The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. Her father sent her and her sisters to live in an orphanage run by the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Mary, which was founded to care for the poor and rejected, including running homes for abandoned and orphaned girls. It was here that she learned to sew, which would ultimately lead her to her life’s work. She went on to become one of the world’s most beloved and recognized fashion icons of the Twentieth Century and turned her name into a company that today is worth over $100 million.