Five years ago, I wrote a blog by the same name. It was back in the days when I purposely limited my blogs to no more than five or six hundred words (my Millennial friends told me this was the “norm”). I’ve re-read some of those blogs and frankly, I’m embarrassed. First, my writing style has evolved (and hopefully, improved). Second, I could have added so much more interesting information had I not listened to my friends. Another difference between then and now is the number of images we used. Our blogs today use as many images as I can find that add value to the story. In the past, one or two images made it into the story. I guess this is what you call progress. So, we’ve gone back into the archives and picked out some of the more popular past blogs and I will be re-writing them to present to you with expanded content. We started with the blog, The Last Train Out of Paris (click here to read the blog) and today, you’ll visit with an icon of the fashion industry, Coco Chanel (1883-1971). She is clearly someone who many people have put on a pedestal as a result of her achievements. But hold on before you worship at the Chanel altar. Coco Chanel spent many of her later years trying to hide her secrets from the public and I suppose she succeeded since not many people are aware of her espionage activities with the Gestapo or her virulent anti-Semitic views.

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Did You Know?

Did you know that the first vestige of nighttime lighting in Paris was the result of an Italian entrepreneur named Laudati Caraffa? Up until the mid-seventeenth-century, Paris plunged into darkness after the sun set. Between then and when the sun rose, it was very dangerous to be on the streets of Paris. Robbers, wild animals, and worse, killers roamed the streets each night in search of their prey. Horse-drawn carriages had just been introduced into the city when Caraffa came up with the idea of lighting the way for the carriages and pedestrians. An employee of Caraffa’s business, The Center for Torch and Lantern Bearers of Paris, would carry a lantern and lead you down the streets for a price. These pre-Uber lantern carriers or torchbearers rented themselves out in fifteen-minute intervals for nominal fees and if others wanted to follow, there was no charge to them. Each of the lantern carriers was issued a number and wore distinctive uniforms. You showed up to a designated location and for a set fee, the carrier illuminated your path. Prior to this, only the rich could afford to do this by using a servant to carry the torch or lantern. Now, it was affordable for anyone without a private servant to be out after dark. It was one of the first steps towards supporting future public transportation as well as enhancing Paris commerce. King Louis XIV issued Caraffa the royal patent and it wouldn’t be long before the entire city truly became the city of light supported for the first time not by private investors but by municipality funds (i.e., taxes). Soon afterward, Paris nightlife exploded.

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“My Life Didn’t Please Me, So I Created My Life”

She was born in 1883 to Albert Chanel, an itinerant street vendor, and her mother was a laundry woman. Christened Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, her surname was misspelled as “Chasnel” on the birth certificate. After her mother died, eleven-year-old Gabrielle was sent to the Aubazine Convent, home of the Sacred Heart of Mary. While it was a stark, frugal, and disciplined life, the nuns taught Gabrielle how to sew. At eighteen, Gabrielle was too old to stay, and she got a job as a seamstress. In her off hours, Gabrielle began singing at local cabarets. She took the nickname “Coco.” Was it a name her father gave her (as she always said) or did it come from the songs, Ko Ko Ri Ko or Qui qu’a vu Coco that she often sang? Or better yet, perhaps it came from the French word, Cocotte, or “kept woman.” Coco figured out she was a marginal singer and moved to Paris at the age of twenty-three.

Coco Chanel learned quickly about boyfriends and benefits. After moving to Paris, Coco met a former cavalry officer, Étienne Balsan and became his mistress. Ensconced with Balsan for three years at his residence, Château de Royallieu, she shared him with his other mistress, Émilienne d’Alençon. Balsan introduced Coco to his best friend, Captain Arthur “Boy” Capel in 1908 and she soon began an affair with Boy. Capel was extremely wealthy, always impeccably dressed, and very handsome. Soon, he had Coco installed in his Paris apartment. Balsan, Capel, and Chanel all stayed good friends because “two gentlemen were outbidding for my hot little body.” The affair with Boy lasted nine years but never really broke off even after he married Lady Diana Wyndham. On 21 December 1919, Capel was killed in a car accident and Coco always said her life afterward was one of unhappiness.

