Coco Chanel

“I don’t care what you think of me. I don’t think of you at all”.

DISCLAIMER/TW: homophobia, anti-semitism, general Naziness  

 

I’ve begun and hesitated to write about her a few times because her homophobia, antisemitism, and Nazi connections do not make for an easy heroine to depict and I was wary of appearing to glorify someone with such problematic associations. Personally, I didn’t even know about these aspects of her life until I started researching this post. So for that reason alone I thought it important to let everyone know what she was really like.

 

However, as I’ve said in the past, I also believe the point of herstory is not to glorify women, to pretend that every woman in history has been a flawless saint, and that no evil would ever have been done if women ruled the world. Women, like men, are human, and thus to look at herstory through rose-coloured glasses is to do women a disservice – history is not about glorifying the past, but about making sure the past’s mistakes are not repeated. Therefore, as with my posts on figures such as Margaret Thatcher, I’d like to state that this post is not intended to glorify or idolise Chanel, or to provide her as a model for young girls today to follow. It is merely a recognition of the fact that she changed the world, and had a significant influence on the lives of women ever since. She may be a problematic icon, but she is undoubtedly an icon and thus her story is an important one to tell.

 

There is so much to say here that I am going to restrict the full post to my blog where I can do it justice without word limits , but here I wanted to discuss some highlights of her early life, why she was so influential in the world of fashion, and the age old question of whether she really was a Nazi (short answer: yes).  (1/12)

 

“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.”

 

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (1883 – 1971) was a French fashion designer and businesswoman, founder of the Chanel brand. In the aftermath of World War I, she was credited with freeing women from the constraints of the "corseted silhouette" and popularizing a sporty, casual chic as the feminine standard of style – a style which made women’s participation in public life much easier (not to mention more comfortable). A prolific fashion creator, Chanel extended her influence beyond couture clothing, realizing her design aesthetic in jewellery, handbags, and fragrance. Her signature scent, Chanel No. 5, has become an iconic product and was the world’s first designer perfume. She is the only fashion designer listed on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.  

 

·         Her birth name was Gabrielle Chasnel (the S was a typo was made on her birth certificate, but she never legally changed it because she didn’t want to reveal that she had been born in a poor house)

·         Her mother died when she was 11, and she and her sisters were sent to live in a convent orphanage where she learnt to sew.

·         She started her career as a seamstress, but also worked as a cabaret singer – however her voice did not match her beauty and she could not make a career from performing.

·         She became known as “Coco” while performing – she claimed it was a childhood nickname but it was more likely an ode to her go-to song “Who has Seen Coco?” – OR a shortened version of “coquette” (a kept woman)

·         She was introduced to the finer things in life when she became the mistress of many rich and powerful men of French and English society – including Edward VIII of England (then Prince of Wales). Her lovers initially helped to finance her businesses. However, she never married. When asked why she did not marry the Duke of Westminster despite their decade-long affair, she reportedly answered: "There have been several Duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Chanel."

·         She may have had an illegitimate son who she passed off as a nephew

·         Chanel’s first foray into fashion was designing hats, a hobby that grew into a business when she became a licensed milliner in 1910 and opened a boutique at 21 rue Cambon, Paris, named Chanel Modes.

·         She was a habitual drug user, and from 1935 until her death used to inject herself with morphine on a daily basis.

 

“I don’t do fashion. I am fashion.”

 

The reason that Chanel can be considered one of the ‘most influential women of the twentieth century’ is because she revolutionised the way that women dressed across the world. Since World War One and the Great Depression, women needed more affordable and more comfortably practical clothes that they could move, work, and travel in without the help of servants to dress and undress. Chanel recognised this, and became the first to popularise a style that abolished the restrictive corsets and impractical frills of Victorian fashion and design a wardrobe that allowed women to be an active part of society.

 

Chanel’s trademark look exuded sportful ease, physical freedom, and sporty confidence. It was also inspired by her passions for hunting and horses, a culture she experienced amongst the British elite. Her yachting hobby was also incorporated via nautical-themed clothing including horizontal striped shirt, bell-bottom pants, crewneck sweaters, and espadrille shoes—all traditionally worn by sailors and fishermen. 

 

Her initial triumph was her innovative use of jersey, a machine knit material traditionally used only for underwear or sporting gear . Her first wool jersey traveling suit consisted of a cardigan jacket and pleated skirt, paired with a low-belted pullover top. This suit, worn with low-heeled shoes, became the casual look in expensive women's wear.

