WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.259 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are taking 00:00:03.259 --> 00:00:06.900 on a giant. I don't use that word lightly. No, 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:09.199 not at all. We are talking about a name that 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:12.740 is practically synonymous with luxury, with France, 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:15.759 and with a very specific kind of effortless, 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:18.800 intimidating cool. We're talking about Gabrielle 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.859 Coco Chanel. It is a massive topic. You would 00:00:21.859 --> 00:00:23.960 be hard pressed to find a brand with more global 00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:26.839 recognition. Right. The double C logo, the number 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:29.739 five perfume, the quilted bags with the chain 00:00:29.739 --> 00:00:31.980 straps. It is part of the cultural furniture. 00:00:32.359 --> 00:00:34.100 It's, you know, it's the uniform of a certain 00:00:34.100 --> 00:00:36.759 type of success. Exactly. But the mission for 00:00:36.759 --> 00:00:39.359 today's deep dive is a little different. We aren't 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:41.240 just here to talk about hem lengths or, you know, 00:00:41.259 --> 00:00:43.200 the price of a handbag. Not just that. We are 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:45.119 here to look at the massive, sometimes incredibly 00:00:45.119 --> 00:00:47.859 uncomfortable gap between the brand, which is 00:00:47.859 --> 00:00:50.679 all about this polished. minimalist, perfect 00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:53.979 elegance, and the reality of the woman who created 00:00:53.979 --> 00:00:56.520 it. Because when you dig into these sources, 00:00:56.600 --> 00:00:58.359 and we have a stack of them today, including 00:00:58.359 --> 00:01:00.899 biographies, business histories, and crucially 00:01:00.899 --> 00:01:03.500 declassified intelligence files, the reality 00:01:03.500 --> 00:01:06.819 is messy. Messy is a very polite way of putting 00:01:06.819 --> 00:01:10.799 it. It is dark. It is complicated. And it is 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:13.400 filled with contradictions. It really is. I think 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:15.120 the central tension we need to explore today 00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:18.459 is this. Coco Chanel is the only fashion designer 00:01:18.459 --> 00:01:21.500 listed on Time magazine's list of the 100 most 00:01:21.500 --> 00:01:23.859 influential people of the 20th century. That's 00:01:23.859 --> 00:01:26.560 a huge deal. It's a huge accolade. It puts her 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:28.920 up there with Einstein and Gandhi. She liberated 00:01:28.920 --> 00:01:31.260 women from corsets. She changed how we smell. 00:01:31.519 --> 00:01:34.799 She changed how we view a suntan. But her legacy 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:38.280 is also... deeply marred by betrayal, by ruthless 00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:41.260 ambition, and, as we will get into later, by 00:01:41.260 --> 00:01:43.560 active wartime collaboration with the Nazis. 00:01:43.819 --> 00:01:46.480 It's a study in branding versus reality, right? 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:49.900 How one woman's personal trauma and her prejudices 00:01:49.900 --> 00:01:52.079 shaped the way women dress today. Absolutely. 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:55.040 And how a brand can sort of sanitize that history. 00:01:55.299 --> 00:01:56.799 So let's unpack this. We have to start at the 00:01:56.799 --> 00:01:58.159 beginning, or at least the beginning that she 00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:00.640 tried so desperately to hide. Yes. Because one 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:02.299 of the things that stands out immediately in 00:02:02.299 --> 00:02:04.299 the research is that Chanel was a compulsive 00:02:04.299 --> 00:02:07.409 liar. about her own past. She was a myth maker 00:02:07.409 --> 00:02:10.550 from day one. If you asked Chanel about her childhood, 00:02:10.770 --> 00:02:13.430 the story shifted constantly depending on who 00:02:13.430 --> 00:02:15.650 she was trying to impress or what narrative she 00:02:15.650 --> 00:02:17.509 was trying to spin. So what was the official 00:02:17.509 --> 00:02:20.250 story she told? Well, she claimed she was born 00:02:20.250 --> 00:02:22.330 a decade later than she actually was, which is 00:02:22.330 --> 00:02:25.669 a classic vanity move, sure. But she went deeper. 00:02:25.789 --> 00:02:28.490 She told people her father sailed to America 00:02:28.490 --> 00:02:31.169 to seek his fortune in the wine trade. Right. 00:02:31.270 --> 00:02:34.680 A romantic, adventurous father. She painted this 00:02:34.680 --> 00:02:37.580 picture of a somewhat tragic but comfortable 00:02:37.580 --> 00:02:40.639 upbringing with wealthy aunts in a country estate. 00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:43.180 It was all fiction. But the documents tell a 00:02:43.180 --> 00:02:45.020 completely different story. A completely different 00:02:45.020 --> 00:02:48.960 story. The reality was grim and, frankly, Dickensian. 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:52.379 Gabrielle Chanel was born in 1883, and she wasn't 00:02:52.379 --> 00:02:54.199 born in a comfortable home. She was born in a 00:02:54.199 --> 00:02:56.259 charity hospital in Saumur. Which was really 00:02:56.259 --> 00:02:57.860 a poor house. It was a poor house, essentially. 00:02:58.120 --> 00:03:01.219 Her mother, Jeanne, was a laundry woman who was 00:03:01.219 --> 00:03:04.360 constantly sick. Her father, Albert, was an itinerant 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:06.780 street vendor who peddled work clothes and undergarments 00:03:06.780 --> 00:03:09.500 from a cart. They lived a nomadic, hand -to -mouth 00:03:09.500 --> 00:03:11.560 existence traveling from market town to market 00:03:11.560 --> 00:03:13.860 town. There's this one detail from her birth 00:03:13.860 --> 00:03:15.860 certificate that I found fascinating because 00:03:15.860 --> 00:03:18.819 it really encapsulates her relationship with 00:03:18.819 --> 00:03:21.819 her own identity. The name. The name. Her name 00:03:21.819 --> 00:03:23.900 is misspelled on the official record. That's 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:27.020 right. It's recorded as Chasnell with an S. C 00:03:27.020 --> 00:03:31.439 -H -A -S -N -E -L. It was a clerical error. And 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:33.659 how did that happen? Her mother was too ill to 00:03:33.659 --> 00:03:35.900 attend the registration, and her father was. 