Fashion Courtesan

Usually known for designing women’s fashions, Chanel also designed men’s apparel ⏤ usually modeling the clothes after what Boy wore. She opened her dress shop, La Maison Chanel, in 1918 at 31, rue Cambon where it remains today. Her philosophy was “simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.” Coco began designing hats while living with Balsan (probably in her spare time while Balsan was entertaining his other mistress). Her first hat boutique was located at 21, rue Cambon. Boy Capel financed his girlfriend’s first retail shops including one in Deauville in 1913. The second store on the border of Spain and France (Biarritz) was so successful that it only took one year to repay Capel. Coco met her next boyfriend, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, in Biarritz. She began to expand her merchandise into jewelry, handbags, and yes, perfume. Chanel was the first to introduce beads to dresses. The “Chanel” influence popularized sunbathing and suntans for the rich and famous. In 1913, Coco created the “little black dress” that remains popular today ⏤ “black wipes out everything else around.”

By 1918, Coco Chanel was wealthy. She owned five properties on Rue Cambon (nos. 23 through 31). She had 2,400 women working for her in twenty-six locations creating four hundred pieces of clothing for her semi-annual shows. Coco owned houses in Normandy, south of France, Pyrenees mountains, and Venice, Italy. Coco also maintained an apartment above the retail shop at 31, rue Cambon. Click here to see inside Coco’s apartment.

She moved into the Hôtel Ritz across the street on a permanent basis in 1935.

Inter-War Period

Chanel continued her pursuit of wealthy and influential men. Her affairs were meant to obtain personal wealth as well as social status. She had affairs with Igor Stravinsky (composer), Grand Duke Pavlovich (he showered her with cash, jewels, and Faberge eggs), and Paul Iribe (a rightwing publisher whom Chanel shared his anti-Semitic views). Coco’s good friend, Vera Lombardi, introduced Coco to the anti-Semitic Duke of Westminster whom she stayed with for ten years. In 1927, he financed the building of her house in the south of France. Coco never married the Duke ⏤ “There have been several Duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Chanel.” By this time, Chanel was running around with the English elite including Winston Churchill and the Prince of Wales (future King Edward VIII). Soon, the ladies of English high society were wearing Chanel dresses.

In 1921, Coco commissioned Ernest Beaux to create a perfume for La Maison Chanel. He gave her five samples to choose from and Coco picked the fifth bottle and from that time on, the perfume became known as Chanel No. 5 ⏤ five became her lucky number. Coco always rolled out her new collections on May 5th – the fifth month of the year. She needed financing, marketing, and distribution so she turned to Théophile Bader, co-founder of Galeries Lafayette (a large Paris department store). He introduced Coco to Pierre Wertheimer, a Jewish businessman. They created Parfums Chanel where Wertheimer owned 70% for manufacturing, financing, and marketing. Bader owned 20% for distribution rights, and Coco retained 10% for licensing and agreeing to withdraw from the perfume business. First problem: Wertheimer neglected to get the exclusive rights to the name, Chanel. Second problem: over time, Coco began to feel Pierre had taken advantage of her ⏤ Pierre was “the bandit who screwed me.” It didn’t help that Pierre was Jewish.

During 1931, Pavlovich introduced Coco to the American film producer, Samuel Goldwyn. He persuaded Coco to come to the United States twice a year to design costumes for his movie stars. He was willing to pay her US $1.0 million. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. Her philosophy of simple designs didn’t sit well with the stars or movie bosses ⏤ her designs weren’t sensational enough.

In May 1936, thousands of workers went on strike in support of socialism. Four thousand Chanel workers struck for higher wages and better benefits. They locked out all the customers and Coco felt betrayed ⏤ she blamed the Bolsheviks and Jews. Three years later, she closed the business and fired everyone without giving any notice. Perhaps Coco Chanel was getting her revenge?

Early War Years

After the occupation of France and Paris in mid-1940, the Vichy government began to enact its version of the Nuremburg Laws. Days before the Nazis marched into Paris, Pierre Wertheimer fled Paris for New York City. Before he left, Wertheimer transferred the perfume business to Félix Amiot, a manufacturer and Nazi collaborator. Most importantly, Amiot was considered to be an Aryan. After Wertheimer began to produce Chanel No. 5 in New York, Coco became aware of the sale to Amiot. In 1941, she wrote to the Nazis claiming the sale was fictitious and a ploy to get around the law that Jews could not own a business. Coco petitioned Vichy to get her business back. Amiot had falsified documentation showing the sale was legitimate. One of his companies built Junker aircraft for the Germans. So, the Germans’ decision came down to planes or perfume. Hitler chose airplanes and Coco lost that battle.

