Coco Chanel: How World Wars Built a Fashion Empire

By Courtney Lyons

This was originally submitted as my final paper for Barnard College- Columbia University’s “Consumer Culture in Modern Europe ” class on December 12th, 2019. The original footnotes style is not supported on this platform. Please excuse the makeshift citations.

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel is one of, if not the most, recognizable figures of 20th century fashion. By 1930, Chanel had revolutionized women’s fashion and the haute-couture industry. Throughout her life, Chanel had a constant desire to better herself and the Chanel brand. Chanel often used romantic relationships to promote herself and feed her aspirations. She used her relationship with wealthy Étienne Balsan to lift herself from poverty, her relationship with Arthur “Boy” Capel to launch her company, and the Duke of Westminster for inspiration and influence, to name a few. Often overlooked, however, was Chanel’s exploitation of the first and second world wars to further her own ambitions. During WWI, Chanel took advantage of wartime induced limitations to promote her simplistic and practical clothing designs. This wartime period launched Chanel’s career as a major fashion designer. Thus, Chanel viewed WWII as another opportunity. Rather than expanding as she had in the previous war, Chanel used WWII as an excuse to close her shop and save money. Chanel took advantage of this time off, and the wartime Nazi occupation of France, to attempt to regain control of her perfume business. Additionally, Chanel reinvented her company during this period. WWI and WWII fueled Chanel’s ruthless ambitions and acted as driving factors for her success, securing her enduring legacy.   

© Serge Lido, 1945

Chanel Before the Wars

Despite her great success, Chanel concealed her past with lies. As legendary as Chanel was, many aspects of her life remain unknown, especially her childhood. On August 19th, 1883, Gabrielle Chanel was born into poverty to unwed parents in Saumur, France. Her father, Albert Chanel, who was a “traveling salesman and philanderer,” was not present at her birth (Simon, 19). Her mother, Jeanne Devolle, was “too weak to attend” her daughter’s town hall registration (Chaney, 9).  In their absence, Chanel’s birth certificate misspelled her name as “Gabrielle Jeanne Chasnel” (Chaney, 10). This neglect is indicative of Chanel’s early childhood. Her father was rarely present, and her mother was often left to care for Chanel and her five siblings. In 1895, Chanel’s mother “succumbed to severe asthma,” leaving Albert alone with the children (Simon, 19). Not interested in caring for them, Albert sent his sons to work on a nearby farm and Chanel and her sisters to a convent orphanage in Aubazine. Chanel despised her time in the Catholic convent, where she lived until she was  18. The Nuns at Aubazine “taught [Chanel] to sew and instilled in her a fetish for cleanliness” (Simon, 20). Later, Chanel would deny her time in Aubazine, claiming her father had left for America, and she was left to her cruel aunts, not nuns (Simon, 18). Chanel’s early struggles in poverty lead to her never-ending desire to use every opportunity to better herself. 

After age 18, Chanel had no intention to remain in Aubazine and become a nun. Instead, she joined her father’s sister, Adrienne—who was only one year older and more like a sister —at a boarding school in Moulins, as a charity student (Simon, 23). Soon, Chanel and Adrienne moved to Moulins, a garrison town, to work together as seamstresses for the many military officers, earning modest wages (Chaney, 27). These officers would take the Chanel girls on dates to La Rotonde, “a poor cousin of the far more worldly Parisian cafe-concerts” (Chaney, 27). Dazzled by this world, Chanel became a “poseuse” at La Rotonde, where she would sing two songs: “Qui qu’a vu Coco?” and “Ko ko ri ko” (Chaney,  28). Allegedly, it was because of these songs that “Gabrielle became Coco” (Simon, 23). It was at La Rotonde, where Chanel met Étienne Balsan, heir to a textile manufacturing fortune, and became his mistress. Chanel recognized Balsan’s wealth and connections and realized that he could be her means of escaping poverty. Chanel lived on Balsan’s Royallieu’s estate for six years, where she used his clothes to help cultivate her menswear-inspired signature style. Chanel “adapted male working-class attire for female wear” and explored with different silhouettes (English, 33). At Royallieu, Chanel began to redesign simplistic hats and sell them to Balsan’s elite friends, who were struck by her eccentric style. As a result, Chanel had the opportunity to mingle with the wealthy elite, including Arthur “Boy” Capel, a British businessman with whom she began an affair. Around 1912, Chanel expressed interest in opening her own store and both Balsan and Capel encouraged her; she used Balsan’s ground floor apartment in Paris as a store and Capel financially supported her (Simon, 28). Chanel’s hats became relatively well known, and in 1913, with Capel’s help, Chanel opened her second boutique in the trendy beach side town, Deauville. Over the course of a few years, Chanel worked her way out of poverty, harnessing her relationships with Balsan and Capel for social and economic mobility. Understanding Chanel’s humble background helps to explain the origin of her desire to become successful. Through Chanel’s young adult relationships, one can see Chanel’s acute awareness of interesting opportunities. Thus, when WWI arrived, Chanel was well prepared to take advantage. 