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:39.099 Well, he was likely traveling or just absent, 00:03:39.180 --> 00:03:42.219 avoiding the cost or responsibility. So some 00:03:42.219 --> 00:03:44.419 clerk just wrote it down wrong. But here's the 00:03:44.419 --> 00:03:47.639 telling part. Gabrielle never corrected it. Never. 00:03:48.120 --> 00:03:50.439 Because to correct it legally would have meant 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:53.219 admitting where she was born. Would mean producing 00:03:53.219 --> 00:03:55.939 the document that said hospice. It would reveal 00:03:55.939 --> 00:03:58.740 the poverty. Exactly. She would rather live with 00:03:58.740 --> 00:04:01.080 a typo on her legal documents for her entire 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:03.699 life than reveal the shame of her birth. She 00:04:03.699 --> 00:04:06.340 took that secret to her grave. That sets the 00:04:06.340 --> 00:04:08.360 stage for everything that follows. It's this 00:04:08.360 --> 00:04:11.520 deep, deep shame about where she came from. And 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:13.580 things didn't get better. No, they got much worse. 00:04:13.740 --> 00:04:15.919 Her mother died young, right? Yes, her mother 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:19.079 died of tuberculosis at age 32. Gabrielle was 00:04:19.079 --> 00:04:21.980 only about 11 or 12 years old. And this is the 00:04:21.980 --> 00:04:24.439 moment of the great abandonment. The abandonment. 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:27.079 Her father, the street peddler, didn't even try 00:04:27.079 --> 00:04:29.759 to keep the family together. He sent his two 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:32.639 sons off to work as farm laborers, which was 00:04:32.639 --> 00:04:35.319 effectively indentured servitude. And the daughters. 00:04:35.560 --> 00:04:37.920 He took the three daughters, Gabrielle, Julia 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:41.480 Bertha, and Antoinette, to the convent of Abazine. 00:04:42.009 --> 00:04:44.170 This is the orphanage. Correct. It was run by 00:04:44.170 --> 00:04:46.050 the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Mary. 00:04:46.589 --> 00:04:49.050 It was an orphanage founded to care for the poor 00:04:49.050 --> 00:04:51.750 and rejected. A stark, frugal, strictly disciplined 00:04:51.750 --> 00:04:54.970 life. And her father just left them there. He 00:04:54.970 --> 00:04:57.029 dropped them off, promised he would come back 00:04:57.029 --> 00:04:58.949 for them, and never saw them again. Just imagine 00:04:58.949 --> 00:05:01.790 the psychological impact of that. The abandonment 00:05:01.790 --> 00:05:04.129 issues must have been off the charts. Completely. 00:05:04.389 --> 00:05:06.990 And it forged this incredible self -reliance 00:05:06.990 --> 00:05:11.480 in her, but also this profound... But here is 00:05:11.480 --> 00:05:13.459 where it gets really interesting for us, looking 00:05:13.459 --> 00:05:16.040 back at her designs. You can actually trace the 00:05:16.040 --> 00:05:18.399 DNA of the Chanel brand directly back to this 00:05:18.399 --> 00:05:21.839 dark, cold orphanage. Absolutely. If you look 00:05:21.839 --> 00:05:24.560 at the aesthetic of Abazine, it's all grays, 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:27.939 blacks, and whites. It's austere. It's clean 00:05:27.939 --> 00:05:30.360 lines. There's no clutter, no fuss. It's the 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:33.180 Chanel color palette. It is. That environment, 00:05:33.420 --> 00:05:36.540 which she hated and tried to hide, seeped into 00:05:36.540 --> 00:05:39.569 her visual vocabulary. And of course, it's also 00:05:39.569 --> 00:05:42.029 where she learned to sew. The nuns taught her 00:05:42.029 --> 00:05:44.029 the trade that would make her millions. But it 00:05:44.029 --> 00:05:45.970 was more than just the sewing, wasn't it? It 00:05:45.970 --> 00:05:48.370 was a whole philosophy. I think so. The philosophy 00:05:48.370 --> 00:05:51.430 of less is more likely started there. It wasn't 00:05:51.430 --> 00:05:54.509 minimalism as a chic choice. It was minimalism 00:05:54.509 --> 00:05:57.389 as a necessity. It was the only reality she knew 00:05:57.389 --> 00:06:00.410 for six years. And the visual cues are so specific. 00:06:00.670 --> 00:06:03.329 So specific. The nuns wore black habits with 00:06:03.329 --> 00:06:06.189 white wimples. That high contrast, black and 00:06:06.189 --> 00:06:08.899 white, became the signature Chanel. look. The 00:06:08.899 --> 00:06:11.019 patterns on the stone floors of the abbey are 00:06:11.019 --> 00:06:13.399 said to have inspired the interlocking sea logo. 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:16.120 No way, really. It's one of the strongest theories. 00:06:16.360 --> 00:06:19.379 The stained glass windows had these interlaced 00:06:19.379 --> 00:06:22.470 patterns. And even later in life, when she built 00:06:22.470 --> 00:06:25.949 her luxurious villa, La Pausa, the architecture 00:06:25.949 --> 00:06:29.470 included staircases and patio elements that were 00:06:29.470 --> 00:06:31.850 direct references to the Romanesque architecture 00:06:31.850 --> 00:06:34.490 of that orphanage. So she was constantly trying 00:06:34.490 --> 00:06:37.410 to escape her past, yet she kept rebuilding it 00:06:37.410 --> 00:06:39.750 in her designs. She was processing it through 00:06:39.750 --> 00:06:42.569 her work, consciously or not. It's fascinating. 00:06:42.949 --> 00:06:45.970 So she leaves the convent at 18. She moves to 00:06:45.970 --> 00:06:47.509 a boarding house in Moulin, and this is where 00:06:47.509 --> 00:06:50.170 we get the birth of Coco. Right. She didn't start 00:06:50.170 --> 00:06:52.149 as a designer. Right. She wanted to be a performer. 