Coco Chanel Shacked Up With A Nazi Spy & Did Drugs, New Book Reveals

If Coco Chanel designed for liberated female customers, it may have been because she counted herself among them.

Women's Wear Daily reports that a new book entitled "Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life" contains juicy details about the couturier's exciting romantic history, which apparently included an open attitude towards bisexuality, an affair with then-married Salvador Dalí and a German boyfriend named Hans Günther von Dincklage who also might have been a Nazi spy. Biographer Lisa Chaney also chronicles Coco's drug habit (opiates, of course). Who knew?

From Penguin's summary:

Unearthing an astonishing life, this remarkable biography shows how, more than any previous designer, Chanel became synonymous with a rebellious and progressive style. [...] Drawing on newly discovered love letters and other records, Chaney's controversial book reveals the truth about Chanel's drug habit and lesbian affairs. [...] While uniquely highlighting the designer's far-reaching influence on the modern arts, Chaney's fascinating biography paints a deeper and darker picture of Coco Chanel than any so far. Movingly, it explores the origins, the creative power, and the secret suffering of this exceptional and often misread woman.

Plenty has been made of Chanel's eclectic past, including two recent movies. "Coco Before Chanel" features her romance with Arthur "Boy" Capel plus dalliances with a baron or two, while "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky" highlights her romance with the Russian composer. She also served as the subject matter for the recently re-released "Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life" by Justine Picardie, with illustrations by Karl Lagerfeld, who once remarked, Coco "wasn't only a designer -- she was a woman of her time."

Head to WWD.com for more details on "Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life" by Lisa Chaney.

Comments

[Brett Tonaille]

03:29 PM on 08/21/2011

The simple fact is that few people acted with courage under the Occupation. Jean Cocteau, it is said, refused to intervene to get Max Jacob out of an internment camp (where he died). Maurice Chevalier sang songs about how wonderful things were under the Nazis.
Still, the perfume house's claim that she couldn't have done this because she partnered with a Jew after the war is laughable. She was a feral opportunist. She partnered with whomever was on top at the time.
And of course those who wear her perfume don't care. Anymore than people who admire Polanski's films care about his raping a 13-year-old. Artists of every sort really do seem to live in an alternate moral space.

[Gavin Bishop]

02:36 PM on 08/17/2011

Coco should have given Heinrich Himmler a few fashion pointers on redesigning those clunky looking Schutzstaffel uniforms. Poor Heinrich...didn't he know laughing death skulls & double lightning bolt insignia went out style shortly after the fall of the Visigoths?

[AnaM]

07:33 AM on 08/04/2011

This is not news. The biggest mistake I made as a teenager (more than a decade ago) was read about Gabrielle Chanel. It really overturns the myth. She basically slept her way to the top (her lovers financed her) and wasn't well regarded after it was known that she had a relationship with a Nazi during WWII. I don't understand the big deal about her. Her clothes are designed with a limited physical range of women in mind.
Without Karl Lagerfeld at the helm, the brand of Chanel would have faded long ago. I think Lagerfeld deserves more kudos than her. Gabrielle Chanel reached her creative limit (YSL produced more innovations than her) and her return collection didn't really fare well.
The House of Chanel must be looking to be promoting something new for yet another biography.

[An Independent Woman]

10:56 AM on 08/04/2011

I'd always thought that Chanel was groundbreaking in that she designed clothes for active, involved women and not tea drinking mannequins. As for her clothes "being designed with a limited physical range of women in mind", don't all designers design for tall, ultra thin women or have I just missed the plus-size and dumpy issues of Vogue?

[tangelan]

08:54 PM on 08/03/2011

So she's going to get another movie?

[Rita Foster]

11:47 PM on 08/02/2011

It matters not. I love her parfume.

[Havana Thinks]

03:38 AM on 08/05/2011

absolutely, Rita, she knew how to make women smell like a lady!

[cardiaccare]

10:55 PM on 08/02/2011

Chanel #19 is heavenly. Thank you, CoCo.

[Chad Wheeler]

12:20 PM on 08/03/2011

I am sure you are probably already aware of this, but they just did an update of #19. I have not had a chance to sample it yet but am terribly afraid they will make it boring and friendly. This is a fragrance I wear when I am looking for as much confidence as possible.

[Havana Thinks]

03:41 AM on 08/05/2011

2 Tequila sunrises can accomplish that!

[Kathleen Shimp]

10:52 PM on 08/02/2011

Breaking news: The rich and famous are human. Details at 11.

[Cindy Pardy]

08:45 PM on 08/02/2011

I was at the most 10 years old when my dad gave me a bottle of Chanel º5 when he returned from being out of town. A classy man that father of mine is.

[samuraifrog37]

09:54 PM on 08/02/2011

Best drank on the rocks

[Havana Thinks]

03:46 AM on 08/05/2011

actually, best used to cover up what you drank on the rocks & on the 5th floor & in the teachers' lounge----so, I've heard.......

[Madeleine Douglas]

05:08 PM on 08/02/2011

I agree that, THANK GOD, genius... or even garden variety creativity, do not lead to a "normal" life....but my main point is this: Chanel died 40 years ago at age 88 and was written about, talked about, had biorgaphies written about her... for DECADES. So far, nothing that seems to be in this "new" book is actually NEW. The affairs with men....YAWN...affairs with women....YAWN.... the Nazi she lived out WW II with at the Ritz in Paris, her Anti-Semitsim....old news....even the opiate use. I'll read this book because it is always great reading when it's about Chanel... but I'll be surprised if there is much in it that's not been in other literary sources on Chanel.

[avacat]

02:22 PM on 08/02/2011

True genius is not always compatible with a 'normal' life..Thank God.

[KadejaLatefah]

07:52 PM on 08/02/2011

a drop of Chanel No.5 will cure any bad day!

[samuraifrog37]

09:55 PM on 08/02/2011

Best served on the rocks.

[Godiva]

01:58 PM on 08/02/2011

Also, there is a great documentary on Coco, on Netflix for those of you who still have the service.

[Godiva]

01:55 PM on 08/02/2011

I recall being a 12 year old and my mother returning from one of her trips with small bottles of Coco (for me) and No 5 for my sister. Those were the days.

[editboy]

10:40 AM on 08/02/2011

Ths is not news, people have known this for years as Coco didn't really care what anyone thought at all.

[jeana21]

09:43 AM on 08/02/2011

Coco loved the taco, who would have thought...(sarcasm at work)

[NoSillyName]

12:20 PM on 08/02/2011

gross reference.

[wwwTHENOIREFFECTcom]

09:24 AM on 08/02/2011

I'm SHOCKED! :)