular among local customers (Weber, 35). It is worth mentioning the fact that celebrated French actresses buy wear in Chanels’ shop which was very important for the promotional campaign of her shop. In fact, the interest of celebrities to her shop contributed to the growing popularity of her products and her design in France that contributed to her professional recognition, while the popularity allowed her to expand her business steadily. Due to her popularity, she managed to introduce new women’s sportswear at her new boutique in Deauville. In such a way, she could expand her business, but, what was even more important, Coco Chanel changed the philosophy of women’s wear. To put it more precisely, her new design and new wear made women confident of the fact that they were supposed to dress for themselves but not for their men. In fact, it was a revolutionary philosophy for France as well as the entire world at the epoch of World War I, when the ominance of men was unchallengeable, while the development of feminism was still insignificant (Charles-Roux, 248). Nevertheless, the design and new philosophy of Chanel produced a significant impact on the development of fashion and the 20th century culture at large. Remarkably, as Coco Chanel grew more and more popular she attempted to change some facts from her past. For instance, she pretended to be born in 1893, instead of 1883, while she insisted that she lo st her mother at the age of six, instead of twelve. In such a way, she created a kind of tragic image of an orphan girl, who managed to achieve a tremendous success due her talent and hard work. At the same time, such manipulations with her past evoked numerous controversies which were insurmountable for her biographers. This is why some details of her biography are still quite controversial and unclear. The 1920s were the epoch of the fast progress of Coco Chanel as a designer and her business developed successfully. Her design was really unique and her wear was very popular in France as well as in other countries. In this respect, it is worth mentioning the fact that her acquaintance with Vera Bate Lombardi, a daughter of Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge and Duke of Teck, became of a paramount importance for Chanel’s empire. In fact, Vera Lombardi became Chanel’s muse and public relations liaison to a number of European royal families, including the British royal family. Her acquaintance with representatives of royal families and upper-classes contributed to her empire growth in power. As a result, before World War II, Chanel’s was one of the most influential designers in Europe as well as the world, because Europe, especially Paris, where Coco Chanel resided in the Hotel Ritz Paris, was the heart of the world’s fashion design (Barringer, 28). However, World War II forced Coco Chanel to stop her work and business. Nevertheless, she remained in Paris even during the German occupation. This period in her life was probably the most controversial because, after the war, she was repeatedly accused of collaborationism. For instance, she was suspected of having a love affair with a German officer and Nazi soy Hans Gunther von Dinklage. Moreover, she was even arrested after the war but she escaped the t rial after the interference of the British royal family, but she was forced to move to Switzerland where she lived until 1954. In 1954, she returned to Paris where she renewed her work and her business, but her new collection did not have much success with the Parisians and French because they believe Chanel to be a collaborationist, which produced a negative impact on her public image. Nevertheless, in spite of the failure in France, Chanel had open a new market, the USA, where her wear became extremely popular and the USA became her main market in the post-World War II period. On the other hand, even though the USA was the main market for Chanel’s Empire, Coco Chanel, herself, had never left Paris and stayed in this city until her death on 10 January 1971. She died at the age of 88 in her private suit in the Ritz Hotel Paris and she was buried in Lausanne, Switzerland (Charles-Roux, 341). Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible to conclude that Coco Chanel was a very influential fashion designer. She had changed the traditional view on women’s wear and she had changed the women’s philosophy in regard to the wear. She was one of the first designers who made women think of themselves above all, instead of thinking of their men when they choose the clothes. At the same time, her personality is still quite controversial because, in spite of a huge popularity before World War II, she failed to regain the popularity in France after the war.