00:06:52.370 --> 00:06:55.649 She did. She had aspirations for the stage. She 00:06:55.649 --> 00:06:58.170 worked as a seamstress by day at a tailor shop. 00:06:58.389 --> 00:07:00.829 But at night, she sang in a cabaret in Moulin 00:07:00.829 --> 00:07:03.350 called La Rotonde. And what was this place like? 00:07:03.610 --> 00:07:06.430 It was a café concert, a rowdy venue frequented 00:07:06.430 --> 00:07:09.430 by cavalry officers stationed nearby. This is 00:07:09.430 --> 00:07:12.269 a crucial detail, the military presence. She 00:07:12.269 --> 00:07:15.189 was surrounded by men with status and, more importantly, 00:07:15.410 --> 00:07:18.439 money. But she wasn't a star, though. She was 00:07:18.439 --> 00:07:21.420 what they called a possess. A possess. What does 00:07:21.420 --> 00:07:23.939 that entail? Basically, a performer who entertained 00:07:23.939 --> 00:07:26.879 the crowd between the main acts. You sang a song 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:28.939 or two while the headliner changed costumes, 00:07:29.019 --> 00:07:31.060 and then you walked through the crowd passing 00:07:31.060 --> 00:07:33.680 a plate to collect money. So it was correct. 00:07:33.959 --> 00:07:36.939 Yeah. Not glamorous. Not at all. It was humiliating 00:07:36.939 --> 00:07:39.360 work, really. It was begging with a song. And 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:42.199 the name Coco, where does that come from? There 00:07:42.199 --> 00:07:44.519 are two main theories, and both are interesting. 00:07:45.050 --> 00:07:47.389 Theory A is that it came from the songs she sang. 00:07:47.629 --> 00:07:50.370 She had a limited repertoire that included these 00:07:50.370 --> 00:07:53.649 catchy, silly songs like Coco Rico, which mimicked 00:07:53.649 --> 00:07:57.529 a rooster crowing, and Kikavu Coco, which translates 00:07:57.529 --> 00:08:00.629 to Who Has Seen Coco, a song about a girl who 00:08:00.629 --> 00:08:02.990 lost her dog. So the officers would call out, 00:08:03.029 --> 00:08:05.689 Coco, Coco, when they wanted her to sing. And 00:08:05.689 --> 00:08:08.970 Theory B? Theory B is a bit darker, but linguistically 00:08:08.970 --> 00:08:11.810 plausible. It's an allusion to the French word... 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:15.040 Cocotte, which means a kept woman or a courtesan. 00:08:15.180 --> 00:08:17.959 Given the environment of the cabaret where women 00:08:17.959 --> 00:08:19.980 were often looking for wealthy protectors among 00:08:19.980 --> 00:08:22.699 the officers, the nickname likely carried a double 00:08:22.699 --> 00:08:25.680 entendre. It was playful, but it marked her social 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:27.720 status. And I assume she didn't make it as a 00:08:27.720 --> 00:08:31.089 singer. No. She tried to get a gig in Vichy, 00:08:31.110 --> 00:08:33.789 which was a more upscale resort town with a proper 00:08:33.789 --> 00:08:36.289 stage, but her voice was described as marginal. 00:08:36.750 --> 00:08:39.190 She realized pretty quickly that she wasn't going 00:08:39.190 --> 00:08:41.429 to be the next great Chanteuse. She didn't have 00:08:41.429 --> 00:08:44.190 the talent for the stage. So the stage door closes 00:08:44.190 --> 00:08:47.350 and the bedroom door opens, if we can be that 00:08:47.350 --> 00:08:50.309 blunt. We can. Because her entry into high society, 00:08:50.649 --> 00:08:52.929 and really her entry into the world of luxury, 00:08:53.190 --> 00:08:56.720 comes through men. She realized early on that 00:08:56.720 --> 00:08:59.320 men were the key to the door she wanted to open. 00:08:59.399 --> 00:09:02.120 It does. She becomes the mistress of Etienne 00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:05.039 Balsam. He was a wealthy textile heir and an 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:07.519 ex -cavalry officer she met at the cabaret. So 00:09:07.519 --> 00:09:11.159 he was her ticket out. He was. At 23, she moves 00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:14.299 into his estate, the Chateau Royal Lou. And this 00:09:14.299 --> 00:09:16.679 is a massive shift. She goes from the poorhouse 00:09:16.679 --> 00:09:18.919 and the seamstress shop to a world of horses, 00:09:18.980 --> 00:09:21.740 hunting, and pure decadence. This is where she 00:09:21.740 --> 00:09:23.740 sees what the rich life actually looks like. 00:09:23.820 --> 00:09:25.720 Exactly. And it's not just observing it. She's 00:09:25.720 --> 00:09:28.340 participating in it. Balsan showered her with 00:09:28.340 --> 00:09:31.139 diamonds, pearls, and dresses. But the interesting 00:09:31.139 --> 00:09:33.379 thing is, she... projected a lot of the fussy 00:09:33.379 --> 00:09:36.139 fashion of the other courtesans. She starts borrowing 00:09:36.139 --> 00:09:38.659 from the men's wardrobe. She starts wearing equestrian 00:09:38.659 --> 00:09:41.639 gear. She realizes she can't ride a horse aggressively 00:09:41.639 --> 00:09:43.460 in a restrictive dress, so she wears trousers 00:09:43.460 --> 00:09:46.679 or dodpers. She takes his tweed jackets, his 00:09:46.679 --> 00:09:49.620 ties. She's adapting. She's adapting for comfort 00:09:49.620 --> 00:09:52.559 and function. And she starts designing hats as 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:55.240 a diversion, just something to do while living 00:09:55.240 --> 00:09:57.899 this life of leisure. She would take the hats 00:09:57.899 --> 00:09:59.879 of the other women, which were covered in fruit 00:09:59.879 --> 00:10:02.519 and stuffed birds, and strip them down, making 00:10:02.519 --> 00:10:05.019 them simple, stark straw boaters. The Chanel 00:10:05.019 --> 00:10:07.240 aesthetic is already there. It's bubbling up. 00:10:07.470 --> 00:10:09.830 But she doesn't stay with Balsan forever. She 00:10:09.830 --> 00:10:11.929 leaves him for his friend, which is a bit of 00:10:11.929 --> 00:10:15.230 a scandal in itself. Yes, enter Arthur Boy Capel. 00:10:15.350 --> 00:10:18.480 He is arguably the love of her life. Chanel famously 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:24.100 said of this time, She's very unsentimental about 00:10:24.100 --> 00:10:26.860 it. Very. It shows how transactional she viewed 00:10:26.860 --> 00:10:28.779 these relationships, even the most important 00:10:28.779 --> 00:10:31.620 one. Capelle was English, from a wealthy industrial 00:10:31.620 --> 00:10:34.480 family, and had a very different style than the 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:37.320 French aristocrats. He wore blazers. He used 00:10:37.320 --> 00:10:39.720 jersey fabrics for his sports gear. He was a 00:10:39.720 --> 00:10:41.779 polo player. And he puts his money where his 00:10:41.779 --> 00:10:44.740 mouth is. He finances her. He sees her talent 00:10:44.740 --> 00:10:47.440 with the hats and believes in her. He sets her 00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:50.419 up. He pays for her first shops in Paris and 00:10:50.419 --> 00:10:53.419 Deauville. But his influence goes way beyond 00:10:53.419 --> 00:10:55.759 the bank account. You mean his style? His personal 00:10:55.759 --> 00:10:58.440 style. His wardrobe inspired the Chanel look, 00:10:58.559 --> 00:11:01.519 the blazers, the clean lines, the androgyny. 