In the countryside of France, as the illegitimate daughter of an abandoned romance between an aspiring seamstress and a nomad, Gabrielle Chasnel grew up ashamed of her family history. She was to later lead her life in stark denial of her past days. Fighting against all odds, she went on to become a legend; she was eventually known to the world as Coco Chanel. An integrative and creative fashion designer, Coco Chanel single-handedly launched one of the world's most recognized brand names called Chanel. It was named after her adopted surname. The company which first started its operations in a small French village nearly 100 years ago is now worth almost 12 billion dollars. How unerringly did she accomplish such a rags-to-riches lifestyle! Obviously, her journey was not a simple and easy one.

Chasnel was the second child of Jeanne and Albert Chanel, a young and unwed couple who were looking for independence and identity. When Chanel was born, her birth was recorded by two illiterate employees at a local hospital. The workers there were not sure regarding how to spell the word, 'Chanel'. This prompted them to improvise on this and to spell her surname incorrectly as 'Chasnel' and registered it like that in the birth certificate. Later when she grew up as an adult, Gabrielle refused to correct this due to the fear that the truth of her illegitimacy would become known. The Chanel family struggled to subsist financially during Chanel 's childhood; Albert and Jeanne would often sacrifice their own food and drinks to feed their children. By the time Gabrielle Chanel was 12 years old, there were four siblings in total. Even though she had relatively close relationships with her family, Chanel would insist that she was an only child of her parents. She would pay her real siblings off as a method to avoid public humiliation and to hide the truth about her family. Her father left for an expedition across Europe as early as in 1895, leaving her mother alone to support their five children. The combined effects of loneliness and constant stress led Jeanne to face a series of challenges including medical problems. Her health matters started becoming worse over the years. Eventually, she died of tuberculosis in the winter season of 1895.

At that time, Gabrielle's father returned to them for a short while, only to leave again in the hope of saving enough money to raise his family. In his absence, the Chanel children got divided and they were staying in extended families and orphanages. Gabrielle Chanel and her elder sister were sent to an orphanage. They had no money on them, and the girls stayed at the orphanage for free. In fact, this was in no way considered a privileged position. The nuns at the Catholic-based home were dealing out extremely cruel acts to the Chanel sisters, in particular. The nuns often singled them out stating that they were 'charity cases'. Gabrielle Chanel was forced to become a seamstress. Her stay there was going to be a temporary one; Albert never returned to look after his family.

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