 

Chanel's introduction of jersey to high-fashion proved success: First, the war had caused a shortage of other materials, and second, women began desiring simpler and more practical clothes. Her fluid jersey suits and dresses were created for practicality and allowed for free movement. This was greatly appreciated at the time because women were working for the war effort as nurses, in civil service, and in factories. Their jobs involved physical activity and they had to ride trains, buses, and bicycles to get to work. Thus, they needed outfits that would not easily tear, reveal their modesty, or require servants to be taken on and off.  

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“Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.”

 

First introduced in 1923, the Chanel now-iconic tweed suit was designed for comfort and practicality. It consisted of a jacket and skirt in supple and light wool or mohair tweed, and a blouse and jacket lining in jersey or silk. Against the fashion of the time, Chanel did not stiffen the material, insert bust-darts, or use shoulder pads. These subtle changes allowed for swift and easy movement, supplemented with a loose neckline and pockets!! (why do women’s clothes still rarely have pockets!! Don’t get me started on that!!_

 

Most importantly, fittings were taken with excruciating detail to ensure functionality - measurements were taken of a customer in a standing position with arms folded at shoulder height. Chanel conducted tests with models, having them walk around, step up to a platform as if climbing stairs of an imaginary bus, and bend as if getting into a low-slung sports car. Chanel wanted to make sure women could do all of these things while wearing her suit, without accidentally exposing parts of their body they wanted covered. Each client would have repeated adjustments until their suit was comfortable enough for them to perform daily activities with comfort and ease. 

 

Chanel also invented the concept of the “little black dress” (which remains a wardrobe staple until this day). In 1912–1913, the actress Suzanne Orlandi was one of the first women to wear a Chanel little black dress, in velvet with a white collar. In 1920, Chanel herself vowed that she would dress all women in black. In 1926, the American edition of Vogue published an image of a Chanel little black dress with long sleeves, dubbing it the garçonne ('little boy' look). Vogue predicted that such a simple yet chic design would become a virtual uniform for women of taste, famously comparing its basic lines to the ubiquitous and no less widely accessible Ford automobile. The spare look generated widespread criticism from male critics, who complained: "no more bosom, no more stomach, no more rump ... Feminine fashion of this moment in the 20th century will be baptized lop off everything." (shocking…) The LBD was even more popular owing to the Great Depression, meaning that one affordable statement piece that could be reworn multiple times was perfect for those fallen on hard times. Chanel boasted that she had enabled the non-wealthy to "walk around like millionaires". She made LBDs in wool and chenille for day, and satin or velvet for night, proclaiming: "I imposed black; it's still going strong today, for black wipes out everything else around." 

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“A woman can be overdressed but never over elegant”.

 

Chanel was also revolutionary when it came to jewellery. Her designs incorporated a mixture of costume jewellery and fine gem stones. Hitherto, jewellery had been strictly ctaegorised into one or the other. Inspired by the jewellery of the Ancient Egyptians and the Orient, Chanel made costume jewellery the go-to accessory. Many of her pieces were inspired by the opulent jewels and pearls given to her by aristocratic lovers. Her jewellery proved immensely popular as it meant that the wealthy did not need to risk their expensive pieces or sacrifice on style. Chanel said, "It's disgusting to walk around with millions around the neck because one happens to be rich. I only like fake jewellery.”

 

In 1929, Chanel introduced a handbag inspired by soldier's bags, her convent days, and her love of sports: The chain used for the strap echoed the chatelaines worn by the caretakers of the orphanage where Chanel grew up, whilst the burgundy lining referenced the convent uniforms. The quilted outside was influenced by the jackets worn by jockeys, whilst at the same time enhancing the bag's shape and volume.  Its thin shoulder strap allowed the user to keep her hands free. Following her comeback, Chanel updated the design in February 1955, creating what would become the "2.55" (named for the date of its creation). Whilst details of the classic bag have been reworked, the bag has retained its original basic form. She also based many of her items, including her iconic jewellery bottle, on the style of her lovers and friends. 

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"If you’re sad, add more lipstick and attack."