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:04.279 There is even a theory that the iconic square 00:11:04.279 --> 00:11:07.220 design of the Chanel No. 5 bottle was adapted 00:11:07.220 --> 00:11:10.340 from his toiletry bottles or his whiskey decanter. 00:11:10.440 --> 00:11:12.500 That is wild. You look at that perfume bottle 00:11:12.500 --> 00:11:15.000 today and you see the epitome of feminine luxury. 00:11:15.320 --> 00:11:17.620 But it might just be a whiskey decanter from 00:11:17.620 --> 00:11:20.019 her. English lover. It shows how she absorbed 00:11:20.019 --> 00:11:23.039 everything around her. She was a sponge for style 00:11:23.039 --> 00:11:25.600 cues that she could then refine and sell. But 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:27.679 this relationship ends in tragedy. A terrible 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:30.519 tragedy. Capelle died in a car accident in 1919. 00:11:30.679 --> 00:11:33.460 It devastated her. She told a friend, in losing 00:11:33.460 --> 00:11:35.519 Capelle, I lost everything. She never really 00:11:35.519 --> 00:11:38.679 got over it, did she? It doesn't seem so. She 00:11:38.679 --> 00:11:41.299 reportedly commissioned a roadside memorial at 00:11:41.299 --> 00:11:44.139 the site of the crash. It hardened her. It fueled 00:11:44.139 --> 00:11:46.659 her ambition. But it also left her very alone 00:11:46.659 --> 00:11:49.759 at the top. She never married. And crucially, 00:11:49.879 --> 00:11:52.419 she never relied on a man financially again after 00:11:52.419 --> 00:11:54.600 that. Before he died, though, they had already 00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:57.000 started the revolution. They opened boutiques 00:11:57.000 --> 00:11:59.279 in Deauville and Biarritz. Right. And this is 00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:01.440 where the brand really starts to take shape. 00:12:01.620 --> 00:12:03.840 It wasn't haute couture initially. It was... 00:12:04.329 --> 00:12:07.389 Deluxe casual clothing. And the timing was perfect. 00:12:07.490 --> 00:12:09.789 Timing is everything. She opens in Deauville 00:12:09.789 --> 00:12:12.970 in 1913. This is a seaside resort for the rich 00:12:12.970 --> 00:12:15.009 right before and then during the start of World 00:12:15.009 --> 00:12:18.450 War I. Women's lives were changing. And she used 00:12:18.450 --> 00:12:20.460 her family as marketing. Brilliant marketing. 00:12:20.600 --> 00:12:22.980 She used her sister Antoinette and her aunt Adrienne 00:12:22.980 --> 00:12:25.539 as living mannequins. They would walk the boardwalks 00:12:25.539 --> 00:12:27.879 in Deauville wearing her simple, chic creations. 00:12:28.460 --> 00:12:30.500 Everyone asked, who are those girls and where 00:12:30.500 --> 00:12:32.259 did they get those outfits? And she opens in 00:12:32.259 --> 00:12:34.980 Biarritz in 1915, which was neutral territory 00:12:34.980 --> 00:12:38.799 during the war. Yes. A villa opposite a casino. 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:42.779 It was a huge success. The wives of rich industrialists 00:12:42.779 --> 00:12:45.019 from Spain and other neutral countries flocked 00:12:45.019 --> 00:12:47.679 to her. The business was so massive, she reimbursed 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:50.580 Capell's entire investment within a year. By 00:12:50.580 --> 00:12:53.759 1919, she is officially a registered couturier. 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:56.139 And the clothes themselves were radically different. 00:12:56.320 --> 00:12:59.379 Let's talk about jersey. Today, we think of jersey 00:12:59.379 --> 00:13:03.320 as just t -shirt material. But back then, using 00:13:03.320 --> 00:13:06.019 jersey for women's clothing was... Insane. It 00:13:06.019 --> 00:13:09.440 was scandalous. Before Chanel, jersey and tricot 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:11.899 were used almost exclusively for men's underwear. 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:14.340 Men's underwear. Yes. It was considered an ordinary 00:13:14.340 --> 00:13:16.860 fabric. It was difficult to handle it, unraveled 00:13:16.860 --> 00:13:18.659 if you cut it wrong, and it didn't hold a rigid 00:13:18.659 --> 00:13:20.879 structure. Couture was all about structure boning, 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:23.440 taffeta, stiffness. Jersey was the opposite of 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:25.720 that. So why did she use it? Two reasons, and 00:13:25.720 --> 00:13:28.759 both are classic Chanel. Functionality and cost. 00:13:29.279 --> 00:13:31.000 Remember, she was cost -conscious in the beginning. 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:34.039 Jersey was cheap. She bought surplus stock from 00:13:34.039 --> 00:13:36.679 a manufacturer named Rodier. But the bigger reason 00:13:36.679 --> 00:13:40.980 was the aha moment about what women needed. Exactly. 00:13:41.080 --> 00:13:44.360 The changing world. World War I meant women were 00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:46.840 working. They were nurses. They were in factories. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:49.419 They were volunteering. They couldn't be strapped 00:13:49.419 --> 00:13:51.759 into corsets. They needed to move. They needed 00:13:51.759 --> 00:13:54.379 to ride bicycles. They needed to be able to dress 00:13:54.379 --> 00:13:56.440 themselves without a maid because the maids were 00:13:56.440 --> 00:13:59.399 working in munitions factories. So she takes 00:13:59.399 --> 00:14:02.600 this cheap underwear fabric and turns it into 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:05.419 high fashion because it allows women to actually 00:14:05.419 --> 00:14:08.539 breathe and live. Precisely. She liberated the 00:14:08.539 --> 00:14:11.419 body. She made the poor look expensive. It's 00:14:11.419 --> 00:14:14.039 the ultimate subversion. She takes the fabric 00:14:14.039 --> 00:14:16.320 of the working class and sells it to the aristocracy. 00:14:16.539 --> 00:14:19.259 She basically said luxury must be comfortable. 00:14:19.340 --> 00:14:22.389 Otherwise, it is not luxury. And speaking of 00:14:22.389 --> 00:14:24.129 subversion, we have to talk about the suntan 00:14:24.129 --> 00:14:26.230 because this is another thing we take for granted 00:14:26.230 --> 00:14:29.049 now. But she basically invented the concept of 00:14:29.049 --> 00:14:30.990 the fashionable tan. She did. And you have to 00:14:30.990 --> 00:14:33.570 understand what a massive cultural shift this 00:14:33.570 --> 00:14:36.549 was. Historically, pale skin was the mark of 00:14:36.549 --> 00:14:38.289 the upper class. Right. It meant you didn't have 00:14:38.289 --> 00:14:40.549 to work in the fields. A tan was for peasants. 