Chanel’s Riviera: Glamour, Decadence, and Survival in Peace and War, 1930–1944 by Anne de Courcy.- 2021' A Paris in July 2024 Work

Chanel’s Riviera: Glamour, Decadence, and Survival in Peace and War, 1930–1944 by Anne de Courcy.- 2021  - A Paris in July 2024 Work

Paris in July 2024

 Paris in July does not just include books. Contributions on your Paris vacation, your favourite meal or restaurant, French movies, music, art, Parisian history and more are very 

Coco Chanel 

Born August 19, 1893 Saumur, France

Died January 10, 1971 Paris 

Events During 1940 

12 June: The 51st Highland Division surrendered to German forces due to being surrounded.

13 June: Paris was declared an open city by the French government as the government fled to Bordeaux.

14 June: German troops entered the French capital of Paris.

16 June: French Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain became the prime minister of France, replacing Paul Reynaud. Operation Aerial and Operation Cycle took place by evacuating around 150,000 Allied soldiers from French ports of Cherbourg, St. Malo, Brest, St. Nazaire, La Pallice, Nantes, and Le Havre.

17 June: Petain asked Germany for armistice terms. Finishing off some Allied resistance, the Germans crossed the river Loire and reached the Swiss frontier.

18 June: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met in Munich Germany. General de Gaulle told the people of France on a broadcast from London on the BBC to resist the Germans.

22 June: France signed an armistice with Germany.

23 June: Adolf Hitler toured captured Paris.

24 June: The French officially surrendered at Compiegne, the site of the German World War I surrender

Chanel’s Riviera: Glamour, Decadence, and Survival in Peace and War, 1930–1944 by Anne de Courcy is primarily set in the French Riviera.  The Riviera was during the years of the book a playground and a retreat for the rich of Paris and England.

" In this captivating narrative, Chanel’s Riviera explores the fascinating world of the Cote d’Azur during a period that saw the deepest extremes of luxury and terror in the twentieth century.

The Cote d’Azur in 1938 was a world of wealth, luxury, and extravagance, inhabited by a sparkling cast of characters including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Joseph P. Kennedy, Gloria Swanson, Colette, the Mitfords, Picasso, Cecil Beaton, and Somerset Maugham. The elite flocked to the Riviera each year to swim, gamble, and escape from the turbulence plaguing the rest of Europe. At the glittering center of it all was Coco Chanel, whose very presence at her magnificently appointed villa, La Pausa, made it the ultimate place to be. Born an orphan, her beauty and formidable intelligence allured many men, but it was her incredible talent, relentless work ethic, and exquisite taste that made her an icon.

But this wildly seductive world was poised on the edge of destruction. In a matter of months, France surrendered to the Germans and the glamour of the pre-war parties and casinos gave way to the horrors of evacuation and the displacement of thousands of families during World War II. From the bitter struggle to survive emerged powerful stories of tragedy, sacrifice, and heroism.

Enriched by original research and de Courcy’s signature skill, Chanel’s Riviera brings the experiences of both rich and poor, protected and persecuted, to vivid life." From the Publisher Macmillan

The book focuses on the rich and famous.  Edward VIII and his wife Walace Simpson, Somerset Maugham and the various romantic partners of Coco Chanel are the most featured persons.  Included are details of Coco's involvement with a Nazi major and her life in the Ritz. There is historical data on Vichey France and the Germans in the Riviera.  When advised to leave by their government some wealthy British residents drove their Rolls limousines into the sea rather than let Germans or Italians get them. For those who stayed, getting food could be a challenge except for the rich.

We also learn of both the massive retreat from Paris as well as those who accepted German victory and used it as an excuse to steal the property of French Jews.  In this book Coco comes across as an oportunist at times and at times genuinely kind.

"Anne de Courcy is a well-known writer, journalist and book reviewer. In the 1970s she was Woman’s Editor on the London Evening News until its demise in 1980, when she joined the Evening Standard as a columnist and feature-writer. In 1982 she joined the Daily Mail as a feature writer, with a special interest in historical subjects, leaving in 2003 to concentrate on books, on which she has talked widely both here and in the United States.

A critically-acclaimed and best-selling author, she believes that as well as telling the story of its subject’s life, a biography should depict the social history of the period, since so much of action and behaviour is governed not simply by obvious financial, social and physical conditions but also by underlying, often unspoken, contemporary attitudes, assumptions, standards and moral codes.

