Coco Chanel

Chanel's first millinery shop in Paris was funded by her lover Arthur "Boy" Capel, which is a reminder that capital often came from somewhere. She turned it into a couture house, and the business really scaled through perfume: Chanel No. 5, made and sold under a 1924 deal with the Wertheimer brothers that gave her only a small share. Her comeback in 1954, at seventy, rebuilt the fashion side, and the Wertheimer family owns the company today.