Vogue coco chanel biography movie

Chanel's youth and physical charms impressed those for whom she auditioned, but her singing voice was marginal and she failed to find stage work. She realised then that a serious stage career was not in her future. Balsan's wealth allowed the cultivation of a social set that revelled in partying and the gratification of human appetites, with all the implied accompanying decadence.

Balsan showered Chanel with the baubles of "the rich life"—diamonds, dresses, and pearls. It is said that Capel's sartorial style influenced the conception of the Chanel look. The bottle design for Chanel No. It is believed Chanel adapted the rectangular, bevelled lines of the Charvet toiletry bottles he carried in his leather travelling case [ 23 ] or she adapted the design of the whisky decanter Capel used.

She so much admired it that she wished to reproduce it in "exquisite, expensive, delicate glass". Even after Capel married an English aristocrat, Lady Diana Wyndham in , he did not completely break off with Chanel. He died in a car accident on 22 December In losing Capel, I lost everything. What followed was not a life of happiness, I have to say.

Chanel had begun designing hats while living with Balsan, initially as a diversion that evolved into a commercial enterprise. She became a licensed milliner in and opened a boutique at 21 rue Cambon, Paris, named Chanel Modes. Subsequently, Dorziat modelled Chanel's hats again in photographs published in Les Modes. In , Chanel opened a boutique in Deauville , financed by Arthur Capel, where she introduced deluxe casual clothing suitable for leisure and sport.

The fashions were constructed from humble fabrics such as jersey and tricot , at the time primarily used for men's underwear. Chanel had the dedicated support of two family members, her sister Antoinette, and her paternal aunt Adrienne, who was of a similar age. Chanel, determined to re-create the success she enjoyed in Deauville, opened an establishment in Biarritz in After one year of operation, the business proved to be so lucrative that in Chanel was able to reimburse Capel's original investment.

They had a romantic interlude, and maintained a close association for many years afterward. In , Chanel purchased the building at 31 rue Cambon, in one of the most fashionable districts of Paris. In , she opened an early incarnation of a fashion boutique , featuring clothing, hats, and accessories, later expanded to offer jewellery and fragrances.

By , Chanel owned five properties on the rue Cambon, buildings numbered 23 to She invited them to her new home, Bel Respiro , in the Paris suburb of Garches , until they could find a suitable residence. Bader was interested in selling Chanel No. They created a corporate entity, Parfums Chanel , and the Wertheimers agreed to provide full financing for the production, marketing, and distribution of Chanel No.

For ten per cent of the stock, Chanel licensed her name to Parfums Chanel and withdrew from involvement in business operations. It is said that theirs was an immediate bond of kindred souls, and Misia was attracted to Chanel by "her genius, lethal wit, sarcasm and maniacal destructiveness, which intrigued and appalled everyone". They also shared drug use.

By , Chanel had become a habitual drug user, injecting herself with morphine on a daily basis: a habit she maintained to the end of her life. The writer Colette , who moved in the same social circles as Chanel, provided a whimsical description of Chanel at work in her atelier, which appeared in Prisons et Paradis :. If every human face bears a resemblance to some animal, then Mademoiselle Chanel is a small black bull.

That tuft of curly black hair, the attribute of bull-calves, falls over her brow all the way to the eyelids and dances with every maneuver of her head. In , Vera Bate Lombardi , born Sarah Gertrude Arkwright , reputedly the illegitimate daughter of the Marquess of Cambridge , offered Chanel entry into the highest levels of British upper classes.

It was an elite group of associations revolving around such figures as aristocratic politician Winston Churchill , peers such as the Duke of Westminster and royals such as Edward, Prince of Wales. The duke lavished Chanel with extravagant jewels, costly art and a home in London's prestigious Mayfair district. His affair with Chanel lasted ten years.

The duke, an outspoken antisemite , intensified Chanel's inherent antipathy toward Jews. He shared with her an expressed homophobia. In , Chanel was quoted by her friend and confidant, Paul Morand ,. 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. They are charming! The prince allegedly was smitten with Chanel and pursued her in spite of her involvement with the Duke of Westminster. Gossip had it that he visited Chanel in her apartment and requested that she call him "David", a privilege reserved only for his closest friends and family.

Years later, Diana Vreeland , editor of Vogue , would insist that "the passionate, focused and fiercely-independent Chanel, a virtual tour de force", and the Prince "had a great romantic moment together". Chanel built a villa here, which she called La Pausa 'restful pause' , hiring the architect Robert Streitz. Streitz's concept for the staircase and patio contained design elements inspired by Aubazine , the orphanage where Chanel spent her youth.