Anne is the Chairman of the Biographers’ Club; and a past judge of their annual Prize. Her recent biographies, all of which have been serialised, include THE VICEROY’S DAUGHTERS, DIANA MOSLEY and DEBS AT WAR and SNOWDON; THE BIOGRAPHY, written with the agreement and co-operation of the Earl of Snowdon. Based on Anne’s book, a Channel 4 documentary “Snowdon and Margaret: Inside a Royal Marriage”, was broadcast on Wednesday 25th June 2008 at 9pm.

THE FISHING FLEET: HUSBAND-HUNTING IN THE RAJ, was published in July 2012. Her most recent book, MARGOT AT WAR: LOVE AND BETRAYAL IN DOWNING STREET, 1912-1916, published in November 2014, was shortlisted for the Paddy Power Political Book of the Year award." From the author’s website

Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda K. Garelick- 2014- 732 Pages - A Paris in July Work

Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda K. Garelick- 2014- 732 Pages - A Paris in July Work

Paris in July 2024

 Paris in July does not just include books. Contributions on your Paris vacation, your favourite meal or restaurant, French movies, music, art and more are very welcome.

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel

Born August 19, 1893 Saumur, France

Died January 10, 1971 Paris 

On July First our youngest daughter graduated from medical school,. After the ceremony the family had an observational luncheon at an elegant Manila restaurant.  The graduate was wearing  a little black dress and a string of pearls.  I know Mademoiselle Chanel would have approved.

Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda K. Garelick- 2014- 732 Pages - is a brilliant account of the life of Chanel and the era in which she lived and reigned.

Coco Chanel transformed forever the way women dressed. Her influence remains so pervasive that to this day we can see her afterimage a dozen times while just walking down a single street: in all the little black dresses, flat shoes, costume jewelry, cardigan sweaters, and tortoiseshell eyeglasses on women of every age and background. A bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume is sold every three seconds. Arguably, no other individual has had a deeper impact on the visual aesthetic of the world. But how did a poor orphan become a global icon of both luxury and everyday style while achieving incredible wealth? How did she develop such vast, undying influence? And what does our ongoing love of all things Chanel tell us about ourselves? These are the mysteries that Rhonda Garelick unravels.

Chanel was born into poverty in rural France, abandoned to an orphanage with her sisters by her father, at 19 she attracted the attention of a wealthy man who sponsored her as a milliner. She gave her hats to high fashion wealthy Parisian ladies, soon her sponsor set her up in a shop. 

At age 23 Chanel met a young French ex-cavalry officer and textile heir, Étienne Balsan. At the age of twenty-three, Chanel became Balsan's mistress, supplanting the courtesan Émilienne d'Alençon as his new favourite. For the next three years, she lived with him in his château Royallieu near Compiègne, an area known for its wooded equestrian paths and the hunting life.It was a lifestyle of self-indulgence. Balsan's wealth allowed the cultivation of a social set that reveled 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. Balsan needed a heir and his family would never have accepted Chanel as a wife.  He married an appropriate woman and continued his relationship with Chanel.  This began a pattern of relationships with extremely wealthy men.

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 1910 and opened a boutique at 21 rue Cambon, Paris, named Chanel Modes.[29] As this location already housed an established clothing business, Chanel sold only her millinery creations at this address. Chanel's millinery career bloomed once theatre actress Gabrielle Dorziat wore her hats in Fernand Nozière's play Bel Ami in 1912. Subsequently, Dorziat modelled Chanel's hats again in photographs published in Les Modes.

In Biarritz Chanel met an expatriate aristocrat, the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia. They had a romantic interlude, and maintained a close association for many years afterward. By 1919, Chanel was registered as a couturière and established her maison de couture at 31 rue Cambon, Paris.

In 1918, Chanel purchased the building at 31 rue Cambon, in one of the most fashionable districts of Paris. In 1921, she opened an early incarnation of a fashion boutique, featuring clothing, hats, and accessories, later expanded to offer jewellery and fragrances. By 1927, Chanel owned five properties on the rue Cambon, 

In the spring of 1920, Chanel was introduced to the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky by Sergei Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes. During the summer, Chanel discovered that the Stravinsky family sought a place to live, having left the Russian Soviet Republic after the war. She invited them to her new home, Bel Respiro, in the Paris suburb of Garches, until they could find a suitable residence.They arrived at Bel Respiro during the second week of September 1919  and remained until May 1921.She developed a romantic relationship with Igor Stravinsky during this time, but the affair was brie Chanel also guaranteed the new (1920) Ballets Russes production of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps ('The Rite of Spring') against financial loss with an anonymous gift to Diaghilev.  In addition to turning out her couture collections, Chanel threw herself into designing dance costumes for the Ballets Russes. In the years 1923–1937, she collaborated on productions choreographed by Diaghilev and dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, notably Le Train bleu, a dance-opera; Orphée and Oedipe Roi.

