Designer Coco CHANEL was a French fashion designer who founded the luxury fashion house CHANEL in 1909. She is credited with liberating women from the constraints of the 'corseted silhouette' and popularizing a sporty, casual chic as the feminine standard of style. Her influence on fashion was so immense that she was the only person in the field to be named on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.