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I was a rebellious child,
a rebellious lover,
2
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a rebellious fashion designer,
a true Lucifer.
3
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Did I have any idea
of the revolution
4
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that I was about to stir up
in clothing?
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One world was ending,
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another was about to be born.
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An opportunity beckoned - I took it.
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She would have been looked
down upon as a tradesperson
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and she takes her revenge on
the respectable women of her era
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and she turns the trade into an art
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and she turns the art into
a multimillion dollar fortune,
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and she turns the little orphan girl
into the most glamorous woman
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of her age,
who's recognised by one name.
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It represents luxury
and money and affluence.
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You know, she took the masculine
idea but kept it very feminine.
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I mean, you can be knotty
and look wonderful in Chanel.
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She modelled the clothes
better than anyone else.
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When she was dying, she was furious.
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She wanted to live forever.
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That her vision has been somehow
projected onto you and me
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and everyone else
who is a woman today
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is a level of will,
desire and power.
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There's one person I think
we can compare Chanel to
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and that's Steve Jobs.
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People think in simplistic terms
about figures like Chanel.
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So she's either, you know, a
feminist heroine or a Nazi spy.
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It's a rags to riches story.
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There's something fairy tale
about it, but with a darkness.
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And there is a darkness at the heart
of all great fairy tales.
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We are in the main storage
of Patrimoine in north of Paris.
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Patrimoine is a kind
of magical collection
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of one-century-old Chanel
with more than 100,000 items.
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So it's really a kind of
magical museum
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with already nearly 1,000 looks
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dating from the moment
of Gabrielle Chanel.
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Her real name, of course,
was Gabrielle Chanel,
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and her nickname was Coco Chanel.
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We have 150 books
written about Chanel.
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You have also personal
development book,
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so if you want to be empowered
as a woman,
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look at the empowerment
of Gabrielle Chanel.
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You have also child's book.
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But still, every year, my team
is approached by writers
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who want to write something.
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There is a kind of inexhaustible
appetite for Chanel's life.
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It's much better to be mysterious
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if you want to leave
an image of glory.
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I mean, if people know everything
that's down-to-earth about you,
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you have no interest any more.
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You're just like everybody else.
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It's very clever.
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She's one of the most painted
and photographed icons
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and yet to approach, as a
biographer, a woman like Chanel,
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is an enormous challenge
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because she's always
holding something back.
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Jean Cocteau, who was a great friend
of hers, draws her without a face.
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And I think that some of
that mystery clearly relates
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to her own sense of shame
about her past.
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There's so much about her past
that she kept hidden.
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This evening, it's in St Moritz
that I begin telling you
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the story of my past life.
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It's in a brightly-lit hotel,
where the rich take their pleasure.
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But, for me, in the Switzerland
of today,
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just as in the Auvergne
of yesteryear,
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I have only ever found loneliness.
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It is loneliness that has forged
my character.
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My hair is still black,
rather like a horse's mane.
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My skin is dark like the lava
from our mountains.
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And my character is as black
as the core of a land
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that has never capitulated.
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When I observe
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how early happiness
handicaps people,
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I do not regret having been
deeply unhappy to begin with.
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INTERVIEWER: So what did she tell
you about her childhood?
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Nothing.
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She never talked
about her childhood.
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Why was that, do you think?
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Well, I think that she
didn't want to reveal herself.
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She didn't tell people
about herself.
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She's born in 1883, illegitimate,
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in Catholic France.
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She was born in a poor house.
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Her mother was a washerwoman.
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Her father was a rogue.
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An itinerant peddler
who was travelling around
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the country market towns of France.
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He sold little bits of ribbon
and needles and threads and lace,
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but he was unsuccessful.
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You know, he drinks too much,
he's incorrigible, womaniser,
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and she just grew up in chaos
and poverty and squalor.
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Her mother died probably
of a combination of pneumonia,
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of exhaustion,
of too many pregnancies.
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The five children were alone
with her
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and would have been with
her as she was dying.
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BELL TOLLS
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Chanel told stories
to keep herself going
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and they always varied.
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She was obsessed with erasing
the facts of her childhood
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and early life, which make it very
difficult for any biographer.
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At the age of six,
I'm already alone.
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My mother has just died.
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My father deposits me like a
millstone at the house of my aunt
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and leaves immediately
for America,
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from which he will never return.
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She, at times, said she was six
when her mother died.
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In fact, she was 11.
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And she says that her father went
to America to seek his fortune,
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which isn't true.