1922, at the Longchamps races, Théophile Bader, founder of the Paris Galeries Lafayette, introduced Chanel to businessman Pierre Wertheimer. Bader was interested in selling Chanel No. 5 in his department store In 1924, Chanel made an agreement with the Wertheimer brothers, Pierre and Paul, directors since 1917 of the eminent perfume and cosmetics house Bourjois. They created a corporate entity, Parfums Chanel, and the Wertheimers agreed to provide full financing for the production, marketing, and distribution of Chanel No. 5. The Wertheimers would receive seventy percent of the profits, and Théophile Bader twenty percent. For ten percent of the stock, Chanel licensed her name to Parfums Chanel and withdrew from involvement in business operations. Later, unhappy with the arrangement, Chanel worked for more than twenty years to gain full control of Parfums Chanel. She said that Pierre Wertheimer was "the bandit who screwed me".

After devopiing a relationship with the Duke of Westminster, the wealthiest man in England she began to favor right wing political views.

Garelick unravels the controversies surrounding Chanel's relationship during W.W. Two when she lived in the Ritz Hotel surrounded by high ranking Nazis while having a romance with a German major, a Baron.  

There is much more in this marvelous book.

Rhonda Garelick is dean of the School of Art and Design History and Theory, at Parsons School of Design/The New School in New York. She’s the author of three books, and writes on fashion and cultural politics for New York Magazine, The New York Times and many other publications. Garelick received her B.A. and Ph.D. in comparative literature and French from Yale.

The Chanel Sisters by Judithe Little - 2020

 The Chanel Sisters by Judithe Little - 2020

In July of 2015  I read and was fascinated by Mademoiselle Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda Garelick.  For sure Coco Chanel (1883 to 1971)  is one of if not the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century. Worldwide her influence on fashion is tremendous.  When I started reading Garelick's superb biography I knew very little about Coco Chanel.    Upon reaching the end I felt I had been taken deeply into the psyche and life of an incredibly creative woman, a business genius who created from nothing a fashion and perfume empire worth billions of dollars, a woman who began life as an orphan and ended it atop the fashion universe.  I also saw a complex, deeply troubled and very much a flawed woman.  I admired her to a degree but found her often very selfish, insecure and I find her anti-Semiticism despicable.  I am convinced by the information in this book that Chanel did not just collaborate with the Nazis but tried to use the antiJewish laws they put in place to cheat the Jewish family that bought ninety percent of the rights to her famous perfume, Chanel # 5 from her.  

Coco (Gabrilla) Chanel is the most influential fashion designer of all times.  In the side bar of my blog there are four writers wearing Chanel inspired clothing.  She, as vividly 

potrayed in Judithe Little’s marvelous histotical fiction, rose from the depths of poverty to incredible wealth based on her talent, drive and creativity.  

I greatly enjoyed Reading The Chanel Sisters by Judithe Little.

The Three Chanel Sisters - abandoned by their father, their mother deceased were left in a Pensionnat, an orphange/ School run by Catholic  nuns.  

September 11, 1882: Julia-Berthe Chanel is born 

August 19, 1883: Gabrielle Chanel, later known as Coco, is born 

June 14, 1887: Antoinette Chanel is born

1902 (est.) Coco and Antoinette leave the Pensionnat and begin to work as seamstresses, for which they were trained.  From this humble start, with the help of a very wealthy man, Coco will build her huge  fortune.  She learned  the hard way to never rely totolly on anyone else.  Men will leave you, just as her father did her and her sisters, marry somone else or die. She liked her men tall, rich, thin and with a title. She never married.

There is a very useful timeline included at the close of The Chanel Sisters, from which the dates above are taken.

The story is told from the point of view of Antoinette Chanel.  Unlike Coco, not much is known about her  personal life.  Little  creates romances she might have had from what might have developed from the wealthy men she met through working as Coco’s second in charge.  It was exciting to see the sucess of Coco, starting out as just a hat maker and getting wealthier by the day as she expands into clothing.  

The story ends  just after May 2, 1921: Antoinette Chanel dies in Buenos Aires at the former Majestic Hotel. The cause of death is listed as “intoxicación,” or poisoning.  Little creates a very exciting but tragic account of why she was there.

