Coco Chanel - one of the first designers who worked with jersey and antiquated the corset
Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel (August 19, 1883 – January 10, 1971)[1] was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist philosophy, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her arguably the most important figure in the history of 20th-century fashion. Her influence on haute couture was such that she was the only person in the field to be named on TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people of the 20th century.[2]
Chanel introduced in 1913 women’s sportswear at her new boutique in Deauville, France, in the Rue Gounaut-Biron; Marthe, Countess de Gounaut-Biron, (daughter of American diplomat John George Alexander Leishman) was Chanel’s first aristocratic client.
http://fashionrevolution.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/coco-chanel/