Coco Chanel Read online

  Coco Chanel, without question probably the most famous fashion designer of all time, was named by Time magazine one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Her life was filled with trauma, romance, intrigue, and scandal, but her business acumen and groundbreaking talent (along with funding by her paramours) took her far beyond her humble beginnings. Chanel understood how to get what she wanted from life and never hesitated to pursue the grandest of visions.

  Her designs broke numerous barriers, and her influence on style and aesthetic forever changed the world, especially for women. Women’s liberation took a major step forward when Chanel made it acceptable and stylish for women to throw away their corsets and pull on pants! Moving beyond tangible style to the intangible, Chanel broke new ground when she introduced her own scent, N°5. She was the first designer to do so. Today most fashion houses have their own fragrance line, but it was Chanel who started the trend. This was but one of many trends– now considered classics–that were born of Chanel’s brilliant design mien: ropes of pearls, cardigans, jewelry cuffs, slinky jersey fabric, and more. Vive la Chanel!

  Published by TAJ Books International LLC 2014

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  ISBN 978-1-84406-339-0

  978-1-62732-017-7 Paperback

  Printed in China

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  COCO CHANEL: HER LIFE

  Coco Chanel is undoubtedly one of the most famous fashion designers of all time. In testament to this, she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Her life was filled with romance, intrigue, and scandal. Her business acumen and groundbreaking talent took her far beyond her humble beginnings. Her designs broke numerous barriers, and her influence on style and aesthetic forever changed the world, especially for women.

  Chanel understood how to get what she wanted from life and never hesitated to pursue her grand vision. In many ways she was responsible for a major first step toward women’s liberation, doing so through the world of fashion by freeing women from the strictures of corsets and adapting menswear, specifically pants, to the female body. In addition to her brilliant new style, Chanel introduced her own brand of perfume, N°5. It was the first scent associated with a designer. Today most fashion houses have their own fragrance line, but it was Chanel who started the trend.

  Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was born August 19, 1883, in a poorhouse in Saumur, France. The nuns who ran the poorhouse were kind to Chanel’s unwed mother, Eugenie Jeanne Devolle (known as Jeanne), a laundress, leading her to name her newborn daughter after one of the sisters, Gabrielle Bonheur. Chanel’s father, Henri-Albert Chanel (known as Albert), was an itinerant salesman who was traveling at the time of his daughter’s birth. In many ways it was appropriate for Chanel to be brought into the world by nuns, since she would soon find herself in their care.

  A number of years later, Chanel would attempt to have her birth records erased out of a burning, undying desire to hide her humble upbringing, although she was unsuccessful in doing so. Interestingly, a clerical error on her birth certificate misspelled her name as “Chasnel” making it slightly easier for her to conceal the truth about her past. Her mother’s first child, Julia, was also born out of wedlock. Jeanne’s peasant family was unable to support her and pressured Albert to marry her when Chanel was a bit over a year old. The couple had four more children, each born two years apart: Alphonse, Antoinette, Lucien, and Augustin. The last, Augustin, died in infancy.

  Gabrielle Chanel, 1909

  The poverty-stricken Chanel family lived in the small railway town of Brive- la-Gaillarde in central southwest France between Paris and Toulouse. Very little about Chanel’s early childhood is known with any veracity, most details being fabricated from Chanel’s desire for a socially acceptable background. What can be derived from the stories Chanel told is that she felt unloved by her father, who likely resented his children and wife for forcing him into a life he had previously been able to successfully avoid.

  In 1895, when Chanel was 11 years old, her 31-year-old mother became gravely ill while her father was away on a sales trip. The children were found in their mother’s wintry cold bedroom by their father upon his return, her mother’s lifeless body-ravaged by poverty, pregnancy, and respiratory illness-stiff on the bed. How long the girls were in the room with their dead mother is unknown, though the trauma of the situation must have been excruciating for all. But before the ink had dried on Jeanne’s death certificate, her husband was busy ridding himself of the children. The boys were dropped off with a peasant family who most certainly paid a small fee for the additional hands to help keep the household running. Chanel, along with her sisters, Julia and Antoinette, were brought to a Cistercian- run orphanage in nearby Aubazine.

  At the seaside resort of Deauville in northern France standing in front of her shop, aptly named Gabrielle Chanel, with her aunt Adrienne, 1913 (above); another view from Deauville (right)

  With “Boy” Capel, an avid horseman, in 1918, a year before he was killed in a car accident (above); a caricature of Capel and Chanel dancing drawn by the caricaturist Georges Goursat (1863-1934), known as Sem, in 1913 (top right); and Capel and Chanel in a relaxed moment (bottom right)

  Mademoiselle Chanel (second from right) with Arthur “Boy” Capel (far right) and others in front of her Deauville shop

  Just as Chanel made up stories about her early childhood, she also created a life for herself during the period she stayed with the nuns. She told her friends and interviewers alike that after her mother’s death her father took the children to family members who reared them. Regardless of how she described those years in her life, one very real outcome was that she learned to sew, a skill taught to her by the nuns. Another outcome was that she, by all accounts, emerged stridently anti-Semitic. This trait, along with her cozy relationships with German officers and German sympathizers, fed suspicions during the World War II years that she was a Nazi spy. The very pragmatic Chanel, however, may only have been protecting her livelihood, albeit at the cost of appearing disloyal and unpatriotic to her homeland.

