Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel (born August 19, 1883, Saumur, France—died January 10, 1971, Paris) was a French fashion designer who ruled Parisian haute couture for almost six decades. Her elegantly casual designs inspired women to abandon the complicated, uncomfortable clothes that were prevalent in early 20th-century dress, including petticoats and corsets. Among her now-classic innovations were the Chanel suit, the quilted purse, costume jewelry, and the “little black dress.” She was also known for the iconic perfume Chanel No. 5.

Early life

Chanel was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, but her surname was misspelled as Chasnel on her birth certificate. Her parents were Eugénie Jeanne Devolle Chanel, a laundrywoman, and Albert Chanel, who worked as a street vendor. The family—which eventually included six children—lived in poverty while moving throughout the French countryside. After her mother died in 1895, 11-year-old Gabrielle Chanel was sent to a convent-run orphanage in Aubazine, in central France. It was there that she learned to sew.

At age 18 Chanel moved to Moulins, where she attended school while living in a convent. In 1902 she struck out on her own and became a seamstress. During this time Chanel also worked as a café singer. Although not a particularly gifted singer, she was a popular performer, known for her charisma. The origin of her nickname, “Coco,” is uncertain, but some believe it is a reference to several songs she performed, including “Ko Ko Ri Ko” (“Cock-a-doodle-doo”) and “Qui qu’a vu Coco?” (“Has anyone seen Coco?”).

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Fashion empire

The café was frequented by military personnel, and one former army officer, Étienne Balsan, invited Chanel to live with him as his mistress. He helped her start a millinery business and introduced her to Arthur (“Boy”) Capel, with whom she had a romantic relationship until his death in a car accident in 1919. With Capel’s financial assistance, she opened Chanel Modes, a tiny millinery shop at 21 rue Cambon, Paris, in 1910. Two years later she established a boutique in Deauville, a resort town in the Normandy region of France. There she began selling simple sportswear, which was growing in popularity among women as everyday dressing increasingly emphasized practicality, comfort, and versatility. She transformed fluid jersey, an inexpensive fabric commonly used in men’s undergarments, into simple, elegant sweaters and jackets inspired by menswear.

Within five years her novel use of jersey had attracted the attention of influential wealthy women seeking relief from the prevalent corseted styles. Faithful to her maxim that “luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury,” Chanel’s designs stressed simplicity and ease, and they revolutionized the fashion industry.

In 1926 Chanel continued to transform fashion by introducing the so-called “little black dress” (commonly called the LBD). Chanel was not the first fashion designer to use black, but the color was commonly reserved for mourning attire or more formal wear. Chanel’s black dress, however, was incredibly versatile, easily transitioning from day to evening with the right accessories—such as the costume jewelry she often wore. The LBD was hailed for both its simplicity and mass appeal. Alluding to Henry Ford’s revolutionary Model T car, American Vogue called the little black dress the “Ford of Fashion,” and it quickly became a fashion staple.

Chanel No. 5

Although Chanel found immense success as a designer, the financial basis of her empire was Chanel No. 5. She developed the phenomenally successful perfume in 1921 with the help of Ernest Beaux, one of the most talented perfume creators in France. It has been said that the perfume got its name from the series of scents that Beaux created for Chanel to sample—she chose the fifth, a combination of jasmine and several other floral scents that was more complex and mysterious than the single-scented perfumes then on the market. Others, however, have noted that Chanel was superstitious and considered five to be her lucky number. Chanel was among the first major fashion designers to introduce a perfume, and she replaced the typically ornate packaging with an unadorned bottle. The beveled rectangle was reportedly inspired by the late Capel’s whiskey decanter or similar possession. The bottle’s top featured interlocking Cs, which later became the Chanel brand’s insignia.

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Chanel then partnered with businessmen Théophile Bader of the Galeries Lafayette department store and the brothers Pierre and Paul Wertheimer of the Bourjois cosmetics company to distribute Chanel No. 5. The men agreed to help her produce more of her fragrance and to market it in exchange for a share of the profits. After signing a contract wherein she received only 10 percent of the royalties, Chanel filed a series of lawsuits in the ensuing decades to regain control of her signature fragrance. She was never able to renegotiate the terms to increase her royalties but nonetheless made a considerable profit from the perfume.