00:14:40.549 --> 00:14:43.259 It was a sign of labor. But Chanel goes to the 00:14:43.259 --> 00:14:45.340 Riviera, she spends too much time on a yacht 00:14:45.340 --> 00:14:47.720 with the Duke of Westminster, she sunbags, and 00:14:47.720 --> 00:14:50.080 she comes back to Paris bronzed. And because 00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:52.779 she is Chanel, suddenly a tan becomes a symbol 00:14:52.779 --> 00:14:55.620 of leisure. It means you have the time and money 00:14:55.620 --> 00:14:58.940 to sit on a yacht in the Mediterranean. She completely 00:14:58.940 --> 00:15:01.659 flipped the script on class markers, just with 00:15:01.659 --> 00:15:03.919 her own skin color. The power she had is just 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:06.080 staggering. And then, of course, the little black 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:10.759 dress. The LBD. 1926. Vogue publishes a drawing 00:15:10.759 --> 00:15:13.600 of a simple black Chanel dress. They called it 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:16.259 the Ford of fashion, referencing the Model T 00:15:16.259 --> 00:15:18.519 Ford. Which doesn't sound like a compliment for 00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:21.080 high fashion, but it was. It was a massive compliment. 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:23.740 It meant it was the new standard. It was modern, 00:15:23.899 --> 00:15:26.980 accessible, and ubiquitous. Before Chanel, black 00:15:26.980 --> 00:15:29.700 was for mourning or for servants. She made it 00:15:29.700 --> 00:15:32.139 chic. And I bet the establishment hated it. The 00:15:32.139 --> 00:15:34.419 male journalists hated it. They complained that 00:15:34.419 --> 00:15:36.460 there was no more bosom, no more stomach, no 00:15:36.460 --> 00:15:38.950 more rump. They said she was erasing. the female 00:15:38.950 --> 00:15:41.970 form. But Chanel didn't care. She said, I imposed 00:15:41.970 --> 00:15:44.590 black. It's still going strong today. And she 00:15:44.590 --> 00:15:47.190 was right. And it also became practical during 00:15:47.190 --> 00:15:49.330 the Depression. Absolutely essential. It was 00:15:49.330 --> 00:15:51.570 affordable elegance. You could have one good 00:15:51.570 --> 00:15:53.710 black dress and change the look with accessories. 00:15:53.909 --> 00:15:56.610 It was democratizing style. So by the late 20s 00:15:56.610 --> 00:16:00.029 and 30s, she is the queen of fashion. But she 00:16:00.029 --> 00:16:02.289 wants more. She wants into the perfume game. 00:16:02.529 --> 00:16:05.049 Yes. And this leads us to what I call the perfume 00:16:05.049 --> 00:16:08.009 war. This is a business saga that spans decades 00:16:08.009 --> 00:16:11.149 and gets incredibly nasty. This is the seed of 00:16:11.149 --> 00:16:14.629 the darkness that comes later. In 1921, she creates 00:16:14.629 --> 00:16:17.269 Chanel No. 5 with the perfumer Ernest Beaux. 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:20.159 It was revolutionary, the first perfume to use 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:23.100 aldehydes, which gave it that sparkle. But she 00:16:23.100 --> 00:16:25.519 couldn't make it and sell it on her own, not 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:27.879 at scale. No, she didn't have the manufacturing 00:16:27.879 --> 00:16:30.019 or distribution network to sell it globally. 00:16:30.279 --> 00:16:33.059 So in 1924, she strikes a deal with the Wertheimer 00:16:33.059 --> 00:16:35.039 brothers, Pierre and Paul. And who were they? 00:16:35.179 --> 00:16:37.120 They were the directors of the Bourgeois Perfume 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:39.460 House, the biggest cosmetic company in France 00:16:39.460 --> 00:16:42.000 at the time. They had the factories, the supply 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:44.860 chains, the global reach. And the breakdown of 00:16:44.860 --> 00:16:48.309 this deal is infamous. It is. The Wertheimers 00:16:48.309 --> 00:16:50.529 put up all the capital. They handle production, 00:16:50.809 --> 00:16:53.580 marketing, distribution, everything. For taking 00:16:53.580 --> 00:16:56.100 on all that risk and for providing all that infrastructure, 00:16:56.460 --> 00:16:59.539 they take 70 % of the profits. Okay. The broker 00:16:59.539 --> 00:17:02.059 who introduced them, Theophile Bader, who founded 00:17:02.059 --> 00:17:04.779 the Galleries Lafayette, he takes 20%. And Chanel. 00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:08.160 She gets 10%. 10%. Now, at the time, 10 % of 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:11.079 zero was zero. So maybe it seemed okay. At the 00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:12.980 time, she probably thought, I put in no money. 00:17:13.059 --> 00:17:15.740 I do no work. I get a check. It was passive income. 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:19.720 But once None 5 became the biggest selling perfume 00:17:19.720 --> 00:17:23.240 in the world, that 10 % nodded. her. She felt 00:17:23.240 --> 00:17:25.740 cheated. She felt completely cheated. She referred 00:17:25.740 --> 00:17:28.779 to Pierre Wertheimer as the bandit who screwed 00:17:28.779 --> 00:17:32.180 me. She spent the next 20 years obsessed with 00:17:32.180 --> 00:17:33.980 getting control of the company back. She hired 00:17:33.980 --> 00:17:36.339 lawyers. She sued them. She smeared them in the 00:17:36.339 --> 00:17:38.920 press. And that obsession leads us directly into 00:17:38.920 --> 00:17:41.319 the darkest chapter of her life, World War II. 00:17:41.519 --> 00:17:43.799 Yes. This is where the story shifts from a business 00:17:43.799 --> 00:17:48.900 drama to a war thriller. So 1939, war breaks 00:17:48.900 --> 00:17:52.680 out. What does Chanel do? She closes the couture 00:17:52.680 --> 00:17:57.180 house. Immediately. She fires 4 ,000 employees, 00:17:57.460 --> 00:17:59.259 putting them out on the street at the beginning 00:17:59.259 --> 00:18:02.380 of a war. What was her reasoning? The official 00:18:02.380 --> 00:18:04.759 line might have been, it's not a time for fashion, 00:18:04.859 --> 00:18:07.720 but sources suggest this was retaliation. There 00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:10.720 had been a general labor strike in 1936, where 00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:13.240 workers demanded higher wages and better conditions, 00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:16.430 and they locked her out of her own shop. Chanel 00:18:16.430 --> 00:18:19.470 never forgave him. So she saw the war as an opportunity 00:18:19.470 --> 00:18:22.829 for revenge. It seems so. She saw it as a chance 00:18:22.829 --> 00:18:24.950 to shut it all down and put those women out of 00:18:24.950 --> 00:18:27.670 work as punishment. That is incredibly petty. 