  During the seven years that Chanel lived with the nuns, her father never visited her, essentially abandoning her along with her sisters. But as an adult, Chanel claimed that her father stayed in touch with her and even sent gifts, likely as an effort to hide the pain of being tossed aside without either parent for comfort. According to Hamish Bowles writing in Vogue in 2005, the medieval convent experience was so seared into Chanel’s consciousness that it impacted her design aesthetic through product packaging that mirrored the stark white convent walls with their dark black trim and through the elegant interlocking Cs of the Chanel logo inspired by the abbey’s stained-glass windows. The five-star pattern on the convent’s stone mosaic floors influenced many of Chanel’s jewelry designs, and her intricately beaded and embellished evening dresses are redolent of the mosaic patterning so prolific at the Aubazine abbey.

  The flagship Chanel boutique at 31 rue Cambon in Paris

  During her teenage years, she discovered a love of romantic novel
s, such as Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Perhaps not just an escape from reality, these romances may have also fueled the creative re-telling of her personal history to make it (and her) more appealing than would otherwise have been the case. Nevertheless, her behavior in later years indicates that she may have truly liked life at the abbey. With the nuns and their charges living a frugal and contemplative life, Chanel had ample time to daydream, read, plan, and perfect talents, such as sewing. She continued to return to the abbey even after she had become a world famous designer. Those who lived near the abbey recalled for years seeing her chauffeured black car pull up to the abbey where she would spend the day visiting the nuns and walking the halls she knew as a young girl. She always departed before nightfall, leaving the sisters with financial donations to support their work.

  The relationship Chanel had with her older sister, Julia, is basically unknown. As Chanel told it, Julia died when she slit her wrists after discovering that her husband had a mistress. At her death, Chanel assumed Julia’s six-year-old son’s care. His name was André Palasse. André never lived with Chanel. She sent him to an English boarding school. Some suspected that André may in fact have been Chanel’s child. No proof has ever surfaced to support that contention.

  In 1901, when Chanel turned 18 years old, she entered the Notre Dame School in Moulins as a charity pupil. The abbey prohibited girls over 18 to remain there unless they had chosen to follow the “religious path” and join the order. This future was certainly not in the stars for Chanel, who was in many ways the exact opposite of piety and humbleness. Chanel did eventually establish a relationship with her paternal grandparents and grew quite close to her aunt, Adrienne, probably because the two were very near the same age. It was a bittersweet time in Chanel’s life because most of the other students at the school were from relatively affluent families and shunned her. To find solace she delved deeper into her love of reading and sewing, which ultimately paid off quite handsomely in the end.

  In 1920, after “Boy” Capell’s death, with newly cropped hair

  Soon after her arrival at the Notre Dame School, Chanel and Adrienne found jobs as assistants to a seamstress in Moulins. They shared a small attic room located above the seamstress’ shop and earned extra pay working weekends for a nearby tailor. The men who frequented the tailor were quite taken with the pair of young girls and began to court them, escorting them to shows at La Rotonde, a local outdoor concert hall. Both girls soon were determined to become cabaret stars, especially Chanel, who quickly gained a regular spot in the program.

  During this interlude in her life Chanel earned her famous nickname, Coco. Two songs compete for the honor of naming her. One is “Qui qu’a vu Coco?” (“Who has seen Coco?”), a song about a girl who lost her dog. The other is “Ko Ko Rik Ko” (the French equivalent of “Cock-a-doodle- doo”). Because these two songs were the extent of her repertoire, both can lay claim to her alliterative appellation.

  Étienne Balsan, a scion of a well-to-do family of textile industrialists soon took Chanel as his mistress. Balsan’s family had made their fortune by providing the French army with blue wool for their uniforms. About the time that Balsan and Chanel met, he resigned his commission as a cavalry officer to pursue his true love of horses and polo. The two new lovers resided at Balsan’s chateau, Royallieu, near the town of Compiegne where Chanel eagerly adopted the pastimes of the aristocratic class—hunting and riding. Interestingly, the chateau was an old abbey; once again Chanel found respite under a godly roof.

  Balsan’s secluded chateau provided a much needed physical and psychological retreat for the young woman who had struggled with poverty and abandonment most of her short life. The three years that Chanel lived with Balsan at Royallieu are just as obscure as the rest of her youth. Forever loyal, Balsan always refused to disclose any information about Chanel when reporters or biographers inquired about his relationship with her. In many ways, Chanel owed her great success and fame to Balsan, for he and his connections accelerated her escape from a drab life in Moulins. Given Chanel’s aspirations, however, it is likely that eventually she would have found another sponsor with the financial means to improve her position. Even after the pair split romantically, they remained close as friends, and Balsan’s death in 1953 hit Chanel hard.

