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How the Wertheimer Family Took Control of Chanel

Since 1924, a quiet Jewish family has owned the iconic brand, despite their heritage once jeopardizing their ownership.

Holley Snaith | Historian
Lessons from History
7 min readJan 27, 2025

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Pierre Wertheimer at the Saint Cloud racecourse in May 1924, the same year he signed a contract with Coco Chanel establishing Les Parfums Chanel. Source: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

One afternoon in 1922, at the Longchamp Racecourse, amid the elegance of the Route des Tribunes, Théophile Bader, a prosperous French businessman, orchestrated an introduction that would change the course of fashion history. His friend, 38-year-old Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, was an ambitious French fashion designer attempting to maneuver the business world’s operations cleverly.

Searching for a way to build and expand her House of Chanel, the slim brunette turned to her friend Bader, the co-founder of Galeries Lafayette, an upscale French department store chain that opened in Paris in 1894, for help. Bader presented Coco to a 34-year-old French businessman named Pierre Wertheimer. This fateful meeting would lead to a partnership that forever redefined Chanel’s legacy and the world of luxury fashion.

The Beginnings of the Chanel Brand

On May 5, 1921, Coco Chanel marked a milestone in her storied career by launching her brand’s first perfume, Chanel №5, in honor of what Coco considered…

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Lessons from History
Lessons from History

Published in Lessons from History

Lessons from History is a platform for writers who share ideas and inspirational stories from world history. The objective is to promote history on Medium and demonstrate the value of historical writing.

Holley Snaith | Historian
Holley Snaith | Historian

Written by Holley Snaith | Historian

Holley Snaith is a historian who has worked at presidential libraries & been published on such platforms as PBS American Masters. Visit www.holleysnaith.com.

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