The Great War and the Great Chanel

World War I emerged just as Chanel launched her business and began to expand. The advent of WWI brought clear changes for European lives. WWI became the deadliest war at that point in history, using new technologies like machine guns, tanks, and poison gas. One lesser known change that the war ushered in was the drastic evolution in women’s fashion. Prior to this war, women’s fashion had remained relatively consistent for centuries — always focused on emphasizing a woman’s waist. Women’s fashion required a variation of the “S-shaped corset” to “achieve this most unusual and constricting shape” (Presley, 308). Additionally, women wore long skirts, often lined with crinolines and bustles, making them heavy and uncomfortable. When the war began, the number of women in the workforce exponentially increased, as European women took on the roles of men, including “munitions and clerical jobs” (Presley, 311). Most of these jobs could not be performed in traditional female garments. Thus, “working-class and middle-class women began to adopt [a] more efficient approach to fashion during the war” (Roberts, 658). The traditional corsets that “restricted women’s mobility” started to fall out of fashion (Fields, 355). For the first time in Western history, the silhouette of women’s fashion shifted from emphasizing the waist to that of a slim, straight body, and shift dresses became fashionable. The hemlines on skirts were raised above the ankles and, in some instances, replaced for pants all together.  Designers included slits and pleats in skirts so women could walk comfortably, as “walking was necessary since petrol was rationed” (Simon, 42). Wartime limitations caused women to move away from custom-tailored clothing and embellishments, and the “highly ornamental fashions of the previous century were radically simplified”(Roberts, 658). Instead, European women favored somber neutral tones, marking an end to the opulence of La Belle Époque. By 1918, many women cut their hair into bobs. During the war, there was a  “lack of hot water for bathing and washing hair” making the “trend logical, if not becoming”(Simon, 42). While these changes in fashion may feel minimal from a modern perspective, they were radical for the time. Many people were outraged, especially the “natalists and Catholics, [who] interpreted fashion as evidence of a refusal among women to pursue traditional gender roles”(Roberts, 661). Despite this, these radical fashions slowly became the mainstream for European women over the course of the war and into the post-war period.  

Conveniently, Chanel’s aesthetic closely aligned with the wartime trends and Chanel used that to her advantage. The wartime strains made the opulent styles of La Belle Époque feel inappropriate and “fashion magazines were apologetic about the propriety of dressing up,” discouraging designers (Simon, 40). Despite these seemingly arduous obstacles, Chanel recognized that the war provided her with a unique opportunity to expand her business. In 1915, Chanel opened her third store in Biarritz, a town that “had become a haven for war profiteers and rich, vacationing Spaniards” (Simon, 40). This strategic position shows how Chanel was aware of the different markets she could tap into during the war. Chanel decided to expand the offerings in her stores to include clothing. Chanel used “wool jersey from the manufacturer Rodier” as it was the “cheapest fabric Chanel could buy at the beginning of the war” and she quickly made it “her signature”(Simon, 39). This material had never been used for women before and was seen as a “humble” material (Chaney, 106). Chanel effectively “transformed [jersey] into a high-fashion textile” (Chaney, 107). Chanel played up the idea that it was patriotic to wear her garments, as her clothing did not divert from the war effort. Chanel tricked the wealthy by selling “down market fabrics at upmarket prices” and using the war as her excuse( Chaney, 108). Chanel took advantage of customer’s wartime sympathies, and operated under the guise of patriotism, selling simple clothes with cheap materials for a huge profit. 