Coco met Hans Günther von Dincklage (1896-1974) and the two of them spent the war years in her Hôtel Ritz apartment. Dincklage, better known as “Spatz,” was a well-known Abwehr (German military intelligence) agent before the war. In other words, he spied for the Germans before they even stepped foot in Paris. He was married to Maximiliane von Schoenebeck, or “Catsy.” A problem came up once Hitler forbid Germans to marry a Jew ⏤ Catsy was Jewish. Despite a successful partnership spying with his wife in pre-war France, Spatz divorced Catsy but he continued to protect her throughout the years of occupation. Catsy’s spying for the Germans was not interrupted and after liberation, she was detained by the French for several years. Upon her release, Catsy was hired by Coco Chanel.

The Hôtel Ritz

The Germans immediately took over the Hôtel Ritz for senior officer living quarters. General Otto von Stülpnagel (Military Governor of France) and his assistant, Hans Speidel quickly settled into the hotel. They allowed certain privileged persons to retain apartments along the backside of the hotel overlooking Rue Cambon. Visiting Nazi dignitaries always had reserved suites available. Hermann Göring was given the Imperial Suite while Joachim von Ribbentrop, Albert Speer, and Wilhelm Frick had their favorites. Coco retained her apartment because of her relationship with Spatz. Her neighbors included the collaborators, Arletty (French actor) and Fern Bedaux. Coco never exited the hotel through the front entrance, always through the rear door onto Rue Cambon. If she went out the front, Coco was forced to walk by the storefront of her biggest competitor and that was never going to happen. Despite food rationing, the dining room at the Ritz always was stocked with the best food and beverages. Coco often dined in the Ritz along with high ranking Nazi officers and other notable collaborators. One night her verbal rage about Jews and homosexuals was so intense that it even surprised the Nazis.

Operation Modellhut

In early 1941, Spatz met with Hitler. His new orders were to work directly for Berlin and this propelled him to a senior level within the Abwehr. Returning to Paris, Spatz introduced Coco to his friend, Baron Louis de Vaufreland. The Nazis decided to recruit Coco because of her contacts in England including Churchill. They knew her nephew was a prisoner of war in Germany. They promised to release him if Coco would help them obtain some political information. Chanel agreed and became Abwehr agent F-7124. Her code name was “Westminster.” The first mission was to Madrid in August 1941 where she and Vaufreland met with British embassy officials. By the time she came back to Paris in late winter 1941, her nephew, André Palasse, had been released. Coco’s next mission was in late 1943 when she was asked to travel back to Madrid and meet with the British ambassador to Spain. Operation Modellhut, or Model Hat, was approved by Heinrich Himmler and he put one of his top men, SS-Brigadeführer Walter Schellenberg (1910-1952), in charge. Chanel was to inform Churchill that a group of German officers wanted to remove Hitler and end the war with England. She was to deliver a letter to Churchill requesting a meeting to persuade him to negotiate for peace. Vera Lombardi was used as the courier. Unfortunately, Lombardi denounced Coco and Spatz as Nazi spies and the British arrested Lombardi as a SS agent. The mission failed and it is not known whether the letter made it into Churchill’s hands.

Liberation and the Purge

In September 1944, Coco was ordered to appear before the Free French Purge Committee. She was released for lack of hard evidence and upon returning home, Coco told her niece, “Churchill had me released.” Historians claim Churchill was worried Chanel would be exposed as a Nazi sympathizer, collaborator, or a spy. The worst case was she might implicate top-level British officials, members of British high-society, and possibly, the royal family (the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were pro-Nazi).

Within hours of returning from the hearing, Coco packed up her Cadillac and left Paris for Lausanne, Switzerland where she lived in exile until her return to Paris in the mid-1950s. She came back to Paris once as a witness in the trial of her friend and fellow collaborator, Baron de Vaufreland. After her testimony, the judge said, “The answers Mademoiselle Chanel gave to the court were deceptive.” After several tries, Spatz finally sneaked into Switzerland and joined Coco in her villa where they stayed until she returned to Paris.