We do miss out on the further huge sucess of Coco, her rise to international super star status as well as her possible flirtation  with The Nazis during World War Two, her post year time living in Switzerland and her return to France. 

“Judithe is the award-winning author of two historical novels, The Chanel Sisters and Wickwythe Hall. 

She grew up in Virginia and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. After studying at the Institute of European Studies and the Institut Catholique in Paris, France, and interning at the U.S. Department of State, she earned a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law where she was on the Editorial Board of the Journal of International Law and a Dillard Fellow. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and three children, where she is working on her third novel. When she’s not writing or practicing law, Judithe enjoys riding horses, reading, scouring the fields during Round Top Antiques Week, and volunteering. “ from judithelittle.COM 

The Queen of Paris- A Novel of Coco Chanel by Pamela Binnings Ewen - 2020

The Queen of Paris- A Novel of Coco Chanel by Pamela Binnings Ewen - 2020

Paris in July - Hosted by Thyme for Tea

My readings so far for Paris in July 2020

1. Forain” - a set in Paris Short Story by Mavis Gallant
2. “Winter Rain” - a Short story by Alice Adams about an American woman living in Paris after World War Two
3. Marc Chagall by Jonathan Wilson
4. Missing Person by Patrick Modiano
5. “Sisters” by Elizabeth Taylor.
6. Madame de Mauves - a set in Paris Novella by Henry James - 1874
7. The Queen of Paris- A Coco Chanel Novel by Pamela Binnings Ewen - 2020



During  Paris in July 2015  I read and was fascinated by Mademoiselle Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda Garelick.  For sure Coco Chanel (1883 to 1971)  is one of if not the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century. Worldwide her influence on fashion is tremendous.  When I started reading Garelick's superb biography I knew very little about Coco Chanel.    Upon reaching the end I felt I had been taken deeply into the psyche and life of an incredibly creative woman, a business genius who created from nothing a fashion and perfume empire worth billions of dollars, a woman who began life as an orphan and ended it atop the fashion universe.  I also saw a complex, deeply troubled and very much a flawed woman.  I admired her to a degree but found her often very selfish, insecure and I find her anti-Semiticism despicable.  I am convinced by the information in this book that Chanel did not just collaborate with the Nazis but tried to use the antiJewish laws they put in place to cheat the Jewish family that bought ninety percent of the rights to her famous perfume, Chanel # 5 from her.

After finishing Gatelick's biography I did not really have any plans to read another biography of Coco Chanel.  I was, however, offered a copy of Coco Chanel A Lifs by Justine Picarde for the one day only price of $1.95 so I bought it.  Picarde's book begins with a glowing description of the beautiful highly refined full of very expensive pieces found at The House de Chanel at 31 Rue Cabon in Paris.  In including in the beautiful objects are a collection of books that Chanel is represented as having read.

"Two walls are lined with leather-bound books: antique editions of Plutarch, Euripides and Homer; the memoirs of Casanova and the essays of Montaigne; The Confessions of St Augustine and The Dialogues of Plato; the complete works of Maupassant and Molière in French, Shelley and Shakespeare in English"

There is one problem with this, Chanel read none of these books, they obviously were purchased just for appearance no doubt by an agent told to get some classic books.  Chanel as detailed by Garelick did not and probably could not have read such works.  The entire book is just a love letter to Coco, ignoring all her glaringly negative characteristics.  No mention is made of her early occasional work as a prostitute or her relentless gold digging, her willingness to sell herself, her fawning over rich men, her petty cruelty at times to employees.   Picarde does not deal clearly with the issue of Coco Chanel and the Nazis, missing entirely how the whole fashion ethos of Coco, including her famous emblem, can be seen as in sympathy with much of Nazi ideology.  There is no denying her romance with a Nazj officer, a baron, thirteen years her junior and her fraternizing with Nazis at The Ritz.  I would personally guess the German Baron was told to romance Chanel to see what use could be made of her.

Picarde's book is close to cloying.  It also provides little information on how Chanel developed her business empire.  She was a genius at marketing, using herself as an icon.
Coco Chanel changed the way women wanted to look.  She was a design genius, there is no denying this.

I cannot, I admit, get past an image of the beautiful impeccably groomed no doubt an admirer of the work of Coco, Iréne Némirovsky being put on a train to Auschwitz with other French Jews and Coco Chanel dancing in the Ritz, liking this idea.

Recently i was offered a Kindle edition of a just published historical novel by Pamela Binnings Ewen, The Queen of Paris- A Novel of Coco Chanel for $0.99.  It has very good reviews so I thought Paris in July 2020 might be a good time to renew my acquaintance with Coco Chanel.


