Secrets in the life of Coco Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur ‘Coco’ Chanel was born in Saumur, France on August 19th, 1883. She was one of 6 children and her family shared a one-room home in Brive-la-Gaillarde.

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Following an illness, her mother Jeanne died at the age of 32. After her death, Chanel’s father Albert left his sons with peasant farmers and sent his daughters to live at the convent of Aubazine where the Catholic nuns ran an orphanage for abandoned girls. It was at the convent where Chanel first learned to sew.

She supported herself working as a seamstress and by singing in a cabaret. During this time, Chanel acquired her nickname ‘Coco’ and there are conflicting stories of its origin. At the cabaret, Chanel would often sing the song ‘Who Has Seen Coco?’ Chanel would later claim that ‘Coco’ was a name affectionately given to her by her father.

When Chanel was 23, she became the mistress of French textile heir, Ètienne Balsan. While living with Balsan, she was introduced to a life of riches alongside the social elite. During this time she began working as a milliner.

Her relationship with Captain Arthur Edward ‘Boy’ Capel began in 1908. Capel provided Chanel with financial support for her Paris apartment and to aid in the opening of her first shop in which she sold her designer hats.

Capel married another woman in 1918 though he and Chanel continued their relationship. He was killed in a car accident in 1919. Capel was one of Chanel’s great loves and the loss of him was devastating.

Her boutique in Deauville opened in 1913. The shop offered casual clothing, hats, sweaters, jackets, and her famous sailor blouses. Her sister Antoinette and her aunt Adrienne supported the shop by modelling and advertising the fashions in the town.

Following the success of her second shop in Biarritz, she when went on to found her ‘maison de couture’ in Cambon, Paris. Her business continued to grow in the years that followed with her fashion line expanding to include jewellery and perfume.

Coco Chanel was introduced to master perfumer Ernest Beaux by Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov of Russia. The Grand Duke was Chanel’s lover at the time. The classic perfume features a floral bouquet including jasmine and May rose and was the best-selling fragrance of the twentieth century.

Chanel had a problematic 10-year relationship with Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster. The duke was an outspoken antisemite who also had homophobic views. Regrettably, these views were also shared by Chanel herself.

At the beginning of World War II, the bulk of the Chanel perfume empire was owned by the Wertheimer brothers, a Jewish family. A true opportunist, Chanel shamelessly attempted to gain control of Parfums Chanel as an ‘Aryan’ while the Nazis seized Jewish-owned businesses and properties.

Due to increasing Nazi hostility and proposed mandates, the Wertheimer brothers successfully transferred control of the company to a French Christian businessman. The company was returned to the Wertheimers at the end of the war.

During the war, Chanel was in a romantic relationship with Nazi officer Hans Gunther von Dincklage. She moved into the Hotel Ritz at the beginning of the Nazi occupation of Paris. The hotel was the location where the German military were housed.

Documents released by French intelligence agencies in 2014 have listed Chanel as working as an informant for the German military during the war. She was tasked with acting as a messenger to her friend Winston Churchill in an attempt to show that members of the Third Reich were willing to negotiate peace with the British. She had an agent number and her code name was ‘Westminster.’

Malcolm Muggeridge, a British officer working in military intelligence, interviewed Chanel about her the nature of her relationship with the Nazis during the war. Unlike many women in France who had relationships with German soldiers during war time, Chanel was never charged. It is believed that her friendship with Winston Churchill ensured her protection from any repercussions.

Her return to the fashion industry was met cautiously due to her known associations during the war. Despite Chanel’s antisemitism and her behaviour toward them during the war, the Wertheimer family funded Chanel’s reinvention of her business in France and agreed to pay for her living expenses for the rest of her life.

Writer Hal Vaughan wrote a biography about Coco Chanel entitled, ‘Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel’s Secret War.’ Released in 2011, the book covered new details of Chanel’s collaboration with the Nazis.

At the age of 87, Chanel was still working in the fashion industry and preparing the brand’s spring catalogue. She started to feel unwell and went to bed early. Her reported last words to her maid were, ‘You see, this is how you die.’

Despite Chanel’s antisemitic views and known affiliations with Nazis during the war, the Chanel brand remains intact. The brand is still owned by the Wertheimer family who have remained silent about the conflict with Coco Chanel over the years.

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