 

Another legacy of Chanel’s is the enduring popularity of the sun-tanned skin as the ideal for white women. In her own life, Chanel spent a lot of time in the outdoors and was always seen sporting a sun-kissed hue. Previously, a suntan was seen as a sign of poverty – as only the working classes were exposed to the elements doing manual labour while the wealthy were sheltered inside (especially women). Chanel flipped this on its head – now, a suntan was seen as representing a life of privilege and ease, spent lounging by the sea rather than shut inside working. By the mid-1920s, women could be seen lounging on the beach without a hat to shield them from the sun's rays. The Chanel influence made sun bathing fashionable. (I’m not sure this should be considered a good thing - I would like to do a whole other post on the history of sun-tanning, its comparison to the skin-lightening industry in Asia, and how the fascination with women’s skin tone concept is literally killing them worldwide but that’s a story for another day).

 

By 1935, Chanel’s empire was booming - employing 4,000 people. As the 1930s progressed, however, her crown was threatened owing to the decreasing popularity of masculine-esque flapper dresses and the reintroduction of more feminine styles. Her introduction to Hollywood was not a  success, as they disliked her taste and the feeling was mutual. However, the enduring popularity of her designs to this day – and the legacy of her revolutionary visions means that in terms of her career, Chanel was undoubtedly a success, and an icon.  However, this legacy would be forever marred by the outbreak of the Second World War.

 

In 1939, at the beginning of World War II, Chanel closed her shops, claiming that it was not a time to focus on fashion. 4000 female employees lost their jobs, and it has since been suggested that this action was taken as retribution against her workers who had called for shorter hours and better pay during the French Labour Strike of 1936.  

 

TW: Anti-semitism

 

In 1923, Chanel was introduced to the vastly wealthy Duke of Westminster, Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, known to his intimates as "Bendor". They went on to have a ten year affair, during which the duke lavished Chanel with extravagant jewels, costly art, and a home in London's prestigious Mayfair district. However, the duke was an outspoken anti-Semite and intensified Chanel's seemingly intrinsic hostility toward Jews. Chanel shared with many of her circle a conviction that Jews were a threat to Europe because of the Bolshevik government in the Soviet Union. Her biographer, Hal Vaughan, supports the idea that Chanel was a “vicious antisemite who praised Hitler”. She may have also supported Hitler’s genocide against homosexuals: In 1946, Chanel was quoted as saying: "Homosexuals? ... I have seen young women ruined by these awful queers: drugs, divorce, scandal. They will use any means to destroy a competitor and to wreak vengeance on a woman. The queers want to be women—but they are lousy women.” The irony that drugs, divorce and scandal seemed to follow Chanel herself seemed lost on her.

 

Chanel took full advantage of the Nazi seizure of all Jewish-owned property and business enterprises, which provided Chanel the opportunity to gain the full monetary fortune generated by Parfums Chanel and its most profitable product, Chanel No. 5. The directors of Parfums Chanel, the Wertheimers, were Jewish. Chanel used her position as an "Aryan" to petition German officials to legalize her claim to sole ownership, despite having sold the product to the Wertheimers years before.

 

On 5 May 1941, she wrote to the government administrator charged with ruling on the disposition of Jewish financial assets. Her grounds for proprietary ownership were based on the claim that Parfums Chanel "is still the property of Jews" and had been legally "abandoned" by the owners. 

"I have," she wrote, "an indisputable right of priority ... the profits that I have received from my creations since the foundation of this business ... are disproportionate ... [and] you can help to repair in part the prejudices I have suffered in the course of these seventeen years." She might want to look up the meaning of prejudice…

 

Fortunately, Chanel was not aware that the Wertheimers, anticipating the forthcoming Nazi mandates against Jews had, in May 1940, legally turned control of Parfums Chanel over to Félix Amiot, a Christian French businessman and industrialist. At war's end, Amiot returned "Parfums Chanel" to the hands of the Wertheimers. 

 

Chanel’s lawyers were aware that the public interest in this case could reveal her Nazi affiliations and damage her reputation, and thus that of the brand itself. Ultimately, the Wertheimers and Chanel came to a mutual accommodation, renegotiating the original 1924 contract. The financial benefit to her would be enormous, making her one of the richest women in the world at the time. Blood money indeed. 

 

Nazi Involvement

 

 

Chanel long claimed to be on the French side during the war, even giving her perfume free to GIs during the liberation of Paris. However, her true allegiances were not well concealed.

 

During the German occupation, Chanel resided at the Hotel Ritz. This was a clear statement of her loyalty, as the Ritz was the preferred residence of the high-ranking German military staff, including her lover Freiherr Hans Günther von Dincklage, a German diplomat in Paris and former Prussian Army officer and Attorney General who had been an operative in military intelligence since 1920.