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He just carried on
on his reckless journeys
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around the market towns of France,
drinking a lot.
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She says that she was brought up
by two very severe black-clad aunts.
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But what seems likely
is that the aunts
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become a different way of talking
about the nuns at the convent.
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The three girls were actually
deposited in an orphanage.
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This very, very remote place
in the mountains of central France
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that was run by Catholic nuns.
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Hello.
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All of this park here
was the orphanage.
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Where would Chanel have slept?
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Under the eaves,
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which had been turned
into a dormitory.
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She never really wanted to say
that she was here.
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And I can understand why.
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She was not an orphan.
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Her father said,
"I'm going to make money
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"and I will come back and get you."
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But he never came back.
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Chat Chanel. Chat Chanel.
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Now we have Chat Chanel
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and the abbey belongs to him.
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At that time, the women,
they exist because of men.
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But the girls, when they leave here,
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they all had a "metier".
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Erm... A job.
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Upstairs was where they learned
how to sew,
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and they were well known
for their embroidery.
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They were making money
selling the marriage trousseau
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to the rich people of Brive.
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This is a girl who watched
her mother suffer and die,
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and I think she learned from
the nuns that a woman needed
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not to depend on a man
and that the only person
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she could really rely on
was herself.
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It's so clear where Chanel's
aesthetic comes from.
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The black and the white,
which is so famous.
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That's what the nuns wear.
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A string of pearls is like a rosary.
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You know, you hold it for comfort,
perhaps.
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So, yes, you could say, well,
why does she hide all this?
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But she doesn't. Everything
is revealed in her designs.
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And fashion has no power
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without some inner truth.
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And there is its inner truth -
in Chanel's childhood.
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I have been ungrateful
to the wicked aunts.
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I owe them everything.
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A rebellious child makes for
a well-prepared
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and very strong human being.
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The double C intertwined...
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..represent the circle
of our life on Earth
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with the life eternal.
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When she is looking
for a distinctive sign
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for her house of creations,
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erm, I think this is going to
come back to her.
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Well, she was looking at a very
grim life as a seamstress
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in the provinces, probably marrying
a farmer or a shopkeeper.
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She was, of course, respectable
as a convent girl.
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But at 20, when she was sent
to work in a garrison town
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that was dominated by the army
and hot young men,
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and she became the darling
of the officers
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and was singing in cabarets.
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She lost whatever claim to
respectability she might have had,
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and that was the beginning
of her real life.
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She never really explained
where the name Coco came from.
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She said that her father
called her Coco. "Mon petit Coco."
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But there was a moment when
she was singing in cabaret
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and the song she was singing
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was Qui C'est Qu'a Vu Coco
Dans l'Trocadero.
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"Coco was a little dog",
you know?
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So maybe it's this Coco?
We don't know.
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In a nightclub, she meets her first
known lover, Etienne Balsan,
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who was this rich, dashing
young cavalry officer,
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and he offers her a way out
of being a seamstress.
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She then goes to live with him.
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He has a chateau near Paris
and he's got a string of racehorses
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and he plays polo. He's also
got a string of mistresses.
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And she arrives in this world
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and she's not the main mistress
at this point.
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There's another,
more important mistress.
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Emilienne d'Alencon, who was
one of the great horizontals
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of the Belle Epoque, and she was
sort of a mentor to Chanel,
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and Chanel would have learned
all kinds of tricks of the trade.
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I'm not talking about sex so much,
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but how you make your living
by your charm.
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Keeping one of these women
was a great status symbol
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00:13:05,923 --> 00:13:07,483
for men of the upper classes.
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00:13:07,483 --> 00:13:09,643
What were the women doing in return?
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They were providing the kind
of sex that they couldn't get
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00:13:12,483 --> 00:13:14,803
from their respectable wives.
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00:13:14,803 --> 00:13:17,643
And they were providing
the kind of glamour
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00:13:17,643 --> 00:13:21,043
that they couldn't get
from respectable women at all.
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But also, she would have learned
about the precarity
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00:13:25,323 --> 00:13:27,123
of these relationships.
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00:13:27,123 --> 00:13:30,283
These were working women.
They were working for their lovers.
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00:13:30,283 --> 00:13:32,883
They gave the illusion
of being in control,
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00:13:32,883 --> 00:13:35,243
and I think that was part
of their erotic attraction,
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00:13:35,243 --> 00:13:37,123
but, in fact, they weren't.