00:18:27.990 --> 00:18:30.730 But what she does next is, well, it's treasonous. 00:18:30.750 --> 00:18:33.349 She moves into the Hotel Ritz. The Ritz was the 00:18:33.349 --> 00:18:35.589 headquarters for the German military staff in 00:18:35.589 --> 00:18:37.849 Paris. It was the epicenter of the occupation. 00:18:38.329 --> 00:18:40.490 She didn't just live there. She lived there comfortably 00:18:40.490 --> 00:18:43.069 in a luxury suite alongside the highest ranking 00:18:43.069 --> 00:18:45.910 German officers. And she takes a lover. Baron 00:18:45.910 --> 00:18:48.670 Hans Gunther von Dinklage, known as Spatz. Yes, 00:18:48.710 --> 00:18:51.630 Spatz. Tell us about him. He wasn't just some 00:18:51.630 --> 00:18:54.509 German aristocrat with a fancy title. He was 00:18:54.509 --> 00:18:57.269 an operative in military intelligence, the Abwehr. 00:18:57.470 --> 00:19:00.650 He had been a spy since the 1920s. He reported 00:19:00.650 --> 00:19:03.289 directly to Berlin. He was a professional intelligence 00:19:03.289 --> 00:19:05.849 officer. And he was her ticket to a comfortable 00:19:05.849 --> 00:19:09.849 life during the war. He was. He eased her life 00:19:09.849 --> 00:19:12.950 at the Ritz. He protected her. He was her ticket 00:19:12.950 --> 00:19:15.549 to safety and luxury while the rest of Paris 00:19:15.549 --> 00:19:18.569 was starving and freezing. And she decides to 00:19:18.569 --> 00:19:21.470 use the Nazi occupation to finally settle the 00:19:21.470 --> 00:19:24.430 score with the Wertheimers. This is truly damning. 00:19:24.450 --> 00:19:27.490 She attempts to use the Nazi Aryanization laws 00:19:27.490 --> 00:19:30.369 to seize the perfume company. Explain what those 00:19:30.369 --> 00:19:32.730 laws were. These were laws designed to strip 00:19:32.730 --> 00:19:34.849 Jews of their property, their businesses, their 00:19:34.849 --> 00:19:37.130 homes, their art, and hand it all over to Aryans. 00:19:37.210 --> 00:19:39.750 The Wertheimers were Jewish. So she weaponized 00:19:39.750 --> 00:19:42.930 anti -Semitism for business. She did. She petitions 00:19:42.930 --> 00:19:45.069 the German officials, writing that the company 00:19:45.069 --> 00:19:47.769 Parfums Chanel is still the property of Jews 00:19:47.769 --> 00:19:50.509 and claiming her indisputable right to sole ownership. 00:19:50.849 --> 00:19:52.690 She tries to use the Holocaust, essentially, 00:19:52.769 --> 00:19:54.529 to get a better business deal. That is chilling. 00:19:54.670 --> 00:19:57.609 Does it work? No. The Wertheimers were smart. 00:19:57.670 --> 00:20:00.029 They saw this coming. Before they fled to the 00:20:00.029 --> 00:20:02.769 U .S. in 1940, they legally transferred control 00:20:02.769 --> 00:20:05.109 of the company to a Christian friend, a French 00:20:05.109 --> 00:20:08.529 businessman named Felix Amiot. And who was Amiot? 00:20:08.849 --> 00:20:11.589 Amiot supplied aircraft to the Germans, so he 00:20:11.589 --> 00:20:13.809 was untouchable. He was a collaborator himself, 00:20:14.009 --> 00:20:16.170 but a useful one. So when the Germans looked 00:20:16.170 --> 00:20:18.069 into the perfume company, it was technically 00:20:18.069 --> 00:20:20.750 Aryan -owned. He was outmaneuvered? Completely. 00:20:21.390 --> 00:20:23.730 Amiot held the company for them throughout the 00:20:23.730 --> 00:20:25.769 war and then gave it right back to them afterward. 00:20:26.430 --> 00:20:29.490 Chanel was outmaneuvered by the very people she 00:20:29.490 --> 00:20:31.970 tried to destroy. But she didn't stop at trying 00:20:31.970 --> 00:20:33.609 to steal the business. She actually became an 00:20:33.609 --> 00:20:36.420 operative. We have the documents now. We do. 00:20:37.059 --> 00:20:39.180 Declassified files from the French Defense Ministry 00:20:39.180 --> 00:20:41.680 released after her death show she was listed 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:43.799 as an agent for German military intelligence, 00:20:44.140 --> 00:20:48.279 the Abwehr. Her agent number was F7124. And her 00:20:48.279 --> 00:20:50.480 codename was Westminster. Codename Westminster. 00:20:50.920 --> 00:20:53.420 Why that name? It was a nod to her previous affair 00:20:53.420 --> 00:20:55.380 with the Duke of Westminster, who was one of 00:20:55.380 --> 00:20:58.059 the wealthiest men in Britain. It again shows 00:20:58.059 --> 00:21:00.779 this bizarre mixing of her social life and her 00:21:00.779 --> 00:21:03.799 espionage. She treated international espionage 00:21:03.799 --> 00:21:07.000 like a social club. So what did Agent Westminster 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:09.980 actually do? Her big mission was called Operation 00:21:09.980 --> 00:21:13.519 Model Hut. Which means Model Hat. Model Hat. 00:21:13.579 --> 00:21:17.559 This was late in the war, 1943 into 1944. The 00:21:17.559 --> 00:21:20.210 Germans were losing. Some of the SS leadership, 00:21:20.549 --> 00:21:22.750 specifically Walter Schellenberg, who was high 00:21:22.750 --> 00:21:25.230 up in the intelligence service, wanted to broker 00:21:25.230 --> 00:21:27.789 a separate peace with Britain to avoid total 00:21:27.789 --> 00:21:30.029 annihilation. And Chanel thought she could help 00:21:30.029 --> 00:21:32.150 with this. She proposed that she could use her 00:21:32.150 --> 00:21:34.509 personal connection to Winston Churchill, who 00:21:34.509 --> 00:21:36.630 she knew from her days with the Duke of Westminster, 00:21:36.950 --> 00:21:39.410 to act as an intermediary. She thought she could 00:21:39.410 --> 00:21:41.549 just walk up to Churchill and end the war. Her 00:21:41.549 --> 00:21:44.250 ego was that big. She believed her charm and 00:21:44.250 --> 00:21:46.829 her connections could solve World War II. She 00:21:46.829 --> 00:21:54.769 travels to Madrid with her SS. And what happened? 00:21:54.970 --> 00:21:57.970 The whole plan collapsed immediately. She traveled 00:21:57.970 --> 00:22:00.130 with a woman named Vera Bate Lombardi, who was 00:22:00.130 --> 00:22:02.890 also connected to Churchill. But Lombardi, upon 00:22:02.890 --> 00:22:05.569 arriving in Madrid, realized she was being used 00:22:05.569 --> 00:22:08.650 as a pawn for the Nazis and promptly denounced 00:22:08.650 --> 00:22:11.440 Chanel as a spy to the British embassy. So the 00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:14.319 mission fails, the war ends, the Nazis are defeated, 00:22:14.619 --> 00:22:17.259 collaborators are being shaved bald and marched 00:22:17.259 --> 00:22:20.339 through the streets of Paris, or worse, executed. 