There is only one Chanel. During Chanel's affair with the Duke of Westminster in the s, her style began to reflect her personal emotions. Her inability to reinvent the little black dress was a sign of such reality. She began to design a "less is more" aesthetic. Goldwyn offered Chanel a tantalising proposition. Chanel accepted the offer.

Accompanying her on her first trip to Hollywood was her friend, Misia Sert. En route to California from New York, travelling in a white train carriage luxuriously outfitted for her use, Chanel was interviewed by Collier's magazine in She said that she had agreed to go to Hollywood to "see what the pictures have to offer me and what I have to offer the pictures".

Both Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich became private clients. Her experience with American film making left Chanel with a dislike for Hollywood's film business and a distaste for the film world's culture, which she called "infantile". The New Yorker speculated that Chanel left Hollywood because "they told her her dresses weren't sensational enough.

She made a lady look like a lady. Hollywood wants a lady to look like two ladies. Chanel introduced the left-wing Renoir to Luchino Visconti , aware that the shy Italian hoped to work in film. Renoir was favourably impressed by Visconti and brought him in to work on his next film project. Chanel was the mistress of some of the most influential men of her time, but she never married.

She had significant relationships with the poet Pierre Reverdy and the illustrator and designer Paul Iribe. After her romance with Reverdy ended in , they maintained a friendship that lasted some forty years. A review of her correspondence reveals a complete contradiction between the clumsiness of Chanel the letter writer and the talent of Chanel as a composer of maxims Her involvement with Iribe was a deep one until his sudden death in The Chanel couture was a lucrative business enterprise, employing 4, people by The boyish look and the short skirts of the s flapper seemed to disappear overnight.

Chanel's designs for film stars in Hollywood were not successful and had not enhanced her reputation as expected. More significantly, Chanel's star had been eclipsed by her premier rival, the designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Schiaparelli's innovative designs, replete with playful references to surrealism , were garnering critical acclaim and generating enthusiasm in the fashion world.

Feeling she was losing her avant-garde edge, Chanel collaborated with Jean Cocteau on his theatre piece Oedipe Rex. The costumes she designed were mocked and critically lambasted: "Wrapped in bandages the actors looked like ambulant mummies or victims of some terrible accident. However, due to Britain's declaration of war on 3 September , the ballet was forced to leave London.

They left the costumes in Europe and were re-made, according to Dali's initial designs, by Karinska. In , at the beginning of World War II, Chanel closed her shops, maintaining her apartment situated above the couture house at 31 Rue de Cambon. She said that it was not a time for fashion; [ 30 ] as a result of her action, 4, female employees lost their jobs.

In closing her couture house, Chanel made a definitive statement of her political views. Her dislike of Jews, reportedly sharpened by her association with society elites, had solidified her beliefs. She shared with many of her circle a conviction that Jews were a threat to Europe because of the Bolshevik government in the Soviet Union.

During the German occupation, Chanel resided at the Hotel Ritz. It was noteworthy as the preferred place of residence for upper-echelon German military staff. Sleeping with the Enemy, Coco Chanel and the Secret War written by Hal Vaughan further solidifies the consistencies of the French intelligence documents describing Chanel as a "vicious antisemite" who praised Hitler.

World War II, specifically the Nazi seizure of all Jewish-owned property and business enterprises, provided Chanel with the opportunity to gain the full monetary fortune generated by Parfums Chanel and its most profitable product, Chanel No. The directors of Parfums Chanel , the Wertheimers, were Jewish.

Vogue coco chanel biography movie

Chanel used her position as an " Aryan " to petition German officials to legalise her claim to sole ownership. On 5 May , 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 an indisputable right of priority At war's end, Amiot returned Parfums Chanel to the hands of the Wertheimers. During the period directly following the end of World War II, the business world watched with interest and some apprehension the ongoing legal wrestle for control of Parfums Chanel. Interested parties in the proceedings were cognizant that Chanel's Nazi affiliations during wartime, if made public knowledge, would seriously threaten the reputation and status of the Chanel brand.

Forbes magazine summarised the dilemma faced by the Wertheimers: [it is Pierre Wertheimer's worry] how "a legal fight might illuminate Chanel's wartime activities and wreck her image—and his business. On 17 May , Chanel received wartime profits from the sale of Chanel No. Her future share would be two per cent of all Chanel No. In addition, Pierre Wertheimer agreed to an unusual stipulation proposed by Chanel herself: Wertheimer agreed to pay all of Chanel's living expenses—from the trivial to the large—for the rest of her life.