206
00:13:37,123 --> 00:13:39,523
They could be dropped at any point
and often were.
207
00:13:41,883 --> 00:13:45,723
It's possible that she
got pregnant by him.
208
00:13:45,723 --> 00:13:49,843
It's possible that she had
a botched abortion
209
00:13:49,843 --> 00:13:53,083
or miscarriage, which made it
impossible for her to have children
210
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later in life.
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00:13:54,523 --> 00:13:58,763
It's also possible
that she had a baby boy.
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00:14:00,123 --> 00:14:04,603
What we do know is that
both her sisters died
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00:14:04,603 --> 00:14:06,643
in very tragic circumstances.
214
00:14:06,643 --> 00:14:10,443
One of a suicide,
the other drank herself to death.
215
00:14:10,443 --> 00:14:13,443
And she brought up Andre,
216
00:14:13,443 --> 00:14:18,323
who she said was her sister's son,
like a son.
217
00:14:18,323 --> 00:14:20,643
She loved him like a son.
218
00:14:20,643 --> 00:14:24,403
One of the many mysteries
that we'll never know about.
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00:14:30,883 --> 00:14:34,723
I had followed Etienne
and I was living in Compiegne.
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00:14:34,723 --> 00:14:38,123
I was very bored,
constantly weeping.
221
00:14:38,123 --> 00:14:42,363
The only happy times were those
I spent on horseback in the forest.
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I learned to ride.
223
00:14:45,363 --> 00:14:48,683
I met an Englishman,
more than handsome.
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He was magnificent.
225
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I fell in love with him.
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00:14:54,683 --> 00:14:56,883
I had never loved Etienne.
227
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The name of the handsome Englishman
was Boy Capel.
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00:15:02,883 --> 00:15:08,123
Boy Capel. From him, that's where
the great Anglophile influence
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00:15:08,123 --> 00:15:12,603
in Chanel's life, tastes
and clothing, comes from.
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00:15:14,123 --> 00:15:18,123
These men, in their jodhpurs,
in their hunting jackets,
231
00:15:18,123 --> 00:15:20,523
with their britches,
with their boots,
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00:15:20,523 --> 00:15:25,123
the glamour of that world, of
country life and of the sobriety,
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00:15:25,123 --> 00:15:31,843
which she understood was
a facade for, erm, hedonism.
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00:15:31,843 --> 00:15:33,283
And mastery.
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00:15:34,363 --> 00:15:37,523
They walked through life
with an assurance
236
00:15:37,523 --> 00:15:40,363
in their beautiful,
tailored clothes.
237
00:15:40,363 --> 00:15:43,363
They walked through life
with this swagger...
238
00:15:43,363 --> 00:15:47,963
..that Chanel wanted in some
deep way to claim for women
239
00:15:47,963 --> 00:15:50,043
and to claim for herself.
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00:15:55,643 --> 00:15:58,883
She began to dress herself
with jodhpurs,
241
00:15:58,883 --> 00:16:02,603
with the little vest of
the "garcon d'ecurie",
242
00:16:02,603 --> 00:16:06,083
and she began the natural look,
243
00:16:06,083 --> 00:16:08,403
which amazed everyone.
244
00:16:09,483 --> 00:16:15,123
She rejected the look of courtesans
and other kept women,
245
00:16:15,123 --> 00:16:18,363
and instead adopted the look
of her male protectors.
246
00:16:20,123 --> 00:16:23,683
There is a photograph of Chanel
at the races from 1907
247
00:16:23,683 --> 00:16:26,603
and she's wearing a borrowed
men's overcoat
248
00:16:26,603 --> 00:16:29,283
and a very simple straw boater hat,
249
00:16:29,283 --> 00:16:31,843
which just has a little ribbon
around the brim,
250
00:16:31,843 --> 00:16:34,883
and it really is quite a departure
251
00:16:34,883 --> 00:16:37,803
from what the other people
at the races were wearing.
252
00:16:41,883 --> 00:16:47,083
When he met Chanel, Boy understood
that she needed to express herself.
253
00:16:47,083 --> 00:16:50,643
And she wanted to make hats
254
00:16:50,643 --> 00:16:54,883
because all the beautiful friends
of Etienne love the hats
255
00:16:54,883 --> 00:16:57,323
that she was fabricating
in her room.
256
00:16:57,323 --> 00:17:00,043
And Boy gave her her chance.
257
00:17:06,843 --> 00:17:10,523
1914 - the war.