A common misconception claims that Chanel was the inventor of this wartime silhouette. Admittedly, Chanel’s designs were a part of the initial wave of new fashion, and definitely helped to solidify the style. Despite this, Chanel did not single-handedly revolutionize womenswear in the 20th century. In fact, designer Paul Poiret had claimed to have “abolished the corset” as early as 1903 (Simon, 38). Ironically, Poiret’s new style ushered in an entirely new, but similarly constricting corset to “conform to an up-and-down figure” (Presley, 311). Chanel is credited with this new style because she knew how to capitalize on WWI and make these styles her own. Chanel “further [simplified] Poiret’s style,” making fashion even more practical for women (Roberts, 658). Additionally, Chanel became the embodiment of this new wartime woman, modeling her garments in a way that male designers, like Poiret, could not. To that end, Chanel made her aunt Adrienne and her younger sister Antoinette wear her designs in the streets, effectively making them human advertisements (Simon, 40). Through these efforts, Chanel helped to popularize these new wartime trends and associate her name with the movement. Chanel recognized how her gender would give her an advantage over her competitors during the war. Many of her rival designers were male and enlisted in the army, such as Jean Patou who “was just about to open his couture house in 1914” but was delayed until 1919 (Simon, 44). Additionally, Poiret “directed his efforts towards the army”( Chaney, 113). Chanel saw there was a gap in the market and continued to expand her womenswear, making her “unstoppable in the field of wartime fashion”(Chaney, 113). Seizing on these wartime opportunities allowed Chanel to become one of the leading designers in Europe. As early as  1915, an edition of “Harper’s Bazaar claimed that ‘the woman who doesn’t have at least one Chanel is hopelessly out of the running” (Chaney, 111). By 1916, Chanel’s business was so profitable that “she chose to return all of the three hundred thousand francs [Capel] had invested in her” (Chaney, 118) Over the course of a few years, Chanel went from a small boutique owner, to a world renowned designer. Had the war not occurred, it is unlikely that Chanel would’ve been able to reach this level of fame and success as quickly as she did. 

By the time that WWI ended, Chanel emerged as one of the most popular designers. Due to her efforts during the war, Chanel’s name and designs subsequently became synonymous with fashion in the post war years as well. An October 1924 edition of Vogue raved that Chanel’s “clothes so well fit the modern woman and her modern life”( "Fashion: Chanel Keeps the Secret of Eternal Youth." Vogue, Oct 15, 1924, 66-66). In the mid 1920s, Chanel introduced “the little black dress” which became “a uniform for smart women between the wars” ( Secrest, 92). In 1919, Capel died and their affair subsequently ended. In his absence, Chanel began affairs with some of the most prominent figures of the 1920s: Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, Pierre Reverdy. By 1925, Chanel also began a relationship with Hugh “Bendor” Grosvenor, the second Duke of Westminster, linking this once-penniless woman with the upper echelons of the British aristocracy. Chanel grew close to the likes of Winston Churchill and the Duke of Windsor. Each of these relationships helped to inform her fashion designs — from Pavlovich, Chanel was inspired by Russian embroidery, and from Bendor, Chanel introduced British tweed into her collections. Additionally, these relationships successfully kept her in the press, making her a bonafide celebrity. The war helped Chanel become famous, allowing her access to relationships with elite men, which in turn helped to sustain her brand’s popularity. 

Riding on her post-war fame, Chanel continued to expand her company, and in 1921, she launched a perfume. Using her connection to Pavlovich, Chanel met chemist Ernest Beaux, and developed Chanel No. 5, a perfume that used both synthetic and natural materials to evoke a long-lasting and uniquescent scent (Simon, 75). The perfume was immediately popular, allowing Chanel to reach an even wider audience. Women who could not afford her clothes could afford her perfume. Despite this success, “Marketing perfumes required a different kind of expertise” that Chanel felt she did not have (Simon, 78). Chanel was introduced to Pierre Wertheimer who ran Bourjois, “one of the largest cosmetics and fragrance manufacturers in France”(Simon, 78). Chanel struck a deal with Wertheimer in 1924. Chanel, who often claimed that business matters “bored her to death,” effectively signed away 90 percent of her perfume business (Chaney, 27). This agreement was shocking, and most likely a misunderstanding when considering Chanel’s obvious “drive to become richer and richer”(Simon, 79). Even though it ended up being an unfavorable arrangement for Chanel, this business transaction shows the success that WWI brought her. Wertheimer, a seasoned businessman, recognized the immense potential in the Chanel brand and was thus willing to invest large amounts of capital into it. Arguably, Wertheimer would’ve never considered Chanel to be a viable investment before the war. 