Pseudonym: Westminster. Agent reference: F Signalled as suspect in the file" Pseudonyme: Westminster. Indicatif d'agent: F Anti-Nazi activist Serge Klarsfeld declared, "Just because Chanel had a spy number doesn't necessarily mean she was personally involved. Some informers had numbers without being aware of it. He was released in 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 upon his death in Suspicions of Coco Chanel's involvement first began when German tanks entered Paris and began the Nazi occupation. Chanel immediately sought refuge in the deluxe Hotel Ritz , which was also used as the headquarters of the German military.

When the Nazi occupation of France began, Chanel decided to close her store, claiming a patriotic motivation behind such decision. However, when she moved into the same Hotel Ritz that was housing the German military, her motivations became clear to many. While many women in France were punished for " horizontal collaboration " with German officers, Chanel faced no such action.

At the time of the French liberation in , Chanel left a note in her store window explaining Chanel No. During this time, she fled to Switzerland to avoid criminal charges for her collaborations as a Nazi spy. Working as a spy, Chanel was directly involved in a plan for the Third Reich to take control of Madrid. Such documents identify Chanel as an agent in the German military intelligence, the Abwehr.

Chanel visited Madrid in 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.

When interrogated by British intelligence at the war's end, Schellenberg maintained that Chanel was "a person who knew Churchill sufficiently to undertake political negotiations with him". Count Joseph von Ledebur-Wicheln, a Nazi agent who defected to the British Secret Service in , recalled a meeting he had with Dincklage in early , in which the baron had suggested including Lombardi as a courier.

Dincklage purportedly said,. 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 an intermediary, delivering a letter written by Chanel to Churchill, to be forwarded to him via the British Embassy in Madrid.

The committee had no documented evidence of her collaborative activities and was obliged to release her. According to Chanel's grand-niece, Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie, 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.

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. Vaughan writes that some claim that Churchill instructed Duff Cooper , British ambassador to the French provisional government, to protect Chanel.

Requested to appear in Paris before investigators in , Chanel left her retreat in Switzerland 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. Chanel denied all the accusations. She offered the presiding judge, Leclercq, a character reference: "I could arrange for a declaration to come from Mr.

Duff Cooper. 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. But the truth was that the war simply did not interest her.

Her overpowering egocentricity protected her better than the Maginot Line had protected her country. No one could impinge upon what one might call her splendid isolation. She said: "There will always be wars because so many medicines are being invented that soon people won't die anymore. Churchill and Chanel's friendship marks its origin in the s, with the eruption of Chanel's scandalous beginning when falling in love with the Duke of Westminster.

Churchill's intervention at the end of the war prevented Chanel's punishment for spy collaborations, and ultimately salvaged her legacy. In , a purported membership card for the French Resistance belonging to Chanel was discovered in the French national archives by Chanel biographer Justine Picardie. When Vaughan's book was published in August , his disclosure of the contents of recently declassified military intelligence documents generated considerable controversy about Chanel's activities.

Maison de Chanel issued a statement, portions of which were published by several media outlets. In , she retired from the fashion business. However, 16 years later, she made a determined comeback after becoming fed up with seeing French fashion become dominated by men. Her first post-war collection was not well received by the critics, but it proved immensely popular with the general public.

Rich and famous women once again adopted the Chanel look, and she had shown her lasting influence on the industry. She prided herself on her great taste, fashion and practicality combined with an awareness of what people wanted. It was this that made her the most recognisable name in world fashion. Chanel was an innovator in many aspects of fashion.

She developed a new kind of jewellery which imitated much more expensive jewellery. It enabled wealthy people to keep their expensive jewellery at home. In , she developed the iconic Chanel bag. Like other Chanel creations, it combined beauty, fashion and practicality. The thin strap — enabling hands to be kept free. In , she updated the design to become the Chanel 2.

At the start of the Second World War in , Chanel closed her shops, stating that war was not a time for fashion. Three thousand of her workers lost their jobs — it was seen partly as retaliation for previous conflicts with workers, where her workers had sought better wages and conditions. This helped her to gain a luxury apartment in the Ritz for the duration of the war.

At the end of the war, Schellenberg was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to six years. On his release, Chanel paid for his medical treatment. The plan never succeeded. She was released due to lack of evidence. In the climate of post-war interrogations, Chanel moved to Switzerland where she resided until However, in , she returned to Paris and reopened her couture house.

In other projects. Wikidata item. Main cast [ edit ]. Home video release [ edit ]. Awards and nominations [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. External links [ edit ]. Little black dress Jacqueline Kennedy's pink Chanel suit. Chanel 2. The Allure of Chanel.