00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:24.319 How on earth does Chanel escape justice? She 00:22:24.319 --> 00:22:27.039 is interrogated by the Free French Purge Committee 00:22:27.039 --> 00:22:29.680 in 1944, but she is released within a few hours. 00:22:29.940 --> 00:22:32.099 How is that possible? There was no documented 00:22:32.099 --> 00:22:34.140 evidence available at that moment to hold her. 00:22:34.259 --> 00:22:36.859 The files we have now were still hidden in German 00:22:36.859 --> 00:22:40.750 archives. But the rumors and her own claims persist 00:22:40.750 --> 00:22:43.069 that she played her trump card, Winston Churchill. 00:22:43.329 --> 00:22:45.950 She told people Churchill had me freed. Why would 00:22:45.950 --> 00:22:48.650 Churchill protect a Nazi agent? That is the million 00:22:48.650 --> 00:22:50.390 -dollar question. The prevailing theory is that 00:22:50.390 --> 00:22:52.910 Churchill wasn't protecting Chanel. He was protecting 00:22:52.910 --> 00:22:55.190 the British aristocracy and even members of the 00:22:55.190 --> 00:22:58.349 royal family. How so? Chanel knew everyone's 00:22:58.349 --> 00:23:01.470 secrets. She knew which powerful British figures 00:23:01.470 --> 00:23:03.569 had been sympathetic to the Nazis before the 00:23:03.569 --> 00:23:06.170 war. A public trial would have aired all that 00:23:06.170 --> 00:23:09.680 dirty laundry. It's very likely Churchill intervened 00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:11.839 to keep a quiet and prevent a massive scandal 00:23:11.839 --> 00:23:14.160 for the crown. So she goes into exile in Switzerland. 00:23:14.440 --> 00:23:16.799 Yeah. She's safe, but she's out of the game. 00:23:17.079 --> 00:23:19.319 For a while. She spends almost a decade in Switzerland 00:23:19.319 --> 00:23:22.440 living off her perfume money. But she's watching. 00:23:22.619 --> 00:23:25.740 She sees fashion changing. The 1950s come around 00:23:25.740 --> 00:23:28.799 and Christian Dior launches the new look. And 00:23:28.799 --> 00:23:31.660 she hates it. She loathes it. The new look was 00:23:31.660 --> 00:23:33.859 everything she fought against. It was cinched 00:23:33.859 --> 00:23:37.000 waist, padded hips, structured busts. It was 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:38.759 the return of the corset, essentially. It was 00:23:38.759 --> 00:23:40.839 heavy. It was restrictive. What did she say about 00:23:40.839 --> 00:23:43.980 it? She called it illogical. She said, Dior doesn't 00:23:43.980 --> 00:23:46.279 dress women. He upholsters them. She couldn't 00:23:46.279 --> 00:23:48.900 stand seeing her life's work of liberation being 00:23:48.900 --> 00:23:52.480 undone by a man. So in 1954, at over 70 years 00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:56.720 old, she decides to make a comeback. But she 00:23:56.720 --> 00:23:58.339 needs money. And this is the part that blows 00:23:58.339 --> 00:24:00.880 my mind. Yes. Who pays for the comeback? This 00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:04.200 is the ultimate irony. Pierre Wertheimer. The 00:24:04.200 --> 00:24:07.660 man she called a bandit. The man she tried to 00:24:07.660 --> 00:24:10.740 use the Nazis to destroy. He finances her return. 00:24:11.019 --> 00:24:13.779 Why? Why on earth would he do that? Business. 00:24:14.730 --> 00:24:18.250 Pure pragmatism. He owned the perfume. The perfume 00:24:18.250 --> 00:24:21.009 was still a cash cow, but the Chanel brand needed 00:24:21.009 --> 00:24:23.069 the glamour of the couture house to stay relevant. 00:24:23.549 --> 00:24:26.809 If Chanel faded into obscurity, the perfume might 00:24:26.809 --> 00:24:29.329 too. So he needed her name to sell his product. 00:24:29.529 --> 00:24:31.309 He needed her name. So they made a new deal, 00:24:31.410 --> 00:24:33.849 a much better deal for her this time. She got 00:24:33.849 --> 00:24:35.849 her wartime profits, which were huge, about $9 00:24:35.849 --> 00:24:38.990 million in today's money, plus 2 % of global 00:24:38.990 --> 00:24:42.170 matcher, five sales for life, and Wertheimer 00:24:42.170 --> 00:24:45.730 agreed to pay all her living expenses. Talk about 00:24:45.730 --> 00:24:48.190 failing upwards. She tried to ruin him, and he 00:24:48.190 --> 00:24:49.609 ended up paying her rent for the rest of her 00:24:49.609 --> 00:24:51.630 life. It's an incredible business story. So she 00:24:51.630 --> 00:24:54.809 opens her comeback show, 1954. What's the reaction? 00:24:55.369 --> 00:24:57.769 The French press destroyed her. They hadn't forgotten 00:24:57.769 --> 00:25:00.369 the war. They called the collection old -fashioned 00:25:00.369 --> 00:25:02.329 and made pointed references to her collaboration. 00:25:02.990 --> 00:25:05.309 They sat on their hands in silence. It was a 00:25:05.309 --> 00:25:08.039 disaster in Paris. But... The Americans and the 00:25:08.039 --> 00:25:10.299 British loved it. They didn't care as much about 00:25:10.299 --> 00:25:12.539 the politics. They cared about the clothes. Vogue 00:25:12.539 --> 00:25:15.339 US hailed it as a breakthrough. They loved the 00:25:15.339 --> 00:25:17.900 youthful elegance and the comfort. And an editor 00:25:17.900 --> 00:25:20.460 bought a suit, right? Yes. Bettina Ballard, a 00:25:20.460 --> 00:25:22.839 Vogue editor, bought a suit for herself right 00:25:22.839 --> 00:25:25.680 after the show. And that sparked the sales in 00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:28.059 the US. The American market saved her. And this 00:25:28.059 --> 00:25:29.900 is when we get the icons that we know today. 00:25:30.490 --> 00:25:33.549 The definitive versions. Yes. The comeback gave 00:25:33.549 --> 00:25:35.509 us the Chanel suit as we know it. And again, 00:25:35.569 --> 00:25:37.849 this is about engineering as much as style. The 00:25:37.849 --> 00:25:39.890 jacket was cut on the straight grain so it didn't 00:25:39.890 --> 00:25:42.369 buckle or pull. No stiffening. No shoulder pads. 00:25:42.630 --> 00:25:44.769 And the chain and the hem. The famous gold chain 00:25:44.769 --> 00:25:47.549 sewn into the silk lining of the hem just to 00:25:47.549 --> 00:25:49.730 make it hang perfectly flat. It was all about 00:25:49.730 --> 00:25:52.750 function. I read about the bus test. Yes. She 00:25:52.750 --> 00:25:55.269 would make models step up onto a platform as 00:25:55.269 --> 00:25:57.369 if they were climbing the high step of a bus 00:25:57.369 --> 00:25:59.349 or bend down like they were getting into a low 00:25:59.349 --> 00:26:02.269 sports car. If the skirt hiked up too much or 00:26:02.269 --> 00:26:04.569 the armhole restricted movement, she would rip 00:26:04.569 --> 00:26:06.910 it apart and start over. It had to work for modern 00:26:06.910 --> 00:26:11.369 life. And the bag? The 2 .55? Launched in February 00:26:11.369 --> 00:26:16.990 1955. Hence the name, 2 .55. And this bag is 00:26:16.990 --> 00:26:19.769 an autobiography in leather. How so? The shoulder 00:26:19.769 --> 00:26:22.609 strap. She was tired of holding clutches at parties. 