World War II

Chanel closed her couture house in 1939 with the outbreak of World War II. At the time she was residing nearby at the Ritz Hotel and continued to live there when it became Nazi headquarters after the fall of France to Germany in 1940. During the occupation she began a romantic relationship with Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage, a German diplomat and a spy with the Abwehr, the German military’s intelligence organization. Chanel’s decision to remain in the Ritz and her relationship with Dincklage placed her within the social circles of German authorities in occupied Paris, a position that has drawn scrutiny from historians.

The full extent of Chanel’s wartime activities has only begun to emerge in recent decades, and biographers continue to debate the degree of her involvement with Nazi operations. She may have used her connections with German officials to secure the release of her nephew, André Palasse, who was a French soldier held in a German detention camp. He was freed in 1941, about the same time Chanel allegedly traveled to Spain with German intelligence agents in an attempt to recruit spies. These episodes have led some researchers to suggest that Chanel cooperated with the Abwehr, though the available evidence does not clearly establish whether her actions constituted deliberate espionage or opportunistic collaboration facilitated by personal relationships.

More certain is Chanel’s trip to Madrid in 1943 with Dincklage and her friend Vera Bate Lombardi, an English aristocrat living in Italy. Called Operation Modellhut (“Model Hat”), the initiative was organized by German intelligence in an attempt to use Chanel and Lombardi’s social connections to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to open a back channel for possible peace negotiations between Nazi Germany and Britain. The effort collapsed when Lombardi alerted British authorities in Madrid to the plan. Historians often interpret the episode less as a conventional espionage mission than as an improvised diplomatic bid to explore informal avenues to negotiate as the war increasingly turned against the German regime.

Soon after the Nazi occupation ended in 1944, Chanel was briefly arrested by French authorities during the postwar purge of collaborators. No charges were brought against her, however, and she was released after questioning. Chanel later claimed that Churchill, a longtime acquaintance, had interceded on her behalf, though the extent of any such intervention remains uncertain.

There is also disagreement among scholars regarding Chanel’s ideological stance toward Nazism. During the war she attempted to use Nazi policies to wrest full control of Chanel No. 5 from her Jewish partners, the Wertheimers. She argued that the Wertheimers were ineligible to own property under Aryanization laws, one element of the Nazi occupation’s broader anti-Jewish legal and economic system. The effort ultimately failed because the Wertheimers had earlier transferred their ownership to a non-Jewish associate. For many historians, this affair illustrates Chanel’s willingness to exploit the legal and economic structures of the occupation for personal advantage, even if it does not necessarily demonstrate a broader political commitment to Nazi ideology. After the war, she moved to Switzerland, where she remained for several years and continued her relationship with Dincklage.

Comeback

In the early 1950s Chanel began to contemplate a return to fashion. At the time French fashion had undergone a seismic change led by Christian Dior. He had created the widely copied New Look, a style defined by ultrafeminine, elaborate, and highly sculptured clothing. Chanel, who favored simpler and more comfortable designs, was derisive of the look, and at one point she said, “Dior doesn’t dress women, he upholsters them.”

After close to 10 years in what some would call exile, Chanel returned to Paris, and in 1954 she staged her first fashion show in about 15 years. Her return unfolded in a postwar consumer culture in which established couture houses and luxury brands were regaining international prominence. Although the French press had negative reviews, the collection proved popular in the United States. That year Chanel also introduced her highly copied suit design: a collarless, braid-trimmed tweed jacket with a graceful skirt. By the end of the 1950s, she had also debuted several other classic items, notably two-toned shoes and a quilted purse with gold chains. These creations helped Chanel reclaim her position as one of fashion’s most influential designers.

Legacy

Since her death in 1971, Chanel’s couture house has been led by a series of designers, with Karl Lagerfeld’s tenure (1983–2019) the longest and most influential. Under their direction the Chanel brand has remained one of the most influential and quintessential fashion brands. Coco Chanel’s shrewd understanding of women’s fashion needs, her enterprising ambition, and the romantic aspects of her life—her rise from rags to riches and her sensational love affairs—continue to inspire numerous biographical books, films, and plays. Notable examples include the 1969 Broadway musical Coco, which starred Katharine Hepburn as the legendary designer, and Coco avant Chanel (2009; Coco Before Chanel), a biopic with Audrey Tautou in the title role.