If one took seriously the disclosures that Mademoiselle Chanel allowed herself to make about those black years of the Occupation, one’s teeth would be set on edge.
? Marcel Haedrich, friend and biographer
It’s the continuation of my new miniseries on a subject extremely near and dear to my heart: Women In War! For the next few weeks I’ll be focusing on the experiences of women in France during World War II: fighting the resistance, collaborating with the Nazis, keeping children alive against the odds, and trying to figure out the right way to live in a world that seemed upside down. The idea of this series first took shape before I even began this podcast, and I’m thrilled to bring it to you now.
Picking up where my previous episode left off, women across the country are adjusting to life under German rule. Where some women see Occupation, however, others see an opportunity…
Episode 55: “Women At War 3: The Collaborator (Coco Chanel)”
Coco Chanel
I don’t want to come across as glamorizing her, so I’m trying to strike a balance between admiring and paying her the respect she’s due for truly revolutionizing women’s wear in the 20th century – without letting people forget that she collaborated pretty gleefully with the Nazis.
Fashion before Coco:
Corsets, corsets, corsets. Heavy satin, hobble skirts. Gorgeous, if you don’t plan on going anywhere.
Truly the hobbling-est skirts.
These gowns are gorgeous, breathtakingly elaborate, and weigh probably 15 pounds. Corset not optional. Women dressed to be ornamental – and stationary.
Perfect for fluttering a fan and your eyelashes, very inconvenient for tennis.
Fashion after Coco:
“Oh, merde” said the author, realizing that she was wearing this exact outfit while writing the episode.
Coco’s best model was always herself. Here she shows off her classic jersey knit. The joke was to put rich women in cheap fabric – but those women laughed all the way to the tennis courts, the department stores, their new jobs, etc etc… Goodbye, confining corsets! Adieu, hobble skirts! A woman could wear this to the office in 2020 and get compliments.
A classic Chanel evening gown from 1923. Deeply luxurious and beautifully crafted, but look at those lovely armholes for swanning about! And that dropped waist, so you can eat another amuse bouche! So much jazz dancing and cocktail drinking to be done in one of these.
Chanel’s influence was palpable. Just look at all those simple cuts and straightforward fabrics! These are clothes for women with things to do.
Coco the Co-llaborator
A young Baron von Dincklage
Chanel and Dincklage, years after the war. There are no known photographs of them together during WWII.
Chanel and Dincklage just after the war, in Lausanne, Switzerland
Coco Chanel with Bendor. Not pictured: Bendor’s big conspiracy book about whether Queen Victoria was secretly a Jew (gasp!). Also not pictured: Bendor’s bestie, Edward the Abdicating Fascist
The good old days: Bendor (The Duke of Westminster), Coco and Winston Churchill.
Made for each other (they’re both awful).
Sources
Chanel’s story is fascinating because it’s fairly recent scholarship – only in the last few years has all the evidence been declassified. Reading biographies of her, therefore, should be taken with a grain of salt and a bit of empathy towards the authors. The facts on the ground changed FAST. It’s also hard to sort out quality, because pissed-off Chanel fans are constantly rating these books 1 star for saying unflattering things about her. (Check out the top rated review for Garelick’s work. Oh, Lord.) With that said, here are 3 books of particular interest, amidst the 200,284,493 biographies of Coco Chanel:
The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World’s Most Famous Perfume – Tilar J. Mazzeo: This is a perfect example of a book to take with a grain of salt. A lot of incriminating evidence was still in the archives at the time, plus this author has a bizarre need to make assumptions about Chanel’s state of mind which aren’t really supported by anything she said or did. That said, the first ~150 pages of this are a great primer. I’d never thought about the move from representational > abstract perfume as a parallel movement to what was happening in art. Does a great job explaining aldehydes. Still hate the smell of Chanel No 5, but at least I can appreciate it.
Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel’s Secret War – Hal Vaughan: This book was a bombshell. Vaughan was the first one to really synthesize all the recently declassified evidence from French and German archives, and he builds a damning case. That said, it needs an editor, and it’s frequently confusing. I wish he’d done a better job writing, but I appreciate that he probably wanted to beat the others to print.
Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History – Rhonda K. Garelick: If you had to choose one book to read on Chanel, this would probably be the one I’d select. It’s very recent, so it includes Vaughan’s findings PLUS stuff that was declassified after he was published. Garelick tracks own some damning testimony of her own. But more importantly, this is an erudite, scholarly work, not a puff piece. She does a marvelous job situating Coco’s life within the context of the rapidly shifting 20th century. Garelick gives praise when its due, without sugarcoating or excusing terrible behavior – her chapters on fascism are great.
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