Coco Chanel

Born August 19, 1883 - Saumur, France.

1913 - opens her first boutique.

1935 - has over 4000 employees, almost all women

1939 - closes her shops

During the World War Two years she lives in Paris in the very elite Ritz Hotel, headquarters for the Gestapo.  Coco worked as an espionage agent for the Germans.  She was instructed to use her contacts to spy on the British government and induce Spain to enter the war on the side of German.  In the novel, Coco is portrayed as being blackmailed by the Nazis.  Her nephew, who might have been her son, was in a German POW camp, ill with TB.  Ewen shows us details of her fight to keep control of her trademark brand, Chanel Number 5 Perfume, worth a great fortune.  In Ewen’s portrayal, she was told that if she cooperated her nephew would be released and she would maintain ownership of her perfume.

Even presents Coco as not wantiing  to do this but felt she had to.  She had an affair with a German count who was involved with the Gestapo.  Other works I have read on Chanel suggest no reluctance on her part.  Ewen  treats her anti-semeticism in detail.

During World War Two Coco lived in the very elite Hotel Ritz in
Paris, headquarters for the Gestapo.  When Paris was liberated she feared she would be treated as a collaborator, which for sure she was.

1945 moves to Switzerland, still very rich.

She returns to Paris for a fashion Show in 1954 but received a cold reception.

She began selling her fashions and perfume in The USA, she made billions.
Ewen gives us a close look at her numerous romances with rich married men.  She was always a mistress, never a wife. She liked her men tall, thin, rich and with a title.  Maybe The nephew who she supported long after war was the son of Coco and one of her wealthy partners.  Coco grew up in an Orphan’s home, put there by her father when her mother died.  Binnings lets us see how her early  years impacted her life.  She wanted above all to rise up to a rich elegant life.

She began her working life as a seamstress, a rich boyfriend set her up in a hat shop, from this humble start she changed permanently fashion styles world wide

Paris in July 2020 - Hosted by Thyme for Tea

Coco’s taste in everything was impeccable except maybe her fondness for the Nazis.  She was not like many female collaborators who slept with Germans to feed their children, Coco was in accord with their Ideology. She was not very political and may not have understood the full extent of the Holocaust but my take is that if she did it would not have mattered to her.  She had a high ranking Nazi lover, a Baron, of course.  Much younger than her and perhaps he was advised to get involved with her by the SS.  She also liked the uniforms, the emblems and the principal that the common people must serve the elite.  She tried to use anti-Jewish laws to cheat her Jewish financiers but they out smarted her.  Coco worshipped powerful men and the Nazis played into this.  She never met Hitler, if she had done so I am sure it would have been overwhelming for Coco.  She met and socialized with other top Nazis who turned the Ritz Hotel into a very high class Nazi barracks.  Coco kept living there.  There seems no reason to think she passed important information to the Germans but she did tell them all she knew about Winston Churchill who was a close friend of one of her long term lovers, the Duke of Westminister.  She probably had no information of real military value. She was possibly to be used as a go between in the never to happen surrender of England.  Much of her value to the Nazis was symbolic.

I enjoyed The Queen of Paris.  I am not totally convinced by Ewen’s version of Coco Chanel.  She had a dark side and to me Ewen’s portrait is a big shallow. First read Mademoiselle Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda Garelick, a truly great book.

Mel u

Mademoiselle Chanel by C. W. Gortner (2015, a novel)

My Prior Posts on Coco Chanel




Coco Chanel (1883 to 1971, France) is almost certainly the most influential fashion designer of the 20th century and in my not totally informed on the subject opinion, of all times.  I have images of three female writers on my sidebar, Irene Nemirovsky, Clarice Lispector and Nancy Mitford.  Each   of them, whether intentionally or not, dressed and strived to look like a Coco Chanel model.

I first became interested in Coco Chanel in July of 2015 when I read a brilliantly biography, Mademoiselle Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda K. Gareliot.  In addition to being an excellent account of her journey from an orphan raised by nuns to one of the wealthiest people in the world it explains why her designd both reflected and shapes the times. This is for sure the first book one should read about Chanel.  You may not close the book fully liking her but you will admire her determination.

C. W. Gortner in his novel Mademoiselle Chanel starts with the death of her mother.  Their father was not up to or interested in taking care of his three daughters and two sons.  Chanel ends up in an orphanage where she learns to sew.  When she was 18 she began to work a bit as a milliner and a night club singer.  Her beautiful looks attracted men and soon she was the mistress of a very wealthy man, living in his chateau.  The man is single but Coco is not a socially acceptable wife.  He does set her up in her first shop.  We see her develop her business, market her fashion line.  Her greatest business success was the developing of her perfume, Chanel Number Five.