00:26:22.849 --> 00:26:25.410 She wanted her hands free for a drink and a cigarette 00:26:25.410 --> 00:26:27.630 like a soldier's bag. Okay, that makes sense. 00:26:27.829 --> 00:26:30.890 The chain strap. It echoes the chalains, the 00:26:30.890 --> 00:26:33.369 keychains, worn by the nun caretakers at the 00:26:33.369 --> 00:26:36.130 orphanage. The burgundy lining, that was the 00:26:36.130 --> 00:26:38.529 color of the convent uniforms. The quilting, 00:26:38.609 --> 00:26:41.470 inspired by the jockey jackets she saw in her 00:26:41.470 --> 00:26:43.910 days with Etienne Balsan. She literally carried 00:26:43.910 --> 00:26:46.329 her entire history on her shoulder. And sold 00:26:46.329 --> 00:26:48.849 it to the world as the ultimate status symbol. 00:26:49.049 --> 00:26:50.950 Let's touch on the jewelry before we wrap up 00:26:50.950 --> 00:26:53.319 the legacy. Yeah. Because she had a very specific 00:26:53.319 --> 00:26:55.980 philosophy there, too. She revolutionized jewelry 00:26:55.980 --> 00:26:59.259 by mixing the real with the fake. She would wear 00:26:59.259 --> 00:27:01.880 massive ropes of faux pearls mixed with real 00:27:01.880 --> 00:27:05.119 gemstones from her aristocratic lovers. Her attitude 00:27:05.119 --> 00:27:07.740 was, it's disgusting to walk around with millions 00:27:07.740 --> 00:27:10.259 around the neck. I only like fake jewelry because 00:27:10.259 --> 00:27:12.839 it's provocative. She made costume jewelry chic. 00:27:13.079 --> 00:27:15.740 She made it a statement. She decoupled value 00:27:15.740 --> 00:27:18.500 from preciousness. It was about style, not just 00:27:18.500 --> 00:27:21.940 wealth. So in her final years, she's rich, she's 00:27:21.940 --> 00:27:24.900 successful, the brand is back on top. Was she 00:27:24.900 --> 00:27:28.119 happy? By all accounts, no. She became tyrannical, 00:27:28.220 --> 00:27:31.500 bitter, and incredibly lonely. She worked constantly. 00:27:31.619 --> 00:27:34.400 She was a habitual morphine user, a habit she'd 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:37.839 had since 1935. Morphine? Yes. She would inject 00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:41.119 herself to sleep. she died in 1971 at the ritz 00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:43.420 the same hotel she lived in with the nazis her 00:27:43.420 --> 00:27:46.359 home for over 30 years her final words to her 00:27:46.359 --> 00:27:50.470 maid were you see this is how you die wow Stark 00:27:50.470 --> 00:27:52.750 to the end. It is. So let's try to synthesize 00:27:52.750 --> 00:27:55.670 this. We have this woman who is a genius of design, 00:27:55.869 --> 00:27:58.910 a pioneer of feminism and fashion, but also a 00:27:58.910 --> 00:28:01.190 collaborator, a liar, and a generally difficult 00:28:01.190 --> 00:28:04.349 human being. How do we reconcile that? I think 00:28:04.349 --> 00:28:06.349 we have to view her through the lens of functionalism 00:28:06.349 --> 00:28:08.190 and survival. She was a functionalist in her 00:28:08.190 --> 00:28:10.009 clothes pockets, comfortable fabrics, freedom 00:28:10.009 --> 00:28:12.509 of movement, but she was also a functionalist 00:28:12.509 --> 00:28:14.990 in her morals. She did whatever worked. Whatever 00:28:14.990 --> 00:28:17.859 she needed to do to survive and to win. Exactly. 00:28:18.039 --> 00:28:20.339 When she was poor, she used men to get rich. 00:28:20.579 --> 00:28:23.279 When she needed fabric, she used cheap jersey. 00:28:23.579 --> 00:28:26.599 When the Nazis occupied Paris, she used them 00:28:26.599 --> 00:28:28.640 to stay in the Ritz and try to crush her business 00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:31.180 partners. She was utterly ruthless about her 00:28:31.180 --> 00:28:33.779 own survival and comfort. You can't separate 00:28:33.779 --> 00:28:38.420 the genius from the darkness. The 2 .55 bag literally 00:28:38.420 --> 00:28:41.579 carries the memories of the orphanage. The perfume 00:28:41.579 --> 00:28:44.890 bottle might be a lover's whiskey decanter. The 00:28:44.890 --> 00:28:47.029 business empire exists because she made a deal 00:28:47.029 --> 00:28:49.049 with the devil and then another deal with the 00:28:49.049 --> 00:28:51.269 people she tried to destroy. Exactly. And she 00:28:51.269 --> 00:28:53.250 died thinking she had controlled the narrative 00:28:53.250 --> 00:28:56.430 that she had won. But here's a final provocative 00:28:56.430 --> 00:28:59.109 thought for our listeners. When she died, she 00:28:59.109 --> 00:29:01.910 had plans for a monumental state funeral in Paris. 00:29:02.170 --> 00:29:04.329 She wanted to be celebrated as a French icon. 00:29:04.609 --> 00:29:06.549 And what happened? As soon as she passed, French 00:29:06.549 --> 00:29:08.250 intelligence released some of those damaging 00:29:08.250 --> 00:29:10.609 documents we talked about. The files on Agent 00:29:10.609 --> 00:29:13.569 Westminster. Suddenly, the truth was out. The 00:29:13.569 --> 00:29:16.210 funeral plans were quietly scaled back. The state 00:29:16.210 --> 00:29:18.849 stayed away. She was buried quietly in Switzerland. 00:29:19.150 --> 00:29:21.349 The truth always catches up eventually. It does. 00:29:21.549 --> 00:29:23.430 So here is the question for you listening today. 00:29:23.569 --> 00:29:25.250 Next time you walk through a department store 00:29:25.250 --> 00:29:27.329 and you see that white box with the black edges 00:29:27.329 --> 00:29:32.450 or you see the double C logo on a handbag. Does 00:29:32.450 --> 00:29:35.369 knowing the origin of the brand, the attempt 00:29:35.369 --> 00:29:38.170 to use Nazi laws to seize the business, the spy 00:29:38.170 --> 00:29:42.059 number F7124. Does that change how you see the 00:29:42.059 --> 00:29:44.319 luxury? Or is the brand now bigger than the woman? 00:29:44.740 --> 00:29:47.819 Has it successfully outlived her sins? That is 00:29:47.819 --> 00:29:49.279 the question. Thanks for diving deep with us. 00:29:49.299 --> 00:29:49.940 We'll see you in the next one.