Chanel — The Biggest Fashion Brand That Supported Fascism
You know her as the embodiment of French high fashion, but Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel has more hidden in her past than she would have admitted during her lifetime. Her style and design put her at the very tip of Parisian culture, getting her in contact with the top echelon of the European elite. And yet in spite of her associations with composers, movie stars, royalty, and politicians, there is one connection that is often snubbed by the history books. In this story, we’ll see how Coco Chanel built a fashion empire that she eventually tried to leverage in service of the Third Reich.
Humble origins, big dreams
Coco Chanel was an innovative designer with many contributions to the world of fashion and beyond. From popularizing the suntan as a mark, not of the working class, but of beauty and the aristocracy, to finally ending the dogmatic century-long popularity of corsets.
Her beginnings, though, were quite humble. She was born in France in 1883 in poverty. And after the death of her mother, at age 12, her father sent her to live in an orphanage for girls, where she mastered sowing.
And after aging out of the orphanage, she found work as a seamstress, while singing on the side for some extra cash. Now Chanel was a smart woman and she was born with pretty good looks. So considering her circumstances, it should come as no surprise that she found herself a wealthy patron very early on. Her charms captured the heart of a very rich man, Etienne Balsan, the heir to the largest textile company in France that, among other things, produced uniforms for the French army. By 1906, when she was 23 years old, she had become his mistress. And through him, she began mingling with the upper class.
Two years later, Coco began an affair with one of Etiennei friends, an English aristocrat, and she would actually play them off of each other. They’d compete for her love by showering her with gifts and fulfilling her every wish. One of those wishes was to indulge Coco in her dream of opening a fashion boutique in Paris, which she did in 1910 thanks to funding from her wealthy lovers.
I smell money
Now, despite her patronage, Coco’s success was a product of her own skill. Her hats and dresses brought with them a unique and alluring style that attracted socialites from across Europe. What truly kickstarted her global ascent, however, was Chanel’s entry into the perfume business.
In 1921 Coco released her first fragrance, which you can probably recognize today: Chanel №5. Sold in a simple glass bottle, the perfume’s success helped to further spread Chanel’s fame across the world.
But as her ambitions expanded, Coco ran into a problem: selling fashion items and perfume in Paris was pretty straightforward while selling them throughout Europe and North America was not.
The capital required to build a global supply chain and distribution network was beyond even the means of Coco’s aristocratic friends, which is why she had no other choice but to turn to venture capital. Her connections did prove useful: she got in touch with Pierre Wisenheimer, the owner of an international conglomerate that sold perfumes and cosmetics in America and Europe. He was exactly the man that Coco needed, and together, they created Parfums Chanel, the company that would make Coco one of the richest women in the world within 10 years, even though she only owned 10% of the company. There was only one problem: Pierre was Jewish and Coco was one of the most fervent antisemites in Paris.
Coco becomes a spy
At first, Coco was willing to put her prejudice on the side since she needed Pierre’s help to establish a global business. But once things got rolling, she increasingly started viewing him as a leech who was unjustly benefiting from her ideas. Her views on Jewish-owned businesses were becoming increasingly common during the 1930s, especially after Hitler’s rise to power in Germany in 1933. Coco’s chance for revenge against Pierre would take another seven years to emerge.
In the wake of the German Blitzkrieg and the rapid defeat of France, Coco saw an opportunity. In June the 14th German forces entered Paris, taking control of the city. Coco closed her stores, putting 4,000 women out of work in the process, and moved in at the Hotel Ritz.
Officially, she declared that now was not the time for fashion, but her move had different motives. The Hotel Ritz was the headquarters for many high ranking German officials in occupied France.
It was here that Chanel would first meet Baron ans Günther von Dincklage, personally appointed as a special attache by Joseph Goebbels. In other words, he was a Germans spy. Chanel quickly fell in love with Dincklage and the two of them remained together for many years after the war. His associations with the Abwehr, the German intelligence service, introduced Chanel to the Nazi war efforts. In 1941 she officially joined the German cause to aid in their wartime plan. She became agent F-7124, with the codename Westminster, based on her previous relationship with the Duke of Westminster.
Coco on a mission to conquer the world
From 1941 on, Chanel was deployed to Madrid to connect with allied personnel under the guise of business plans. Of course, Coco wasn’t helping the Nazis out of the kindness of her heart: she was hoping they would restore her full ownership in Parfumas Chanel under their policy of Aryanization. Unluckily for her, Pierre was smart. He had seen the writing on the wall and had given control of the company to a Christian friend of his before promptly fleeing to America.
For several years, Coco would try reclaiming her business by collecting intelligence from the Nazis. But ultimately, her efforts were in vain. By 1944 it had become clear that the tide of war was turning in favor of the Allies. In a last-ditch effort, Chanel was tasked by Heinrich Himmler himself to negotiate a surrender to the allies, when Stalin’s resurgent Red army seemed all but certain to make its way to Berlin. Her mission was ultimately a failure, and by the time Paris had been liberated, Coco had fled to Switzerland with Baron Dincklage.
Now after the French liberation, 10,000 Parisians were tried for treason; Chanel was not one of them, having only been questioned and then released due to a lack of evidence. It is rumored that Winston Churchill personally intervened to keep her safe, since she knew so much about the British elite and high ranking politicians.
After the war, Chanel tried suing Pierre in the last effort to reclaim her company. Ultimately, they came to an agreement reducing her stake in the company to just 2% and merging the perfume business with the fashion business. Pierre would cover all of Coco’s expenses for the rest of her life and he assisted her comeback to the fashion world a decade later in 1954. With her passing in 1971, the company became fully owned by the Wertheimers. And to this day it is owned by Pierre’s grandsons.
At the end of the day, it is understandable why they chose not to publicize Coco’s past. It would have almost certainly destroyed her brand and harmed their profits, with little to gain if people knew of her work as a spy.
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