The most controversial period of her life was during World War Two during the occupation of Paris by the Nazis. She continued to live in the ultra luxurious Hotel Ritz, even though it was the living quarters of the Nazi elite. Coco began a romance with a German officer, a count.  The widely held view is that the Germans thought Coco, friends with Winston Churchill, might have valuable information.  Coco felt she was being cheated by Jewish business partners and she was open to using Nazi policies to her advantage.  At the end of the war Coco feared being labeled a collaborator and fled
 to Switzerland for seven years.

I saw no errors or serious omissions in Gortner's novel.  Some of the secondary characters could have been better developed.  I enjoyed this book.  Gortner made me feel I knew Coco. I would be happy to read more of his work.

C.W. GORTNER holds an MFA in Writing with an emphasis in Renaissance Studies from the New College of California, as well as an AA from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco.
After an eleven year-long career in fashion, during which he worked as a vintage retail buyer, freelance publicist, and fashion show coordinator, C.W. devoted the next twelve years to the public health sector. In 2012, he became a full-time writer following the international success of his novels.
In his extensive travels to research his books, he has danced a galliard at Hampton Court, learned about organic gardening at Chenoceaux, and spent a chilly night in a ruined Spanish castle. His books have garnered widespread acclaim and been translated into twenty-one languages to date, with over 400,000 copies sold. A sought-after public speaker. C.W. has given keynote addresses at writer conferences in the US and abroad. He is also a dedicated advocate for animal rights, in particular companion animal rescue to reduce shelter overcrowding.
C.W. recently completed his fourth novel for Ballantine Books, about Lucrezia Borgia; the third novel in his Tudor Spymaster series for St Martin's Press; and a new novel about the dramatic, glamorous life of Coco Chanel, scheduled for lead title publication by William Morrow, Harper Collins, in the spring of 2015. 

Half-Spanish by birth and raised in southern Spain, C.W. now lives in Northern California with his partner and two very spoiled rescue cats.
(From cwgortner.com)

Mel u

Coco Chanel A Life by Justine Picardie (2010)

My Post on Mademoiselle Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda Garelick 

In July of this year I read and was fascinated by Mademoiselle Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda Garelick.  For sure Coco Chanel (1883 to 1971)  is one of if not the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century. Worldwide her influence on fashion is tremendous.  When I started reading Garelick's superb biography I knew very little about Coco Chanel.    Upon reaching the end I felt I had been taken deeply into the psyche and life of an incredibly creative woman, a business genius who created from nothing a fashion and perfume empire worth billions of dollars, a woman who began life as an orphan and ended it atop the fashion universe.  I also saw a complex, deeply troubled and very much a flawed woman.  I admired her to a degree but found her often very selfish, insecure and I find her anti-Semiticism despicable.  I am convinced by the information in this book that Chanel did not just collaborate with the Nazis but tried to use the antiJewish laws they put in place to cheat the Jewish family that bought ninety percent of the rights to her famous perfume, Chanel # 5 from her.  

After finishing Gatelick's biography I did not really have any plans to read another biography of Coco Chanel.  I was, however, offered a copy of Coco Chanel A Lifs by Justine Picarde for the one day only price of $1.95 so I bought it.  Picarde's book begins with a glowing description of the beautiful highly refined full of very expensive pieces found at The House de Chanel at 31 Rue Cabon in Paris.  In including in the beautiful objects are a collection of books that Chanel is represented as having read.  

"Two walls are lined with leather-bound books: antique editions of Plutarch, Euripides and Homer; the memoirs of Casanova and the essays of Montaigne; The Confessions of St Augustine and The Dialogues of Plato; the complete works of Maupassant and Molière in French, Shelley and Shakespeare in English" 

There is one problem with this, Chanel read none of these books, they obviously were purchased just for appearance no doubt by an agent told to get some classic books.  Chanel as detailed by Garelick did not and probably could not have read such works.  The entire book is just a love letter to Coco, ignoring all her glaringly negative characteristics.  No mention is made of her early occasional work as a prostitute or her relentless gold digging, her willingness to sell herself, her fawning over rich men, her petty cruelty at times to employees.   Picarde does not deal clearly with the issue of Coco Chanel and the Nazis, missing entirely how the whole fashion ethos of Coco, including her famous emblem, can be seen as in sympathy with much of Nazi ideology.  There is no denying her romance with a Nazj officer, a baron, thirteen years her junior and her fraternizing with Nazis at The Ritz.  I would personally guess the German Baron was told to romance Chanel to see what use could be made of her.