An Analysis of Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences Essay Example for Free

An Analysis of Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences Essay The purpose of this paper is to explore Howard Gardner’s theory on multiple intelligences. I will focus on spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences and how linguistic intelligence has an underlying effect on the other intelligences. Spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences would seem to be very distant from linguistic intelligence, however I believe that they are more similar then one might expect. Spatial intelligence can be loosely defined as the ability to manipulate and recreated the physical work in ones mind. Artists often use this intelligence as they take an actual object and are able to manipulate it onto a canvas or piece of paper. Many IQ tests have a section that tests the ability of a person in their use of block design. Students who excel in spatial intelligence have the ability to recreate within their mind the things that they see visually. Gardner states, â€Å"The left hemisphere of the brain has, over the course of evolution, been selected as the pre-eminent site for linguistic processing, the right hemisphere of the brain, and in particular the posterior portions of the right hemisphere, proves to be the site most crucial for special processing† (Gardner, p. 181). Gardner is trying to show how separate in the brain spatial and linguistic intelligence really are. By isolating the intelligences, Gardner focuses on the idea of savants and brain damage to prove his theory that the intelligences are totally separate. Eliminating part of the brain would still allow for someone to be successful and intelligent at spatial abilities. His idea is that even if a person lost their ability to speak or the ability to use their hands, that their other intelligences could possibly still work at a high level. I agree with his theory, however I think the intelligences overlap more then he may believe. Linguistic intelligence seems to have a basis in spatial intelligence also. Many students might do just fine being able to read a word problem and then form the design in their head. Gardner gives an example, â€Å"Take a square piece of paper, fold it in one half, then fold it twice again in half. How many squares exist after this final fold? † (Gardner, p. 171). This idea shows how linguistic intelligence can be used when dealing with a student who has a greater spatial intelligence. Even without the student physically being able to fold the piece of paper they could still solve the problem due to their linguistic intelligence. Gardner shows this idea as he talks about people having distinct separate intelligences, but that each intelligence has the ability to overlap with another. I also decided to talk about his theory of bodily-kinesthetic intelligence because I feel this intelligence goes together well with spatial intelligence. Both of these intelligences are educated best by going away from the traditional teaching methods of reading and writing. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence is the ability for a person to use their body to solve a problem. This can be seen in many athletes and other people who are very active. Some people are born with a higher bodily-kinesthetic intelligence then others. Tests on reaction time have shown that some people are born with almost superhuman reaction time ability. This reaction time allows them to hit a baseball with such success that cannot be taught. Parts of this intelligence can be learned by studying similar to some of the more the academic intelligences, however bodily-kinesthetic intelligence is not viewed as an academic intelligence. Wayne Gretzky said, â€Å"Nine out of ten people think what I do is instinct†¦. It isn’t. Nobody would ever say a doctor had learned had profession by instinct: yet in my own way I’ve spent almost as much time studying hockey as a med student puts in studying medicine† (Gardner, p. 231). Both a hockey player and a surgeon rely on their body to perform at a high level. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence is just not brute force but the ability to read what is happening, and then adapt. In football, a player will tackle another player, although before that happens the tackling player must read the play to get a path take on the ball carrier. A surgeon can have perfect skills in using their hands to operate but they also need the ability to learn the correct procedures. These ideas show that a person can be above average in more then one intelligence and that is in fact fairly common. The traditional way of teaching is through reading and writing that puts an emphasis on linguistic intelligence. Gardner’s theory is to separate the intelligences by showing that even a person who loses the ability to use part of their brain will still be able to function at a high level at some other intelligences. Gardner points out that he believes the intelligences are separate, but that they rarely operate separately and more often then not there are several intelligences working together. This is how linguistic intelligence is so important to the overall learning of a student. Most tests such as IQ tests put an emphasis on how well a person does on verbal section of the test. Gardner said, â€Å"I have already noted that many retarded children display a surprising ability to master language†¦ Even more striking are those rare children who, despite retardation or autism, prove able to read at an astonishingly early age† (Gardner, p. 84-85). This is apparent when talking about a