The Biography of Iconic French Designer Coco Chanel

 

The Biography of Iconic French Designer Coco Chanel: A Story of Rags to Riches

Born Gabrielle Bonner Chanel, later Coco was plucked from poverty by a series of wealthy lovers, rose to become a symbol of luxury, and changed the face of women’s fashion forever. But Coco, always a mistress and never a wife, longed for love to the point that it almost cost her everything. However, her determination would prove to be enough to allow her to thrive and triumph in this male-dominated world on her own terms, and it is that determination we can attribute the Brand Chanel that we know and love today.

Gabrielle Bonner Chanel was born on the 19th of August 1883 in France’s Loire Valley. Her parents were unmarried which was illegitimate for the time and in a poorhouse, making her beginnings scandalous and unsavory. Her father was a market peddler (someone who sold goods, often stolen) so she and her 4 siblings spent much of their childhood gallivanting the markets of Western France. Working-class women at the time had few options, and most were forced to work for little pay as domestic servants or laborers. Gabrielle expected this future for herself, at the time, but when she was 12 years old, things changed.

At only 12-years-old, her mother died suddenly, leaving the responsibility of their 5 children to her father. He split the family up, sending his sons to work on a farm, and his daughters to an orphanage. Gabrielle would be at the orphanage until adulthood, and was only allowed to leave for holidays, when she would spend time with her two Aunts: Louise and Adrian. These were the years that Gabrielle first learned to sew. First basically-from the nuns that raised her in the orphanage, then creatively-from her Aunt Louise who she spent the holidays making hats and clothes with more frills and decor than their usual low-class rags, the craft that would eventually become her career and legacy.

At 20 years old, Gabrielle was released from the orphanage and sent into the world on her own. She first received work as a seamstress in a tailor’s, which was a great job for a girl of her standing. Before long, Gabrielle began to catch the eye of the men that would come in to fix their suits. They started to invite her to the popular local music halls with her Aunt Adrian. It was the stage performances that she saw there that were the first taste Gabrielle had of glamour and she longed for more.

Soon after, she found work at one, with acts to two songs, both including the word Coco. For this reason, the audience began to know Gabrielle as La Petite Coco, which would become the inspiration of her new name, Coco Chanel. Working at the music hall, Coco continued to catch the attention of the gentlemen who came in. At only 21 years old, Coco caught the eye of one, Étienne Balsan- a frequent at the music hall and a millionaire. He already had a live-in mistress at the time, which Coco didn’t mind. She saw him as a one-way ticket out of poverty nonetheless.

His live-in mistress soon moved out, and Coco moved in to the mansion estate, becoming his new cocotte- or kept woman. In the new mansion, Coco kept the horses, and it wasn’t long before she became an experienced horseman as well. Now, just two years out of the orphanage, Coco was socializing with the wealthiest people in France. She was also gaining the confidence to do things differently- including in her fashion, and was getting noticed.

The predominant style at the time among the elite was bulky, long dresses, and tightly bound corsets. Coco found this to be ridiculous, uncomfortable, and impractical and would not participate, refusing to be a slave to the fashion of her era. This rebelliousness peaked, and she really broke grounds later, when she wore altogether men’s attire to compete in a derby, along with one of her stylish self-made hats. Balsan endulged Coco’s sense of fashion and gave Coco a room in the mansion to continue to make her own hats, as she would as a child with her Aunt Louise. Coco wasn’t satisfied with doing this as a hobby, however, and wanted it to be her profession.

She knew that she couldn’t open a store by herself with her background, so she needed someone to want that for her and to help her to achieve it. Then she met Arthur Edward “Boy” Capel, who was a good friend of Balsan, similarly a polo player and playboy, but was even richer. By 1909, Coco was mistress to both of the men. Capel was self-made and, soon after the affair began, saw that familiar drive in Coco. Coco knew he would be the perfect man to help her to get what she most wanted.

One day, she left a note for Balsan. She thanked him and explained that she was leaving with Capel because she loved him. The two lovebirds went to Paris, and Coco was soon socializing with the most well-connected and sophisticated of all of France. She didn’t abandon Balsan completely, however. The two stayed in contact, and it was a deal made between Capel and Balsan, that would fund Coco’s very first venture- a hat shop.

The hat shop was a success. Coco’s flair for the practical and simplistic was very well-received as an alternative to Paris’ usual eccentric style. This was only the beginning for the budding businesswoman. Not long after, and again with the financial backing of both men, Coco opened up a second Chanel location in a wealthy seaside tourist town, Deauville, Normandy. This boutique would be the first Chanel location, not to just sell hats, but would also sell clothes.

Coco created her first couture line by herself with the inspiration of allowing women to look stylish while remaining comfortable, stressing practicality, and removing the frills. The collection was a success, leaving young Coco thrilled. Unfortunately, this joy was cut short, as World War 1 began soon-after, leaving little time for high fashion. Cunning Coco, however, thought quickly and capitalized on this for her business. She began to design new wartime fashions in her signature practical styles and fabrics. Coco also started to use jersey fabric-otherwise used in men's underwear- to make dresses because that was what was most accessible. She created a whole collection with the fabric, which was another huge success. This gave her the confidence, to expand further, even in wartime, and in 1915, Coco opened another boutique in Biarritz.

With the addition of her third store, Coco gained financial independence. Capel took note one day, saying to her, “I thought I was giving you a play-thing. I gave you freedom.” The House of Chanel was now fully established. The war ended and Capel and Coco made it through. Capel hit Coco with his own bomb, however, soon after when he told Coco that he planned to marry the daughter of a lord- a beautiful, aristocratic, English woman. Coco was devastated. But still, their affair lived on, even after the wedding, until it no longer could. Shortly after his marriage, Capel was killed in a car crash, leaving both his new wife and doting mistress heartbroken. Coco blamed the social elites for the loss and decided that her revenge would be to join high society and make it worship her.

