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Life & Mortality Quote by Coco Chanel

"As soon as you set foot on a yacht you belong to some man, not to yourself, and you die of boredom"

About this Quote

The line is a needle slipped under the skin of leisure, puncturing the fantasy that money buys freedom. Chanel takes the yacht, that floating status symbol of the early 20th-century elite, and reframes it as a gilded captivity: the moment you board, autonomy is quietly repossessed. Her phrasing is deliberately abrupt - "as soon as" collapses any romance into immediate consequence - and the ownership language ("you belong to some man") makes the transaction unmistakable. This isn't about boats; it's about how luxury spaces can function as social contracts where women's presence is currency.

The subtext carries Chanel's signature hard-edged modernity: she was a designer who built a brand on movement, clean lines, and self-possession, selling women a silhouette that could walk, work, and smoke without apology. A yacht, in her telling, is the opposite of that project. It's a stage where you're dressed, displayed, and managed - not an active subject but an accessory to a man's wealth. The boredom isn't incidental; it's the emotional cost of decorative living, the dead air that fills a life where nothing is required of you except compliance.

Context matters: Chanel moved among the rich, dated powerful men, and understood the seductions and traps of patronage. The jab lands because it comes from an insider who refuses to be impressed. It's feminist critique delivered as social gossip: light on the surface, ruthless underneath.

Quote Details

TopicSarcastic
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Chanel, Coco. (2026, January 15). As soon as you set foot on a yacht you belong to some man, not to yourself, and you die of boredom. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/as-soon-as-you-set-foot-on-a-yacht-you-belong-to-30624/

Chicago Style
Chanel, Coco. "As soon as you set foot on a yacht you belong to some man, not to yourself, and you die of boredom." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/as-soon-as-you-set-foot-on-a-yacht-you-belong-to-30624/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"As soon as you set foot on a yacht you belong to some man, not to yourself, and you die of boredom." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/as-soon-as-you-set-foot-on-a-yacht-you-belong-to-30624/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Coco Add to List
Coco Chanel: Yachts, Autonomy, and Boredom
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About the Author

Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel (August 19, 1883 - January 10, 1971) was a Designer from France.

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