While in Switzerland, Coco began a competing perfume company to market and sell “Chanel Perfumes.” In 1947, Wertheimer and Chanel renegotiated their original deal. In return for signing over the legal rights to her name, Coco received US$400,000 in cash, a two percent royalty of all Chanel No. 5 sales, and a monthly stipend to cover all of her expenses until she died.

Ten years after leaving Paris, Coco returned to reinvigorate her fashion company (with Wertheimer’s financial support). The Americans and British welcomed her back with open arms. The French were a different story. The French media were not kind to Mademoiselle Chanel. In her later years, Coco was tyrannical and extremely lonely. She became a drug addict in 1935 and it only worsened through the years. On 10 January 1971, Coco Chanel died in her apartment at the Hôtel Ritz. Click here to watch a 1959 interview with Coco.

 

Aftermath

An elaborate memorial service was planned by President Pompidou’s wife. Coincidentally, right about the same time, French intelligence revealed damaging wartime documents that proved Coco’s complicity with the Nazis. The memorial service was abruptly cancelled.

Walter Schellenberg was tried as a war criminal and served six years. Released in 1951, he died of cancer the following year. Coco Chanel paid for his medical care, financially supported the family, and paid the funeral expenses. After she heard the former Nazi was writing a memoir, Coco paid off the family to ensure her name was never mentioned.

After being asked what she wore to bed, Marilyn Monroe said, “Only a few drops of Chanel No. 5.” Today, Pierre Wertheimer’s grandsons, Alain and Gérard, own the Chanel empire.

Coco Chanel was inventive and opportunistic. She was self-centered with a lethal wit, extreme sarcasm, and a maniacal destructiveness. One of Coco’s ugly traits was her virulent anti-Semitism (except when it came time to do business and make money). Colette once said that if Coco was to be described as an animal, she would be a small black bull. Click here to watch a 1969 interview with Coco.

Once the wartime documents were released by French intelligence, it became clear Coco Chanel, the fashion genius, could also attach Nazi collaborationist and spy to her resume.

✭  ✭  ★  Learn More About Coco Chanel   ✭  ★  ★

Chaney, Lisa. Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life. New York: Penguin Books, 2011.

Marx, Samuel. Queen of the Ritz. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1978.

Mazzeo, Tilar J. The Hotel on Place Vendôme: Life, Death, and Betrayal at the Hôtel Ritz in Paris. New York: Harper Perennial, 2014.

Vaughan, Hal. Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel’s Secret War. New York: Vintage Books, 2011.

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What’s New With Sandy and Stew?

For those of us who enjoy traveling, especially internationally, I’m thinking 2021 might be a wash-out. We had six international trips scheduled for 2020 and they were all cancelled. Looking forward to 2021, we had three international trips on the books. Well, the first one has now been axed⏤not a good sign.

I read an article the other day where predictions by several travel associations were not very reassuring. The Air Transport Association said air travel would not return to normal until 2023 at the earliest.

If we are “locked down” in 2021, you should expect to see the second volume of the Gestapo Occupation published next year.

Thank you to all of you who subscribe to our bi-weekly blogs. It seems there isn’t a day that goes by where we don’t increase our readership. Please let your history buff friends and family members know about our blogs.

Someone Is Commenting On Our Blogs

Do any of you remember reading my blog, I Was Looking Forward to a Quiet Old Age? (Click here to read the blog). It was based Etta Schiber’s book, Paris Underground. Etta and her friend, Kitty (real name: Kate Robin) were résistants in Paris during the Occupation. They were arrested by the Gestapo and Etta was ultimately exchanged for a captured Nazi spy. Unfortunately, there was little information available about the fate of Kitty or her small son.

I’d like to thank Thierry S. for contacting me regarding the blog. Thierry is Kate Robin’s grandson. He was gracious in explaining that Kate did survive as did her son, Len. Thierry is the son of Len and Mireille Fabre. Kate passed away in London in 1965 or 1966.

Several of our readers wanted to know what happened to Kitty/Kate and her son. Well, now we know.

Thank you, Thierry, for sharing this information and providing closure to your grandmother’s story. She was a very brave woman. Unfortunately, Thierry say his grandmother never told anyone about her wartime experience (probably why there is no information available). This was not uncommon and while Kate remained silent, we are fortunate to have Etta’s story indicating Thierry’s grandmother was a very brave woman.

If there is a topic you’d like to see a blog written about, please don’t hesitate to contact me.  I love hearing from you so keep those comments coming.

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