While many women in France were punished for "horizontal collaboration" with German officers, Chanel faced no such action, despite being interviewed by British intelligence officers.

 

Declassified archival documents reveal that the French Préfecture de Police had a document on Chanel in which she was described as "Couturier and perfumer. Pseudonym: Westminster. Agent reference: F 7124. Signalled as suspect in the file". While it is true that this alone is not proof of her cooperation with the Nazis, it sets the scene for much harder evidence.  

 

Vaughan establishes that Chanel committed herself to the German cause as early as 1941 and worked for General Walter Schellenberg, chief of the German intelligence agency Sicherheitsdienst and the military intelligence spy network Abwehr (Counterintelligence) in Berlin. At the end of the war, Schellenberg was tried by the Nuremberg Military Tribunal, and sentenced to six years' imprisonment for war crimes. He was released in 1951 owing to incurable liver disease and took refuge in Italy. Chanel paid for Schellenberg's medical care and living expenses, financially supported his wife and family, and paid for Schellenberg's funeral. Sus af. 

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The most damning evidence against Chanel came in late 2014, when French intelligence agencies declassified and released documents confirming Coco Chanel's role with Germany in World War II. Working as a spy, Chanel was directly involved in a plan for the Third Reich to take control of Madrid. In 1943, Chanel visited Madrid to convince the British ambassador to Spain, Sir Samuel Hoare, a friend of Winston Churchill, about a possible German surrender once the war was leaning towards an Allied victory.

 

One of the most prominent missions she was involved in was Operation Modellhut ("Operation Model Hat"). Her duty was to act as a messenger from Hitler's Foreign Intelligence to Churchill to prove that some of the Third Reich attempted peace with the Allies. In 1943, Chanel travelled to the RSHA in Berlin—the "lion's den"—with her lover Dincklage. They were to report to Schellenberg at the RSHA with a ludicrous plan that Chanel had proposed to Dincklage: she, Coco Chanel, was to meet Churchill and persuade him to negotiate with the Germans. In late-1943 or early-1944, Chanel and her SS superior, Schellenberg, who had a weakness for unconventional schemes, devised a plan to get Britain to consider a separate peace to be negotiated by the SS. When interrogated by British intelligence at war's end, Schellenberg maintained that Chanel was "a person who knew Churchill sufficiently to undertake political negotiations with him".

 

For this mission, they also recruited Chanel’s best friend, Vera Bate Lombardi. A Nazi agent who defected to the British Secret Service in 1944, recalled a meeting he had with Dincklage in early 1943 where he purportedly said, "The Abwehr had first to bring to France a young Italian woman [Lombardi] Coco Chanel was attached to because of her lesbian vices ..." 

 

Unaware of the machinations of Schellenberg and Chanel, Lombardi was led to believe that the forthcoming journey to Spain would be a business trip exploring the potential for establishing Chanel couture in Madrid. Lombardi acted as intermediary, delivering a letter written by Chanel to Churchill, to be forwarded to him via the British Embassy in Madrid. However, the plan ultimately failed because on arrival in Madrid, Lombardi proceeded to denounce Chanel and her accomplices as Nazi spies. Morality wins against “lesbian vices” I guess! 

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Given her public condemnation as a Nazi conspirator, it is interesting that Chanel was never tried for her crimes, and that to this day her Nazi involvement has been swept under the rug.

 

In September 1944, Chanel was interrogated by the Free French Purge Committee. However, the committee was forced to release her owing to a lack of physical evidence. According to Chanel's grand-niece, when Chanel returned home she said, "Churchill had me freed".  The extent of Churchill's intervention for Chanel after the war became a subject of gossip and speculation and continues to be a controversial topic today (because God forbid anyone criticise Churchill in Britain). Some historians claimed that people worried that, if Chanel were forced to testify about her own activities at trial, she would expose the pro-Nazi sympathies and activities of certain top-level British officials, members of the society elite, and the royal family. Thus, some claimed that Churchill had indeed ordered that Chanel be protected in order to cover up the collusion of British insiders.  Without his intervention, it is likely that Chanel’s legacy would have been very different.

 

In 1949, Chanel returned to Paris to confront testimony given against her at the war crime trial of Baron Louis de Vaufreland, a French traitor and highly placed German intelligence agent. She denied all the accusations against her.  Chanel's friend and biographer Marcel Haedrich said of her wartime interaction with the Nazi regime: "If one took seriously the few disclosures that Mademoiselle Chanel allowed herself to make about those black years of the occupation, one's teeth would be set on edge." 

