Coco Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel remade fashion in her own image — practical, elegant, and uninterested in the ornate constraints that had defined women's dress for centuries. She introduced jersey fabric to haute couture, popularized the little black dress, and created Chanel No. 5, arguably the most famous perfume ever made. Her personal mythology was as carefully constructed as her garments, but her impact on how the twentieth century clothed and carried itself is beyond dispute. She was working the day before she died.