258
00:17:10,523 --> 00:17:13,123
Capel persuaded me to withdraw
to Deauville,
259
00:17:13,123 --> 00:17:15,563
where he rented a villa
for his ponies.
260
00:17:15,563 --> 00:17:19,163
Many elegant ladies had come
to Deauville.
261
00:17:19,163 --> 00:17:23,123
Not only did they need to have
hats made for them, but because
262
00:17:23,123 --> 00:17:27,763
there were no dressmakers,
they had to be properly attired.
263
00:17:27,763 --> 00:17:30,603
I only had milliners with me.
264
00:17:30,603 --> 00:17:33,523
I converted them into dressmakers.
265
00:17:33,523 --> 00:17:36,643
Arthur Capel saw her
beyond a mistress,
266
00:17:36,643 --> 00:17:39,163
he saw her as a kind of
business genius,
267
00:17:39,163 --> 00:17:43,323
and he was the one who bankrolled
her first shop.
268
00:17:44,403 --> 00:17:48,923
What was needed was simplicity,
comfort and neatness.
269
00:17:48,923 --> 00:17:51,883
Unwittingly, I offered all of that.
270
00:17:52,963 --> 00:17:56,443
Within the Deauville boutique,
she was able to offer these garments
271
00:17:56,443 --> 00:17:59,243
made of jersey,
which were her first garments.
272
00:17:59,243 --> 00:18:02,763
She had looked at men's underwear
and really seen the value
273
00:18:02,763 --> 00:18:07,283
of a fabric that was really seen as
quite a humble material previously,
274
00:18:07,283 --> 00:18:11,123
and she was quite radical in this
because jersey was not seen
275
00:18:11,123 --> 00:18:14,163
as a fabric for fashionable women
to wear.
276
00:18:18,123 --> 00:18:23,643
In a way, the secret of her genius
is what her great rival, Poiret,
277
00:18:23,643 --> 00:18:27,883
called "misere de luxe",
which is "luxurious poverty".
278
00:18:27,883 --> 00:18:31,843
Very simple, common fabrics -
cotton jersey,
279
00:18:31,843 --> 00:18:33,723
not luxurious fabrics at all.
280
00:18:33,723 --> 00:18:36,643
She took the deprivation
of her childhood
281
00:18:36,643 --> 00:18:40,003
and she turned it into something
sumptuous and desirable.
282
00:19:07,883 --> 00:19:11,643
By inventing jersey,
I liberated the body,
283
00:19:11,643 --> 00:19:15,603
I discarded the waist,
I created a new shape.
284
00:19:15,603 --> 00:19:18,203
In order to conform to it,
285
00:19:18,203 --> 00:19:22,603
all of my customers, with the help
of the war, became slim.
286
00:19:22,603 --> 00:19:24,883
Slim like Coco.
287
00:19:24,883 --> 00:19:28,043
Women came to me to buy
their slim figures.
288
00:19:29,603 --> 00:19:32,203
It's really Earth shattering.
289
00:19:32,203 --> 00:19:35,483
It's a change in body shape,
it's a change in diet,
290
00:19:35,483 --> 00:19:38,523
it's a change in, erm...in movement.
291
00:19:39,603 --> 00:19:42,523
It's paradoxical.
On the one hand, it frees the body,
292
00:19:42,523 --> 00:19:45,123
on the other hand,
it puts the pressure on you
293
00:19:45,123 --> 00:19:47,803
to have a body that can
support itself.
294
00:19:47,803 --> 00:19:51,883
Corsets held up your bosom,
they held in your waist.
295
00:19:51,883 --> 00:19:56,683
You take away the corset and you
have to develop stomach muscles
296
00:19:56,683 --> 00:19:59,123
and you have to be slim,
297
00:19:59,123 --> 00:20:04,643
so it creates an anxiety for women
that they didn't have,
298
00:20:04,643 --> 00:20:07,163
even as it gives them a freedom
they didn't have.
299
00:20:08,843 --> 00:20:12,243
Women want to look like Chanel.
300
00:20:12,243 --> 00:20:14,083
They want to dress like her.
301
00:20:15,883 --> 00:20:20,803
The idea of branding is thought
of as a very modern concept,
302
00:20:20,803 --> 00:20:24,883
but Chanel becomes her own brand
very early on.
303
00:20:28,323 --> 00:20:31,603
I was working towards a new society.
304
00:20:31,603 --> 00:20:35,603
Up until then, there had been
clothes designed for women
305
00:20:35,603 --> 00:20:37,843
who were useless and idle.