 

When Vaughan's book was published in August 2011, his disclosure of the declassified military documents created understandable controversy about Chanel’s behaviour and character. The Chanel Group stated, "What is certain is that she had a relationship with a German aristocrat during the War. Clearly it wasn't the best period to have a love story with a German even if Baron von Dincklage was English by his mother and she (Chanel) knew him before the War." 

 

In an interview given to the Associated Press, author Vaughan discussed the unexpected turn of his research, "I was looking for something else and I come across this document saying 'Chanel is a Nazi agent'...Then I really started hunting through all of the archives, in the United States, in London, in Berlin and in Rome and I come across not one, but 20, 30, 40 absolutely solid archival materials on Chanel and her lover, Hans Günther von Dincklage, who was a professional Abwehr spy." Vaughan also addressed the discomfort many felt with the revelations provided in his book: "A lot of people in this world don't want the iconic figure of Gabrielle Coco Chanel, one of France's great cultural idols, destroyed. This is definitely something that a lot of people would have preferred to put aside, to forget, to just go on selling Chanel scarves and jewellery." 

 

Final years:

 

"You can be gorgeous at thirty, charming at forty, and irresistible for the rest of your life."

 

In 1945, Chanel moved to Switzerland, where she lived for several years, part of the time with Dincklage. 

 

Unlike the pre-war era, when women reigned as the premier couturiers, Christian Dior achieved success in 1947 with his "New Look", and a cadre of male designers achieved recognition. Chanel was convinced that women would ultimately rebel against this male-centred aesthetic, with its "illogical" design: the "waist cinchers, padded bras, heavy skirts, and stiffened jackets". 

 

At more than 70 years old, after having her couture house closed for 15 years, she felt the time was right for her to re-enter the fashion world. The revival of her couture house in 1954 was fully financed by Chanel's opponent in the perfume battle, Pierre Wertheimer. When Chanel came out with her comeback collection in 1954, the French press were cautious due to her collaboration during the war and the controversy of the collection. However, the American and British press saw it as a "breakthrough", bringing together fashion and youth in a new way.  Classic British media, never letting a Nazi get in the way of a good story!

 

In her twilight years, Chanel famously became tyrannical and extremely lonely late in life. As 1971 began, Chanel was 87 years old, tired, and ailing. She carried out her usual routine of preparing the spring catalogue. She had gone for a long drive the afternoon of Saturday, 9 January. Soon after, feeling ill, she went to bed early. She announced her final words to her maid which were: "You see, this is how you die." She died on Sunday, 10 January 1971, at the Hotel Ritz, where she had resided for more than 30 years. 

 

When Chanel died, the first lady of France, Mme Pompidou, organized a hero's tribute. However, when evidence of her Nazi involvement came to light, the plans were swiftly dropped and she had a modest funeral fronted by her models. 

Conclusion  

 

“Fashion changes, but style endures.”

 

Chanel’s story makes for equally disturbing and impressive reading. On the one hand, she is the trailblazer who against all odds of her birth paved a way for herself in the fashion industry, not only becoming a millionaire, but also changing female fashion forever. Without Chanel, I may have been sitting here writing this wearing a corset and for saving us from that horrific fate we can only thank her.  And she definitely has some inspiring pinterest-able quotes.

 

However, we cannot deny that there is a darker side to Chanel’s story. While many women were perhaps mistresses or lovers to notable Nazi officers and can be deemed to have been unaware or innocent of any collusion, this is clearly not the case with Coco. Not only did she directly benefit from the oppression of Jews by seizing their property to her own financial gain, she contributed to the vitriol which demonised them in the first place. Furthermore, her collusion to directly lead the British army into a trap put the lives of millions of people at risk, and is a clear statement of whose side she was on. That she was protected by prominent figures on both sides of the war has not hidden her culpability or the homophobia and antisemitism which cannot be condoned, especially in such historical circumstances when these groups were being killed in their millions by the party which she financially and tactically supported. That she continued to fund Nazi officers after the war, and that she sought refuge to avoid prosecution shows that she felt little regret for the side she chose in the war, and thus leaves a permanent black mark on her legacy. Thus, it is perhaps unsurprising that despite her life-long popularity and success, she died virtually alone in the world.  

Coco Chanel undoubtedly changed the world, and deserves her spot as one of the most influential people of the twentieth century. However, whether she left the world a better place than she found it is a much more controversial question.