WWII - The Reinvention of Chanel

Chanel saw a meteoric rise to fame and success during the Great War. Chanel’s style was “mass-produced and meticulously imitated throughout France” and “reached its peak of popularity by 1925 and held sway until 1927 or 1928”(Roberts, 658). However, eventually, the war-time advantage began to fade and other designers began to emerge into the mainstream. During the 1930s, designers such as Elsa Schiaperelli and Cristóbal Balenciaga gained traction and began to compete with Chanel. Fashion moved away from the simplistic designs that had catapulted Chanel to fame during the war. Women began accentuating their waists once again. Fashion saw a brief return to 19th century-inspired aesthetics, with embellishments and fur. Chanel tried to participate in these trends but had “less self-assurance in this period”(Chaney, 280). As early as 1929, trendsetters like Nancy Cunard began “deserting” Chanel for Schiaparelli (Secrest, 128). Throughout the 1930s, “[Schiaparelli] eclipsed everyone, including Chanel, becoming the most important couturier in Paris”(Secrest, 196). Schiaperelli’s rise angered Chanel to the point that she allegedly tried to light Schiaparelli on fire (Secrest, 197). This rumor showcases the immense competitiveness that Chanel’s felt as her monopoly over the fashion industry began to fade. In response, on the invitation of Samuel Goldwyn, Chanel ventured to Hollywood to dress American actresses for films. These efforts, while helping to solidify Chanel’s presence in the United States, were short lived and ultimately did not help to alleviate the problems Chanel was facing in Europe.

In addition to her declining popularity, Chanel faced other troubles during the interwar period. Chanel was becoming increasingly more reliant on Chanel No. 5 sales as her couture lines felt the impact of her declining popularity and the Great Depression. She started to feel the consequences of her ill-advised contract with the Wertheimers and felt that she had been exploited (Vaughan, 33). In retaliation, Chanel filed a series of lawsuits against the Wertheimers in an attempt to regain control of her perfume but was unsuccessful each time. Chanel was so persistent that the Wertheimers created “a team of lawyers whose sole task was to deal with [Chanel]”( Simon, 79). Additionally, in 1936, Chanel’s workers, inspired by the union movements in the United States, felt that they were unfairly treated. Four thousand of Chanel’s shop keepers and seamstresses went on strike, locking her out of her studio and refusing to negotiate until Chanel met their demands (Vaughan, 92). Eventually, Chanel reluctantly granted them higher wages, shorter workweeks, and paid vacations that they desired. By the end of the 1930s, it was clear that Chanel no longer had control over her once-thriving business. 

With these troubles, it is easy to see how Chanel viewed the impending war as her solution. In the 1930s, Hitler had begun militarizing Germany, and in 1939, he invaded Czechoslovakia; Europeans knew that war was imminent. By September of that year, France and Britain declared war on Germany. Immediately, Chanel recognized the war as another opportunity for her business. However, Chanel’s strategy this time around differed greatly from her method during WWI. Instead of expanding her business, Chanel closed it all together. Three weeks after France’s declaration of war, Chanel “closed down her couture house and laid off most of her workforce,” leaving only her Paris boutique in operation to sell perfume and jewelry (Chaney, 287). Initially, many people believed that Chanel responded to the war in this way because she felt guilty for “having profited from the last war”(Chaney, 287). This idea was supported by Chanel’s famous justification that the war was not a time for fashion. However, Chanel’s motives were not as simple and patriotic as they seemed. In fact, the Pariasian government actually begged Chanel to stay open for morale. Lucien Lelong, the president of Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, “was determined to keep couture alive in Paris,” as “the French government felt [it] was vital for the country’s future” (Simon, 131). Despite these efforts, Chanel recognized that the war was an opportunity to “[tidy] up the loose ends of her business” (Chaney, 288). In the previous decade, Chanel watched her competitors surpass her in popularity. The rise of this military conflict afforded Chanel an excuse to pause and reevaluate her declining collections. Additionally, Chanel knew that this time off from couture would benefit her economically. Fashion “materials were in short supply” and even “[Schiaperelli’s] European clients had stopped ordering clothes” (Secrest, 226). In desperation, many designers joined the army or fled to America to carry on business overseas.  Chanel’s foresaw that there would be “no market for haute couture” during this time and Chanel knew that she could live off of her share of the Chanel No. 5 sales (Simon, 131). Additionally, Chanel’s action’s allowed her to punish her employees for their strike in the previous decade. Thus, Chanel’s seemingly-patriotic decision to shut down her business was actually a strategic effort to ensure the longevity of her brand. It is clear that Chanel intended to exploit WWII from the very beginning. 