Picarde's book is close to cloying.  It also provides little information on how Chanel developed her business empire.  She was a genius at marketing, using herself as an icon. 

Coco Chanel changed the way women wanted to look.  She was a design genius, there is no denying this.

I cannot, I admit, get past an image of the beautiful impeccably groomed no doubt an admirer of the work of Coco, Iréne Némirovsky being put on a train to Auschwitz with other French Jews and Coco Chanel dancing in the Ritz, liking this idea.

If you are interested in Coco Chanel, then by all means read Garelick's biography.  I cannot accept for those totally fascinated by Coco and wishing to read a largely panegyric book about her, endorse Parelick's book.  

Mademoiselle Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda K. Garelick(2014). A Post for Paris in July # 6

A question for participants  before I Start my Post

Who do you regard as the three most culturally important Parisians of the 20th century?

My picks are Coco Chanel, Marcel Proust, and Jean Paul Sarte

Paris in July # 6. 

Paris in July # 6. , hosted by Tamarra of Thyme for Tea, a blog I have followed for years, is one of my favorite book blog events.  It covers much more than literature and there are lots of wonderful participant posts online.

Paris in July # 6. has motivated me to read some very interesting works.

1.  "Baum, Gabriel, 1935" by Mavis Gilbert - A wonderful set in Paris short story

2.  "Two Friends" by Guy de Maupassant- Paris in July # 6. Requires reading de Maupassant!

3.  "Mildred Larson" by George Moore- What Paris Meant to the Irish

4.  "The Parisian Stage" by Henry James - an illuminating essay

5.  "The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls" by Marcel Aymé- a new to me writer I will return to

6.   Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris, 1932 by Francine Prose - interesting 

7.  Shocking Paris Soutine, Chagall and the Outlaw Art of Montaparrne by Stanley Meisler-a 

     Well done account of Yiddish emigre artists in Paris

8.  Short Stories about Cats by Three Classic French authors 

9.  Suite Francaise by Iréne Némirovsky- a true masterwork. Paris under the Germans

10.  The End of Evil Ways by Honoré de Balzac

Coco Chanel lived 1883 to 1971

Coco Chanel supported the Nazis. This brief very well done article, fully substantiated and explained in Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History, answers one of the biggest questions about Coco Chanel. She did  support the Nazis, collaborated with them not out of need but because it suited her, and many say spied for them.  I put this upfront as many may lose interest in her upon knowing this.

Mademoiselle Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda K. Garlick is a brilliant work of biography but it is so much more.  I never would have dreamed I could have been so fascinated by the biography of a designer.  I learned from this book how Coco Chanel went from a poverty stricken childhood, orphaned at an early age, with little education, to working as an occasional prostitute to the most influential fashion entrepreneur and designer ever in the history of the world.  She became in today's money a Billionaire, propelled by her creation of her perfume, Chanel # 5.  She had romances with Russian Grand Dukes, English Royalty, and an assortment of men, most were rich.  Some have claimed that she was bisexual because she probably slept in the same bed with women she was close to but Garelick does not leap from this to the suggestion that  Chanel was also a lesbian and neither do I.

Garelick explains marvelously how Chanel got her start.  She was a mistress of a hyper-wealthy French aristocrat (you need to read the book just for all her love affairs) living in one of his chateaus.  She was incredibly beautiful but she knew she was just one of many women to her protector.  She began sort of as a hobby to make hats.   The high society women  she mingled with, her first work was as a seamstress so there were class issues, wanted to wear a hats like the ones Coco did.  She persuaded her protector, Coco sought out wealthy men, to set up a hat shop for her and it became very successful. She marketed her hats, and soon her dresses, by giving the hats away to Countesses, actresses, rich much in society ladies and soon every fashion conscious lady in Paris wanted a Coco Chanel hat.  Soon she began to make suits for women.  Her models were all slender relatively flat chested women, as was Coco.  Soon she open her first shop in Paris.  There is so much in the story of her ride to world class business woman (at a time when women were supposed to stay home). I really do not feel I can go into it much.

     Coco Chanel respected the beauty of Elizabeth Talyor

      But did not feel her body was right for her designs 

Her fortune was made when she created her first perfume Chanel # 5.  Garelick explains how she marketed this and how she sold most of the rights to the profits to two very rich Jewish brothers, keeping only ten percent of the profits but just this generated billions.  