surgeon who loses the ability to use their hands and so they cannot operate on patients anymore. They may not have the ability to physically do the operation anymore but they can still instruct someone else to do the surgery. This surgeon has lost their ability to use their hands but their brain is still intact so they can use their linguistic intelligence to instruct another person to perform the operation. Gardner does not think linguistic intelligence is more important than any of the other intelligences, but I believe that linguistic intelligence sets the basis for the other intelligences. Without this intelligence the student will not be able to understand what that teacher is trying to convey in class. Language is important for the student to get through school, however a student could get though school without fully realizing their full spatial intelligence. Linguistic intelligence allows a student to gain the ability to study the concepts and then apply them to the other intelligences such as bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. One cannot expect someone to just learn all the intricate details of boxing and then to go into the ring and win a title. This can only happen with some intelligence that is born within the person. Intelligences are within everyone but it is hard for a person to know exactly what intelligence they posses the strongest. Howard Gardner’s idea of multiple intelligences stems from his belief that each person has different intelligences that they posses. These intelligences are inherently separate due to the fact that because of brain damage, a person can lose an intelligence while still being able to perform at a high level on other intelligences. Gardner does not believe that linguistic intelligence is more important then the others, however in our society we put such a great emphasis on linguistic intelligence. A student can fall behind in their linguistic development and due to our societies testing and basis in teaching the student might not attain high grades. This does not mean the student is not smart, it just means that they might excel at a different type of intelligence. Overall, Gardner explains how each person has many different forms of intelligence that they could be above average in. An Analysis of Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences. (2017, Jan 05).

Customer comparision - Kohl's vs. Home Depot Essay

Customer comparision - Kohl's vs. Home Depot - Essay Example Both companies build customer value by offering customers both a wider range of channels, and more personalized treatment through the integration of channels. Recent years, US retailers have maintained high-speed growth through continuous optimization of its product/service mix and technological innovation. It has also realized rapid expansion through capital injections. The changes are closely connected with Internet facilities and WWW which opens international markets for these companies. Be in one of the most highly rated industries for stability and success, Home Depot and Kohl’s offer an opportunity to everyone who wants to change his home and personal style. Home Depot is a US based company. It is a leader in home improvement retail market. Today, Home Depot relies chiefly on an efficient technology innovation system and supply chain. Home Depot is â€Å"the second largest retailer operating over 1,700 stores in North America. The company operates Home Depot stores, Expo Design Centers, Home Depot Supply Stores, Home Depot Landscape Supply Stores, and Home Depot Floor Stores† (Speight, 2004). Kohl’s is a nationa l retailer proposing a wide range of products for the whole family: â€Å"our stores are stocked with everything you need for yourself and your home - apparel, shoes & accessories for women, children and men, plus home products like small electrics, bedding, luggage and more† (www.kohlcorporation.com). Target market of Home Depot involves professional users and non-professional users from middle classes. Home Depot â€Å"offers products and services primarily to builders, contractors, municipalities, industrial customers and maintenance professionals† (Hall, 2007). Kohl’s target audience also involves middle class consumers looking for high product quality and good service. Customers within the segment are similar to each other and dissimilar to other groups of customers in other segments. Today, Home Depot orients

Intelligence Analysis Question 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Intelligence Analysis Question 2 - Essay Example Different professionals have come up with theories on the upcoming threats to the United States and going through the views of George Roger and Bruce James is effective in that it assists in understanding their viewpoint and the actions that the country ought to take in preventing actual occurrence of the risks. The two professionals mentioned are actual officers of the law where one of them, James works for the Central Intelligence Agency while Roger is also a member of the high leagues in terms of intelligence. According to George, the biggest threat that faces the United States both currently and in the future is regarding intelligence. Intelligence is critical information that a government accumulates and stores in its agencies that ought to assist the government run its operations and protect the citizens of the country1. George further states that the concept of hacking was the initiator of this problem and this is because the fact that people had the ability to access information and actual private date belonging to people made the trend famous to a point people started challenging one another. According to Roger, the issue is not quite rampant and this is because of the strict rules incorporated by the government where anyone that carries out this type of behavior faces strict legal action. This action has been a positive factor in ensuring that the number of these people reduces to a point that the concept of hacking stops completely. However, with the advent of more sophisticated internet technology, there are hackers that have come up with skills that they cannot be located. These hackers have the ability to hack into government systems and still critical information that has different implications on both the government and the content subject. Over the past few years, these critical hackers have had the ability to hack into systems such as that of Russian

