Unit seven. Fashion is a form of ugliness so intoler­able that we have to alter* it every six months.

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intoler­able that we have to alter* it every six months.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Irish playwright, novelist and poet

Discuss this before you read the text.

1. Women are more interested in fashion than men. Do you agree?

2. Are you interested in fashion? Do you always follow the fashion?

3. What is more important for you to be always dressed in the latest fash­
ion or to have your own style in clothes? Explain why.

4. Have you ever been to a fashion show? Where was it? What was it like?
Were you impressed? What impressed you most?

PART1

Read the text and make sure that you understand it. The list of new words on p. 165-166 will help you.

CHANEL - PUBLIC FAME AND PRIVATE ENIGMA**

Gabrielle Chanel, who died in her suite in the Ritz in Paris on January 10, 1971 at the age of 87, was one of a handful of de­signers who can be said to have radically changed the way in which women dress. She was the winner in terms of publicity, longevity and mass-market appeal.

Chanel's contribution to fashion was to 'make it smart to look poor'. She cre­ated a style which was the very opposite of the Edwardian idea of dress, of opulence. in place of elaborate, floppy clothes she ntroduced pleated skirts, trousers, made

* Alter ['o: lts] \/изменять(ся), вносить изменения.

** Glynn P. Public fame and private enigma // The Times, 1971; https://www.wikipedia.org/

Unit seven

the fabric jersey acceptable and showed bright colours. She had her own fab­ulous jewels copied into cheap, marvellous fakes and all at once it was smart­er to wear the false than the real. She designed a shoe, pale flesh-coloured skin with a black toecap. Her jackets were individual enough to be named after her - edge to edge, high round neck, no fastenings, made from tweed quilted onto pure silk and trimmed with thick braid and gold buttons with a lion's head on them. Although black dresses had existed before Chanel, the little ones she designed were considered the haute couture standard.

As with most ancient monuments, Chanel's life is well documented: her romances with the English aristocracy, her friends in the artistic circles of the world, etc.

The origin of her nickname Coco is uncertain. Some sources state that it was acquired at the turn of the 20^th century when Chanel, then a cabaret singer, performed the song called Ко Ко Ri Ко (French for 'Cock-a-doodle-do' or «Ку­кареку» in Russian) and her audiences cried 'Coco' when they wanted an en­core.

She was said to have had a romance with the Duke of Westminster and considered getting married to him, but she finally turned him down, explaining with characteristic bluntness. " There are a lot of duchesses, but only one Coco Chanel."

There is a dark stain on her biography. When France was occupied by the Nazis during World War II, Coco Chanel had a love affair with a German officer of high rank and was allerged to have sympathized with the Nazis.

She was tough, with a very masculine mind, she was not generous nor was she particularly loyal to her friends.

Chanel's original success was in Paris in the twenties and her comeback in 1954 was widely rumoured to be only in order to boost the sales of her (and the world's) top-selling scent, Chanel Number 5.

To those who only knew her late in life and professionally, she was a tiny figure sitting on the curving stairs in the Rue Canbon like a bad-tempered tor­toise. She would sit there, shelled in vivid tweeds, clinking her beads and brooches with the noise tortoises make and darting a stare at anyone unfortu­nate enough to have to quit before the end of the huge collection.

It is impossible to chart pictorially the evolution of Chanel as a designer, because she did not evolve. Rather fashion evolved round her. She created a look, which was overwhelmingly successful when it was launched and which has left ineradicable traces in fashion. That look was revived at her comeback in the fifties. She created fashion which was aside from the main stream and yet was always perfectly valid. Chanel's influence on haute couture was such that she was the only person in the field to be named in Time's Magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20^th century. What Coco Chanel thought about her prospects is an enigma. The things she would never talk about, it seems, were her clothes and her past.

Names

aute couture (Fr.) [autku'tjira] высокая мода, моделирование и пошив

одежды высокого класса ЗаопеИе (Coco) Chanel [, gsebn'el (ко'кэи) Ja'nel] Edwardian [ed'wordian] эпоха короля Эдуарда VII (1901-1910) ⁼ je Canbon [ru: клц'Ьоп] улица в Париже

New Words

handful ['haendful] л горсть, зд. небольшая группа

publicity [pAb'lisiti] n известность, слава

longevity [lDn'd3eviti] л долголетие

appeal [э'рЫ] л привлекательность, притягательность

smart [sma: t] adj зд. модный, элегантный

opulence [Tjpjutans] л изобилие, богатство

elaborate [I'laebant] adj3fl. искусно сделанный, тонкой работы

floppy fftopi] adj3fl. свободного кроя

pleated ['pli: tid] adj в складку

fabric ['febnk] n ткань

jersey ['d33: zi] n джерси

fabulous ['faebjolss] adj потрясающий, изумительный

fake [feik] n подделка, adj поддельный

edge [еф] п оторочка, кромка

fastening [Tcusnir)] n зд. застежка

tweed [twi: d] n твид

quilted f'kwiltid] adj3fl. на подкладке

trimmed [tnmd] adj3&. отделанный

braid [breid] n тесьма

encore [orj'ko: ] n бис

bluntness fbLvntnis] n прямота

stain [stem] n пятно

rumour ['гштэ] v распространять слухи, п слух (сплетня)

boost [bu: st] v поддержать, стимулировать

scent [sent] n зд. духи, приятный запах

curving ['k3: virj] adj зд. витая (о лестнице)

curve л изгиб, виток tortoise ['to: tas] л черепаха shelled [/eld] adj имеющий раковину, панцирь vivid [Vivid] adj живой, яркий brooch [brautf] л брошь dart [da: t] v бросать, метать

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165

Unit seven

quit [kwit] v покидать, уходить

chart [tfa: t] i/составить схему, график

pictorially [pik'toinsli] adv графически

overwhelmingly [suvg'welminli] adv всеобъемлюще

launch [bmtj] V3fl. выпускать (товар) на рынок

ineradicable [mi'raedikabl] adj неизгладимый

trace [treis] n след

revive [n'vaiv] узд. возродить

Questions for discussion.