By June of 1940, France fell under Nazi occupation and Chanel fled Paris for her home in the countryside. Learning about the Nazi capture of her conscripted nephew André Palasse, Chanel returned to Paris in an effort to befriend a powerful official and have him freed. Chanel moved back into her apartment in the Ritz, which had become a Nazi headquarters, and began mingling with numerous Nazi officials, like Otto Abetz (Simon, 135). By 1941, Chanel began a romantic relationship with an influential Nazi officer named Hans Günther von Dincklage. Through Dincklage, the Nazis agreed to free Chanel’s nephew “for a price” (Vaughan, 141). They requested that Chanel use her status to collect political information for them in Spain. Chanel viewed this as a good opportunity to both free her nephew and advance her business by “[improving] the sales of Chanel No. 5 in the Spanish market”(Vaughan, 141). This initial experience led Chanel to release that she could use Nazi influence to her benefit. Chanel, an antisemitic, saw no issues with the Nazi’s immoral efforts. Chanel took note of the Nazi’s Commission of Jewish Affairs that was seizing businesses from Jewish owners and giving them to non-Jews (Simon, 137). Chanel realized that she could “use her status as an Aryan French citizen” to work with Nazi officials and reclaim ownership of Chanel No. 5 from the Wertheimers, who were Jewish (Vaughan, 146). After numerous failed lawsuits, Chanel viewed this as a new means to potentially regain control of her perfume sales. Via Dincklage, Chanel got in touch with Dr. Kurt Blanke, who was in charge of “the confiscation of Jewish property” in late 1941 to “Aryanize La Societies des Parfums Chanel”( Vaughan, 165). Unbeknown to Chanel, the Wertheimers had transferred ownership of their business to a Christian friend, Felix Amiot, before fleeing Europe for the United States in the mid 1930s. They set up a new company Chanel Inc. in New York, and resumed production of perfumes with great success. When Chanel discovered this, she began to view a German victory as her only solution. She knew that an Anglo-German peace was now her best chance to take back La Societies des Parfums Chanel, brining her “immeasurable” rewards (Vaughan, 149). Thus, by 1942, Chanel joined the Nazi effort in a higher capacity. Conspiring with General Walter Schellenberg, then Henrich Himmler’s head of SS intelligence, and Himmler’s “right-hand man,” Chanel became a Nazi agent for operation “Modellhut” ( Vaughan, 168). Chanel traveled to Spain and attempted to harness her relationship with Winston Churchill and the British aristocracy to act as a liaison between the British and the German and negotiate an end to the war. Chanel betrayed her own country and her reputation to take advantage of the war and make her company more successful. The plan, unsurprisingly, failed, and the Nazi’s were ultimately defeated. Despite this, Chanel’s ruthless efforts showcased how she used a war opportunity for her own benefit. 