Human Resurces Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Human Resurces - Essay Example As a new intern, I was always impatient over such realities but learnt to allow myself time to adapt to my new environment. I observed that the workers who had mentors became accustomed to standard routines at a much faster rate than those who, like myself, for one purpose or another did not. I observed that interns with mentors were inspired by their mentors’ confidence in their abilities and made more efforts to learn about their new organisations than did the rest of us. Their mentors also invested time in coaching and encouraging the interns, thus transferring their work skills to the new workers (Forster 2005). It was obvious that organisational objectives can only be accomplished through the collective input of all employees, regardless of rank. Reflective and Reflexive Practice In most of my placements, I was a part of a team or group that was responsible for accomplishing certain objectives. I would have a time for personal reflection during which I considered my role in the group work and how to best accomplish my responsibilities. After this, I was able to put the gleanings from personal reflection into practice. I would then express my ideas about my emerging awareness about my role in group sessions. In each of these team sessions, team members shared on how they believed that their contributions would affect the realisation of company goals on a daily basis. After sharing with others about such experiences, the interns would then return to implement the suggestions from the group session, and then reflect all over again (Hofstede 2003). As interns, we all benefited from the collective practices suggested as well as the individual actions taken by all of us. My personal ideals actually influenced how I interpreted corporate decisions and policies. At times my personal values were at odds with some organisational maxims. At such time, I would actively seek for the opinions of other who I knew had also experienced some measure of conflict durin g the integration process. From them, I learnt that this is a perfectly normal occurrence which is faced by almost all interns during their orientation. These ‘older’ workers also helped me to discover ways in which I could make company ideals my own or change my own views to suit them. Reflexivity is descriptive of the process whereby a person’s self-awareness is developed to the place where reflection is swiftly followed by a response with no time in the middle (Guest and Conway 2004). Reflexive employees will make be confronted by problems and quickly find solutions for them with consistency. When such personnel come across policies that they oppose, they possess the vital self awareness to recognise their disagreement and express it in a comprehensible manner to all (Brooks 2003). This is a quality that I took time to develop during my internship. It only came after I had understood the basic functions of company operations. Moreover, it was obvious to me tha t this was a vital part for employees to be able to relate well with colleagues as well as accomplish their tasks (Debra and Quick 2006). Training was not the only thing that resulted in the reflexive trait being witnessed in employees; each individual employee had to learn at his or her own pace. Some researchers have in the past claimed that training and development practices in organisations ought to be combined as equal

Civil Right Movement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Civil Right Movement - Essay Example They were the oppressed group as they were denied the equal rights and opportunities as white people. The end of World War II set a new tone for civil rights movement. The movement got prominence when in 1954 Supreme Court of US gave a landmark judgment in Brown vs. Board of Education case. In this judgment, Supreme Court declared racial segregation in school totally illegal and a punishable crime (Brown vs. Board of Education). Finally, the Civil Right Act of 1964 put an end to all discrimination that African Americans were suffering from since centuries. The Act eliminated obstacles that persisted for centuries preventing development of African-Americans. Over 45 years have passed since then; the status of African Americans when seen in the above perspective has improved a lot. Now they have not only equal voting rights to elect the government but they can also occupy any office in the US by their sheer ability. The segregation episodes that their children faced in the schools have been now buried deep into history books. They share all public places with equal rights. They can enter into any professions without any restriction depending upon their interest and ability. It is not surprising that African Americans have excelled in sports, politics, business and hosts of other activities. Their contribution in the US mainstreams reached to its pinnacle when an African American reached to the highest office of US in 2009. Several well-known figures such as Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan sprung into limelight in the post-civil movement era. Boxer Muhammad Ali, tennis star Arthur Ash, Michael Jordan in basketball, athlete Carl Lewis are some of the prominent names that have excelled in sporting activities after the end of Civil Right movement. Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell became Secretary of State and many large cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York have had mayors from African American community. Barack Obama occupying the highest office in US is a veritable testimony to the genuine change process that has taken place in the last few decades in the country giving equal opportunity, status and privilege to the African Americans as enjoyed by others. The law has given them equal rights and opportunities in all walks of life; this certainly proves that the status of African American has improved significantly since the end of the Civil Rights Movement. Answer 2. The US Law has taken its course giving African American full rights and opportunities but the African American community still faces numerous issues and challenges in the US society. Cedric Herring argues that African Americans still face job discriminations in the US. Giving an example of Texaco, the author states that the companies systemically deny promotions to the members of African American community. The New York Times produced evidence that how several Texaco Executives referred them as 'black jelly beans' and 'niggers' in their mutual conversations. Fi nally, Texaco admitted having excluded all black employees’ names from the list of next level promotions. Later, Texaco had to settle the case by paying $176 million in the largest ever discrimination suit seen in the US. Before 1964, discrimination to the African American community was overt but in the post civil rights movement era it has taken a covert route. Before 1964, no laws questioned the

Medication errors Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Medication errors - Essay Example In addition misdiagnosis and fatigue while attending to patients account to a large percentage of the errors. There are several instances throughout the medical process where medical errors can occur right from diagnosing the patient to the point where treatment is prescribed and administered by the relevant parties. Among these instances include documentation, dispensing, administering and monitoring a majority of which are carried out by nurses. This places a large responsibility on their hands and explains why medication errors and the safety of the patients lie at the core of being a nurse. The roles medical practitioners play in the occurrence of medical errors clearly cannot be overruled and it therefore goes without say, clear guidelines and procedures will go a long way in managing them (Clinic, 2011). This paper will outline the cause of medical errors, its prevention how it is reported and steps that could be taken to ensure the safety of patients. From the approach that hu man errors amount to the greatest percentage of medical errors there are two angles medication errors can be viewed from. The first angle looks at the error as being caused by human frailty. Poorly paid, overworked and unmotivated employees tend to overlook a number of critical issues which are crucial and if unattended amount to medical errors. Similarly human nature such as forgetfulness, not paying attention to details or even negligence of laid down procedures while administering care to patient’s directly cause medical errors. The second approach on the contrary views these errors in the medical field as being caused by a combination of factors surrounding the institutions. There exists an array of issues among them a broken line of communication that leads to decisions amongst practitioners being made based on partial or wrong information. This approach looks at the errors as being caused by the systems in place and for this reason they are bound to occur unless the cor rect measures are taken to prevent them. Based on this, much as human error may stands as the principle cause of medication errors, the conditions surrounding nurses and other medical staff go a long way in determining the safety of patients and in the long run preventing these errors. Even though issues handled within the hospital are diverse every one of which has a unique way of solving, most errors are recurrent and tend to fall into a pattern and therefore changes in the right policies will advertently reduce the number of medical errors. Furthermore it is important to note even the most meticulous and the very best of professionals make mistakes and placing such errors squarely on medical officers is a definite oversight. An error could occur as early as in the diagnosis stage of a patient or during the latter stages of administering treatment and drugs. All medical staff involved in this process can be the cause of such an error and therefore are directly or indirectly affect ed by its effects. Patients largely sit on the receiving end of medical errors and tend to carry the burden of its adverse effects. In the case of a misdiagnosis they get the wrong treatment and will still have to seek treatment again over and above the fact that they may suffer from deadly side effects if not fatal. These additional treatment costs impact heavily on the hospitals financials. In addition the hospitals reputation is spoilt due to malpractice and possible