Coco wanted very much to marry into Royalty.  She tried very hard but never married.  She had issues brought on by her poverty and her father's abandoning her and her two sisters and two brothers.

The Duke of Westminster was one of Coco's numerous wealthy men

Coco's true Genius was in turning her self into a brand.  Just to show the domination of her work, the wife of the American president John F. Kennedy, was known for loving  ultra chic Chanel designs.  When she was in the car with her husband when he was assassinated, she was wearing a full Chanel suit and hat.  Chanel herself catered to wealthy clients but unlike all other designers she liked it when knock offs of her designs began to appear world wide.  She had her billions and now she wanted to conquer the world.  She knew the power of emblems, to making people feel they are part of an elite circle.  

In the very wealthy circles she traveled in and through the numerous very rich men she was linked with romantically, she became exposed to extreme right wing political ideology and anti-Semiticism.  Garelick shows us the pervasive hatred for Jews in France included Coco.  Coco came to feel her Jewish financiers had cheated her and this fueled her feelings.  As Coco got richer and richer she bought magnificent homes and maintained numerous luxurious apartments, her primary place of residence while in Paris was the Ritz Hotel.  She became a patron of the arts and attracted numerous sycophants.  She was so afraid her back woods brothers might embarrass her she put them on life time pensions on the condition they never come around her.  She did include her sisters in her work.

Coco had many fears.  She became more and more bitter and demanding as she aged and realized she would never marry. She became more and more snobbish and self obsessed.  She kept working, She loved her work.  She expanded into Jewlery, designed customs for Hollywood, she did not much like America, she considerd it a vulgar land, and the stage.  Even as she aged she retained her beauty and had many suitors.  Coco made herself and her life style into works of art.

  She could be very generous and a devoted friend but she was not that way with her 1000s of employees.  She did have a mean streak also. All the mostly female employees had to wear her clothes and have her body type.  She often advised women employees to look for a wealthy man  when they complained of financial issues. She liked tall slender athletic looking men, preferably with a title.

     The Legend Lives on

Her taste in everything was impeccable except maybe her fondness for the Nazis.  Garelick goes into real depth explaining why Coco was drawn to the Nazis.  She was not like many female collaborators who slept with Germans to feed their children, Coco was in accord with their Ideology. She was not very political and may not have understood the full extent of the Holocaust but my take is that if she did it would not have mattered to her.  She had a high ranking Nazi lover, a Baron, of course.  Much younger than her and perhaps he was advised to get involved with her by the SS.  She also liked the uniforms, the emblems and the principal that the common people must serve the elite.  She tried to use anti-Jewish laws to cheat her Jewish financiers but they out smarted her.  Coco worshipped powerful men and the Nazis played into this.  She never met Hitler, if she had done so I am sure it would have been overwhelming for Coco.  She met and socialized with other top Nazis who turned the Ritz Hotel into a very high class Nazi barracks.  Coco kept living there.  There seems no reason to think she passed important information to the Germans but she did tell them all she knew about Winston Churchill who was a close friend of one of her long term lovers, the Duke of Westminister.  She probably had no information of real military value. She was possibly to be used as a go between in the never to happen surrender of England.  Much of her value to the Nazis was symbolic.

It is felt by scholars that Coco was not charged as a colaborator for fear she could name too many others and for the very real wish of the French government to keep the prestige of the premier French brand unsullied.   Bottom line on this is that Coco wanted to be on the winning side, she had no issues with much of Nazi ideology, she loved the Coco like uniforms, she disliked Jews and the Nazis liked her.  She left France after the war and lived in Switzerland for a few years but ultimately returned to Paris.  

In an iinteresting note, when the American soldiers liberated Paris, she gave away bottles of her perfume to the soldiers, who lined up to get one of the trade mark bottles.

This book is really great.  I learned so much from it.  I have just scratched the surface in describing it.  

Coco Chanel just might be the culturally most important Parisian of the 20th century.  I asked my three  daughters, 17, 19, and 21 if they knew who Coco Chanel was and they said "the famous designer".  

Recently I have read and read about Clarice Lispector and Maeve Brennan, both clearly were very influenced in their dress and self presentation by the work and legend of Coco Chanel, just to give two example.

Mademoiselle Coco Chanel and the Pulse of history compelled me to read on, hours at a stretch.  

Garelick has fascinating ideas on the similarities in appeal of the brand of Chanel and fascism.  

You might not end up liking Coco Chanel but you will be fascinated by her story.

Mel u