History | Friend of the British or agent of the Nazis? Fashion designer Coco Chanel played with many cards during the war

London

All know Chanel jackets, bags and perfumes. Less is known for sure about what the legendary French fashion designer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel dabbled during World War II.

Was he a friend of the British? Or a Nazi agent? At least her male friends included a British duke and a Nazi spy.

The fashion exhibition opening at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum on Saturday, September 16 sheds light on Chanel’s (1883–1971) political connections with archival materials that have never been shown before.

According to the exhibited documents, Chanel would have been essentially a French patriot: she belonged to the French Resistance.

All right it’s still just that nothing is completely clear. Chanel played with many cards.

According to French documents, Chanel was active in the resistance movement from January 1943 to April 1944. The documents do not say what she did. The membership rating was O, the lowest of the three: occasionally they help.

The samples also have a certificate of membership of the resistance movement granted to Chanel in 1957.

In Nazi Germany instead, Chanel was classified as a “trusted source”. He had even been given an agent number and an agent name: Westminster.

Westminster refers to Chanel’s close ties to British circles. He had belonged to Britain’s wartime prime minister Winston Churchill acquaintance already in the 1920s. Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940.

According to the exhibition, it is not certain whether Chanel herself knew about her Nazi agent status.

Chanel’s male friends included a German gentleman Hans Günther von Dincklagewho was revealed to be a spy for Nazi Germany even before the war.

The relationship warmed up during the war – possibly because Chanel wanted to help her nephew who had become a prisoner of war.

When the British interrogated the Nazis after the war, one officer claimed that Chanel and her friends had been washed into the German intelligence operation in Madrid in 1943.

The purpose had been to establish a direct connection with Churchill through Chanel.

The name of the operation was Modelhut (fashion hat).

However, the project – if it even existed – dried up.

to Britain Chanel already had strong connections at the beginning of the 20th century. He has been described as an Anglophile.

The connections were both professional and romantic, the exhibition says.

Chanel drew from the British Isles’ tweed traditions and leisurewear. He used British materials and opened a salon in London.

Male friends included a polo-playing ship’s mate Arthur “Boy” Capel mixed Hugh Grosvenor i.e. the Duke of Westminster.

The French woman’s down-to-earth style attracted British men.

“Coco came here for Violet [herttuan vaimo] in exchange for. He [Coco] fishes from morning to night and has already caught 50 salmon in two months. She’s very pleasant – she can handle a man like a man, and could run an empire, for example,” Winston Churchill described Chanel in a letter he sent to his wife from the duke’s Scottish estate in the 1920s.

Churchill also painted a portrait of Chanel with a dachshund.

of London–show (Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto) has been seen in Paris before, but without many British-related information and documents.

And if the documents don’t interest you, there’s also eye candy in the exhibition: around 200 Chanel outfits, accessories and perfumes.