1. According to the text, Chanel 'radically changed the way in which
women dress'. Try to prove this assertion if you agree with it.

2. What was Chanel's contribution to the fashion world?

3. How did she acquire her nickname Coco?

4. What kind of person was she? Describe her character.

5. Why do you think the title of the text is: " Chanel - public fame and pri­
vate enigma"?

6. Coco Chanel once said: " Fashion is made to become unfashionable."
Do you agree? If you do, give your reasons.

7. Do you know anything about Chanel's cooperation with Dyagilev
who was famous for his " Russian Seasons" in Paris in the beginning of the
20^th century?

EXERCISES

Find English equivalents in the text for the following (you may think of better Russian translations).

1....принадлежала к небольшой группе дизайнеров, о которых мож­
но сказать, что они изменили стиль женской одежды.

2. Для массового потребителя она была первой и по своей извест­
ности, и по долголетию, и по привлекательности.

3. «...быть элегантной, но небогатой на вид».

4. С ее собственных потрясающих драгоценностей были сделаны ве­
ликолепные дешевые копии, и сразу же стало более модным но­
сить не натуральные драгоценности, а бижутерию.

5. В ее пиджаках было достаточно индивидуальности, чтобы они мог­
ли носить ее имя...

6. Так же как происходит и с большинством памятников древности,
жизнь Шанель подробно документирована...

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7....и говорили, что она якобы симпатизировала нацистам.

8. Она была жесткой, с мужским складом ума, она не была ни ще­
дрой, ни особенно преданной своим друзьям.

9....и ее возвращение в 1954 году, по слухам, было специально орга­
низовано для увеличения продаж ее всемирно известных и поль­
зующихся самым большим спросом духов «Шанель № 5».

10. Для тех, кто знал ее в последние годы ее жизни и с профессио­
нальной стороны...

11. Скорее мода менялась вокруг нее.

12. Влияние Шанель на высокую моду было таково, что она была един­
ственным представителем мира моды, которого журнал «Тайме»
назвал среди 100 самых влиятельных людей XX века.

VOCABULARY

Read and translate these sentences into Russian so as to have a better idea of how these words can be used.

publicity n, publicize v, publicist n

1. The case has received massive publicity.

2. He did everything to avoid publicity.

3. The newspapers gave publicity to their love affair.

4. Who is in charge of publicity for our show?

5. The businessman said that he wasn't in the habit of publicizing his
private life.

6. He's a good self-publicist. (= He is good at making himself well-
known.)

appeal n, v, appealing adj

1. His appeal to his ex-wife for forgiveness went unanswered.

2. In my opinion he's a good actor, but he hasn't got any sex appeal.

3. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment but his lawyer says he will
lodge (= make) an appeal.

4. The police are appealing to the public for any information about the
criminal.

5. Does the idea of working abroad appeal to you?

6. By appealing to his better nature (= the good side of his character) we
persuaded him to change his mind.

7. This idea sounds rather appealing to me!

smart adj, smartly adv

1. She was very smartly dressed.

Unit seven

2. 'Smart' (especially in British English) means 'neat and stylish' in
appearance.

e.g. You look smart in your new dress.

3. 'Smart' (especially in American English) also means 'good' or 'quick
thinking', 'clever'.

e.g. If he is as smart as he says, why did the cops catch him?

4. 'Smart' may also mean disrespectful, especially towards someone
older such as one's teachers or parents.

e.g. Don't get smart with me, young lady!

5. A 'smart card' is a credit or debit card with a memory chip. It records
and remembers any business someone does with it.

elaborate adj, elaborately adv, elaborate v

1. She had made elaborate preparations for the party, but nobody came.

2. The new curtains have an elaborate pattern of leaves and flowers.

3. The small wooden statue was elaborately carved.

4. As a verb 'to elaborate' means 'to give more details or information',
e.g. What you've told us is very interesting. Could you, please, elaborate
on it?

flop i/, n, floppy adj

1. Tortoises flopped into the water.

2. A bird with an injured wing flopped helplessly along the ground.

3. She flopped as a stage actress and decided to be a producer.

4. The show was a complete flop and lasted only one night.

5. Look at this funny dog with long floppy ears!

6. A 'floppy disk' (= a diskette) is a piece of plastic with a thin coat of
magnetic substance on which information for a computer can be
stored.

fabric n, fabricate v, fabrication n

1. 'Fabric' means 'cloth', 'material', e.g. cotton fabric, silkfabric, synthetic
fabric, woolen fabric.

2. 'Fabric' also means 'structure', e.g. basic fabric, social fabric, the
fabric of society.

3. The cost of repairing the fabric of the church was very high.

4. 'To fabricate' means 'to make or invent' something in order to deceive,
e.g. It turned out that the media had fabricated the whole story. (The
whole story was a complete fabrication.)

Don't mix up!

fabric - материал, ткань, структура, factory - завод, фабрика

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