Coco began by fantasizing and reimagining her childhood. She wanted a great story to share. She then moved her Chanel boutiques to bigger and more luxurious locations, including 31 Rue Cambon St. in Paris- a location she’d always dreamed of and is still open today. Furthermore, she upgraded her apartment to the luxurious Ritz Carlton Hotel, where she would establish herself in high society by mingling and having a slew of affairs with the most wealthy people to stay in Paris. This included British dignitaries the Duke of Westminster and Prince of Wales, Edward VIII. 

Throughout these charades, Chanel was still deeply invested in the House of Chanel and continued to innovate, soon coming out with her first signature perfume, and her styles, which were becoming more and more popular in Europe’s mainstream. It was 1926 that Coco came out with the ever-so-popular Little Black Dress. It was a hit, and Vogue predicted that it would soon become the uniform for all women of taste. She was also the first in fashion to put women in chic trousers, so we all have Chanel to thank for that.

By having both a successful career and a liberated love-life, Coco Chanel embodied the aspirations of the post-war woman. Then, in 1939 World War Two struck. Coco’s clients now begged her to keep her stores open for morale. Unfortunately, after the Nazi’s attacked and invaded Paris, Coco was left with no choice but to close all but one perfume shop, and laid off all of her staff. Coco fled the area, along with much of Paris, but returned to the Ritz when she felt confident that she could steer her House through another World War.

Coco returned to an entirely different Paris-now occupied by the Nazi’s. Coco was also at this point 56 years old and having a hard time coping with her aging. It was then she met Baron Hans Gunther von Dincklage- a German officer, Nazi spy, and 13 years her junior. Coco dined with him, asking for his help in releasing her nephew, who was detained by the Nazi party. During their negotiations, the two became lovers. With him by her side and with Coco’s more senior Nazi connections, Coco was allured her to become involved in a sinister plot with the Nazi party.

Coco was convinced that her English connections through the Duke and the Prince- which included at one point even meeting that Winston Churchill-gave her the wherewithal to handle the British better than the Nazi’s commanding officers, so she met with Hitler’s main advisors to come up with a plan against the British. This plan would become known as Modal Hoot. Its full details are still undisclosed, but it is thought that Coco was to be used as bait to lure Churchill into a meeting, where he would be persuaded to make peace on terms that were favorable to the Nazis.

Coco traveled to Spain, where she met with someone who was believed would be able to set up a meeting between her and Churchill. Things didn’t go as planned, as he claimed that Churchill was too ill to see anyone. That’s where the plot ended. Coco, however, was now on record as having collaborated with the Nazis.

In 1944, the Allies operation overlord was put into action. It was successful and Paris was liberated! Coco watched it unfold from a balcony, sensing the possibility of danger to come. The Nazi officers were questioned by the Allies and their collaborators were outed. As a form of public humiliation, female collaborators had their heads shaved and were paraded around France. Coco knew that as the lover of a German officer she was vulnerable to this, and considering that her name was down as an agent to the Nazi’s in Operation Modal Hoot, she was sure to be found guilty in collaboration.

She was right. Two weeks later, two men arrived at the Ritz with an arrest order for Coco, who was named a Nazi Spy. Coco was to be paraded and humiliated as a Nazi. Lucky for her, however, she was never convicted and instead released from capture only a few hours later. The reason, she would never denounce, but some say that it was because she knew too much about the British elites and others claim that Winston Churchill himself intervened on her behalf. Whatever the reason, Chanel avoided public humiliation. This wasn’t enough, however, as Coco’s reputation with the French was now soiled.

The French turned against her, and made it unsafe for Coco to remain in Paris any longer. Coco fled to Switzerland, where her German lover, Spatz, was waiting for her. Coco had now effectively lost the two things that mattered most to her: her reputation, and her Empire. She stopped designing altogether and lived comfortably on the fortune that she made selling perfume to the Nazi officers’ wives during the war.

She kept up with French fashion post-war and despised what she saw. By this time, a man-Christian Dior-had become the biggest name in women’s fashion and popularized similarly uncomfortable styles to what had been popular before the reign of the House of Chanel. She saw it as a digression in all she had worked so hard for. Coco knew that women would soon be ready to ditch these styles and return to her more practical fashion, and began to think fashion once again.

At 73 years old, Coco Chanel returned to Paris-where she would launch her first post-war collection. She saw this as her most important show yet because it could lead to either a triumphant comeback or public humiliation. The European reactions were not favorable. The French press had clearly not yet forgiven Coco for her collaborations with the Nazis, and the British called it tired and too similar to her pre-war fashions. Luckily, overseas responded favorably. The American working women adored Chanel’s simplistic styles and practical fits, and even made a movie to commemorate the life of the House’s iconic founder. America kept the House of Chanel afloat during this period, and in time, as Coco continued to improve her styles, Europe would come around to appreciate this fashion powerhouse once again.

Coco Chanel-now a millionaire after having risen from the poorhouse, had all the success she had ever dreamed of, but suffered from severe loneliness in her last years. She says, “There is nothing worse than solitude. Solitude can help a man realize himself; but it destroys a woman.” At 88, her lovers had long passed, and she longed for love above all else, when she died at her apartment at the Ritz, with only her housemaid by her side.

Check out this documentary for more information if you're interested.