By 1944, the German army surrendered Paris to the French. Unlike so many other French “collabos,” Chanel faced no consequences for her actions. Many believed she was protected by Winston Churchill. Chanel also gave free Chanel No. 5 bottles to American GI’s as a way to conceal her Nazi efforts and earn favor with the Americans (Vaughan, 188). Nonetheless, Chanel left Paris for Switzerland where she lived until 1953. In Chanel’s absence, fashion saw the rise of designers like Christian Dior and the popularity of his “New Look,” a new feminine and waist-accentuated style. Angered by this, Chanel decided, at the age of 70, to reopen her business. Despite their quarrels, Pierre Wertheimer encouraged this endeavor, believing that it would “enhance the Chanel franchise”( Vaughan, 141). Wertheimer offered to underwrite the new collection, and the two negotiated a deal in which Wertheimer gained “100 percent of Chanel Couture, including all real estate holdings and textile production renegotiated” in exchange for supporting Chanel and giving her a larger percent of perfume sales (Simon, 151). On February 5th, 1954, Chanel launched her first collection in 15 years. Chanel kept her aesthetic and introduced new pieces — two tone slingback shoes, tweed suits, quilted leather handbag — that are essential parts of the Chanel brand to this day. Her strategic comeback into fashion was initially met with criticism by the French, but adored by the Americans. A February 1954 edition of Vogue deemed Chanel a “great revolutionist,'' whose “principles were inherent in the clothes” (“ Fashion: Chanel Designs again." Vogue, Feb 15, 1954, 82-82). By the 1960s, Chanel was just as popular as she had been in decades past, with a 1964 edition of Vogue showcasing a 10-page editorial spread of her collection, titled “America Loves Chanel”("Fashion: America Loves Chanel." Vogue, Feb 01, 1964, 130-130). In the late 1930s, Chanel recognized that she was not “perceived as the rebel, the innovator, and leader as she had been” (Simon, 126) Therefore, Chanel took time off during the war to give herself the opportunity to become that fashion pioneer once again. While Chanel’s business efforts with the Nazi’s failed, she still was able to use WWII to her benefit. Without the war, Chanel would’ve never had the chance to make a comeback and her designs may have fallen into oblivion like so many of her peers from the first half of the 20th century. 

It is clear that the world wars were necessary for Chanel’s success. Chanel utilized her inherent drive to seize opportunities, and extract benefits from WWI and WWII. Chanel’s wartime actions ultimately allowed her to become a household name. Today, the Chanel fashion empire continues to remain one of the most profitable luxury brands on the market, under the control of the Wertheimer family. A bottle of Chanel No. 5 sells every 30 seconds (English, 146). Understandably, Chanel Inc. is not transparent about Chanel’s often shameful wartime involvements, as it would tarnish the brand. Despite this, viewing Chanel’s actions during WWI and WWII is crucial to understanding her work as a designer. Fashion is often credited as an apolitical industry. Chanel’s utilization of war and politics show that this is clearly not the case. In exploring the impact that WWI and WWII had on Chanel, and vise versa, we can broaden our understanding of the role that fashion plays in the development of politics and history. 

Bibliography:

Chaney, Lisa. Coco Chanel: an Intimate Life. New York: Penguin Books, 2012

"Fashion: America Loves Chanel." Vogue, Feb 01, 1964, 130-130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, http://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?

“Fashion: Chanel Designs again." Vogue, Feb 15, 1954, 82-82, 83, 84, 85, 128, 129, http://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/897856184?accountid=10226.

"Fashion: Chanel Keeps the Secret of Eternal Youth." Vogue, Oct 15, 1924, 66-66, 67, 68, 69, http://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/879164920?accountid=10226.

Fields, Jill. "'Fighting the Corsetless Evil': Shaping Corsets and Culture, 1900-1930." Journal of Social History 33, no. 2 (1999): 355-84. www.jstor.org/stable/3789627.

Presley, Ann Beth. “Fifty Years of Change: Societal Attitudes and Women's Fashions, 1900-1950.” The Historian, vol. 60, no. 2, 1998, pp. 307–324. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24451728.

Roberts, Mary Louise “Samson and Delilah Revisited: The Politics of Women’s Fashion in 1920s France,” American Historical Review, vol. 98, no. 3 (June 1993): 657-684.

Secrest, Meryle. Elsa Schiaparelli: a Biography. London: Penguin Books, 2015.

Lido, Serge, American Soldiers in Front of the store at 31 Rue Cambon looking for CHANEL N°5 Perfume, 1945.

Simon, Linda. Coco Chanel. London: Reaktion Books, 2011, 19

Vaughan, Hal. Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel’s Secret War. New York: Vintage Books, 2012