On leaving the orphanage, Chanel worked a variety of jobs, including as a seamstress and a cabaret performer, where she was called Coco. At the age of 20, she began a love affair with a wealthy socialite, Etienne Balsan, who helped her set up her first fashion venture, a hat store in Paris. Her innovative designs, which focused on comfort rather than the physically restrictive designs of the time such as corsets, caught the attention of wealthy upper-class women, and her business went from strength to strength. She opened up two more stores in Deaville and Biarritz. Chanel then went on to design clothes for some of the biggest names of the time such as Marilyn Monroe. Even after she died in 1971, the Chanel fashion house continued to dominate. Today, the Chanel brand is worth an astonishing $13.7 billion (£9.9bn).