  1920

  At the time Chanel moved into Royallieu, the dancer Émilienne d’Alençon, with whom Balsan was involved, was still living there as his mistress. According to some, Chanel at first was made to eat her meals with the servants. Eventually, d’Alençon took another lover and departed, which finally allowed Chanel free run of the estate. Chanel despised the clothes that d’Alençon wore, ridiculing them as “heavy gowns and spotted veils,” and prided herself on her more modern, unencumbered style. Spending much time in the company of horses, she found wearing tailor-made equestrian clothing made her life easier and facilitated her active lifestyle. This fondness for menswear-like pants would be reflected in her early clothing designs and mark her style as liberating for women.

  Chanel’s recollection of the time she spent at Royallieu was of extreme homesickness for the life she left atthe abbey. It was also the origin of her notorious ability to fabricate her past. Given the importance placed at that time on rank and social status, it is not surprising that she liberally embellished the story of her upbringing. Alone in a foreign environment, oppressed and generally dismissed, Chanel’s need to create a more glamorous past was certainly self-preservation at work. Balsan’s friends tried to persuade him to send her back to Moulins, asserting she was too young for the role of mistress. Chanel had lied about her age, telling Balsan she was several years older than l she was. Dismissed by those to the manor bred, she found solace in the company of the courtesans-even d’Alençon-who frequented the chateau for the parties that Balsan regularly threw. It was at one of these glamorous gatherings that Chanel met her next love, Arthur “Boy” Capel.

  Capel, a Brit, came to France amidst a swirl of romantic intrigue about his background. Rumors variably linked him to the British aristocracy or identified him as the illegitimate son of a wealthy French businessman. Irrespective of his bloodlines, he was quite the playboy as well as a prolific polo player, probably why he and Balsan were such close acquaintances. According to Chanel, she met Capel when she and Balsan were in Pau, a small French town in the Pyrenees. She was immediately taken by Capel, falling in love with the handsome, very tanned, and attractive man. Although she claims never to have spoken to Capel during their mutual visit to Pau, she jumped on the train with him as he returned to Paris. Chanel claimed that Balsan threw a fit over her departing Pau with Capel, yet she left anyway, realizing that all it took was jealousy for Balsan to admit his true feelings for her.

  Chanel and the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, one of the few Romanovs to escape murder by the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution, c. 1921. Pavlovich’s diaries record relationships with many fascinating women of his day, but the affair he is most remembered for was with Coco Chanel, whom he met in Paris. Their relationship lasted about three years, beginning in spring 1921.

  Chanel at the races with her lover, the Duke of Westminster, the richest man in England at the time, 1924

  Modeling her jersey designs in 1929; note that Chanel has paired the same loose striped, sleeveless top, long, multi- stranded pearls, and strapped two- tone shoes with different suits

  1928

  Capel and Chanel had a lengthy romance, yet not always a happy one. Capel was never truly faithful to Chanel, but the pendulum swung both ways as Chanel continued her dalliances with Balsan. By this point, Chanel was already experimenting with making her own hats, the simplicity of which proved to be instantly popular with d’Alençon and other well-known cocottes (courtesans) of Paris. These first clients wore her designs on stage and around town, with magazines describing their stunning new hats in detail, quite effectively advertising Chanel’s creations.

  Although she was a “kept woman” living in a suit at the
Ritz in Paris paid for by Capel, she was restive, unhappy to rely on a man for her living expenses. She negotiated with both Balsan and Capel regarding backing her in a millinery business, which she viewed as a way to make her own living. The two men agreed to share the expenses for launching her business venture. Balsan provided her with an apartment and shop space in Paris at 160 Boulevard Malesherbes. Capel provided the funds. Chanel’s hats were uniquely modem and chic, free of the excessive decoration and frills that adorned the hats worn by ladies of the Belle Époque era. Chanel initially purchased straw boaters from a department store and trimmed them with ribbon. So simple. It wasn’t long before some of the most influential Parisian women were flocking to her store to purchase Chanel’s avant- garde designs.

  With Vera Bate, 1928

  1929

  Encouraged by her success, in 1910 she procured even more funds from her financial backers and lovers to open a millinery shop at 21 rue Cambon in Paris. Chanel was blessed with an astute mind for business and within a couple of years broadened her product line to include clothes, the designs of which were influenced by her girlish figure, love of sports and the outdoors, and her taste for simplicity. Her first prêt-à-porter shop opened in the resort town of Deauville in 1913 from which she offered casual wear for women.

  Photo by Man Ray, 1930

  Pants, pants, and more pants! Chanel expanded women’s fashion boundaries into the realm of men’s fashion to capture the comfort and freedom for women that only men had previously enjoyed. From left to right, Chanel wears pants paired with a striped sailor top at her Villa La Pausa in southern France; with her signature pearls on the Lido in Venice accompanied by Duke Larino of Rome; and with narrow belt, collier, and hat while she enjoys a relaxing respite (1920s and early 1930s).