Summary
Highlights
After splitting with the Duke of Westminster, Coco Chanel started a relationship with French illustrator Paul Iribe, a known anti-semite. Chanel financed Iribe's ultra-nationalist conservative magazine, Le Témion. Iribe died in 1935 from a heart attack at Coco's villa, an event that deeply affected her due to its similarity to another past loss.
By 1936, Chanel's brand employed thousands, primarily young women. A strike demanding better wages and conditions led Coco to blame Jews and Bolsheviks. She sarcastically offered to turn over her company to the workers if she remained in charge, which they rejected. They eventually won their demands. In 1939, Chanel closed her business at the start of WWII, citing that it was 'not a time for fashion,' effectively laying off her workers.
During the German occupation of France, Coco tried to use 'Aryanization laws' to regain full control of Chanel No. 5 from her Jewish business partners, the Wertheimers, who had fled to New York. She lived at the Hotel Ritz, a hub for German officials, and began a relationship with German officer Hans Gunther von Dinklage, a Gestapo spy. By 1941, Coco herself was working with SS intelligence chief Walter Schellenberg, with the spy number 7124 and the codename 'Westminster.' In 1943, she attempted 'Operation Model Hat' to negotiate peace between the Nazis and Britain via Winston Churchill, but it failed.
After the liberation of Paris, Coco was briefly arrested for collaboration but was released due to Winston Churchill's intervention, possibly to prevent her from exposing high-ranking British officials and royals, such as Edward VIII, who sympathized with the Nazis. She then moved to neutral Switzerland, remaining in exile until 1953.
In 1947, the Wertheimers renegotiated their contract with Coco, giving her significant back pay and 2% of all Chanel No. 5 sales, plus covering all her living expenses. In 1953, with Pierre Wertheimer's financial backing, Coco, at 70, revived her couture house. Despite initial French criticism, her comeback collection was a hit with American and British press. Her career flourished in her 70s and 80s, re-establishing her as a fashion icon. However, she spent her final years lonely and bitter, maintaining a morphine addiction. Coco Chanel died on January 10, 1971, at 87, with her last words being: 'You see, this is how you die.'