306
00:20:37,843 --> 00:20:41,643
I now had customers
who were busy women.
307
00:20:41,643 --> 00:20:45,963
She really understood what women
needed because she needed it.
308
00:20:45,963 --> 00:20:47,963
She lived her life at her fullest.
309
00:20:47,963 --> 00:20:51,603
You know, she wanted to be able,
I think, to party
310
00:20:51,603 --> 00:20:53,403
and to go horse riding.
311
00:20:53,403 --> 00:20:56,883
And I think the freedom of moving
also gives you
312
00:20:56,883 --> 00:21:00,403
a freedom of thinking, you know.
It's really empowering.
313
00:21:00,403 --> 00:21:03,523
You know, her hair was cut short,
she liked to tan,
314
00:21:03,523 --> 00:21:06,803
she would wear trousers
when everyone was wearing a dress.
315
00:21:06,803 --> 00:21:09,763
It was so avant-garde at the time.
316
00:21:11,123 --> 00:21:15,123
It was clothes to be comfortable,
to be elegant,
317
00:21:15,123 --> 00:21:18,043
and to be able to live your life
as an independent woman.
318
00:21:20,123 --> 00:21:24,643
It's clear that Chanel always
felt like an outsider.
319
00:21:24,643 --> 00:21:27,083
She was looked down on
for her poverty,
320
00:21:27,083 --> 00:21:29,763
for her being a kind of
demi-mondaine when she was young,
321
00:21:29,763 --> 00:21:33,123
and then later for not being
a member of elite society.
322
00:21:34,203 --> 00:21:37,083
Her friend Paul Morand said
that she came into Paris
323
00:21:37,083 --> 00:21:41,563
like those village girls
inspired with a spirit of vengeance.
324
00:21:42,643 --> 00:21:48,763
She perpetrated a fashion revolution
on a society that had seen women
325
00:21:48,763 --> 00:21:53,083
as pretty and frilly, decorative
things, and she presented herself
326
00:21:53,083 --> 00:21:56,083
as being like a man in many ways.
327
00:21:56,083 --> 00:21:58,043
Like an androgynous dandy.
328
00:22:01,123 --> 00:22:04,363
Boy Capel was well aware
he didn't control me.
329
00:22:05,443 --> 00:22:09,123
"I thought I'd given you a
play thing, I gave you freedom",
330
00:22:09,123 --> 00:22:11,883
he once said to me
in a melancholy voice.
331
00:22:13,643 --> 00:22:19,243
He has effectively turned her
into Mademoiselle Chanel,
332
00:22:19,243 --> 00:22:22,163
the woman who earns her own living.
333
00:22:22,163 --> 00:22:24,403
The woman who is independent.
334
00:22:24,403 --> 00:22:27,563
The woman who never stops working.
335
00:22:35,963 --> 00:22:39,843
Bonjour.
It's a pleasure to welcome you here.
336
00:22:39,843 --> 00:22:44,283
We are in 31, Rue Cambon, in Paris.
337
00:22:46,083 --> 00:22:49,883
She had the entire building,
with downstairs - the boutique,
338
00:22:49,883 --> 00:22:53,083
on the first floor -
the haute couture salon,
339
00:22:53,083 --> 00:22:55,203
her apartment on the second floor.
340
00:22:56,883 --> 00:23:00,123
Gabrielle Chanel used to say
that an interior
341
00:23:00,123 --> 00:23:02,443
is the natural projection
of the soul.
342
00:23:03,483 --> 00:23:05,643
So by visiting the apartment,
343
00:23:05,643 --> 00:23:09,283
we'll have a better understanding
of who was Gabrielle Chanel.
344
00:23:10,963 --> 00:23:14,563
We have many books, and some
of them belonged to Arthur Capel.
345
00:23:15,643 --> 00:23:21,123
He wanted to introduce to Gabrielle
Chanel a world of spirituality.
346
00:23:21,123 --> 00:23:25,963
She would surround herself with
Buddha, with Chinese screens,
347
00:23:25,963 --> 00:23:28,523
with crystal balls.
348
00:23:28,523 --> 00:23:31,003
Also with the cards you see,
349
00:23:31,003 --> 00:23:34,083
like a fortune teller
looking into the future.
350
00:23:40,643 --> 00:23:43,003
One of the biggest myths
about Chanel
351
00:23:43,003 --> 00:23:45,523
is that she was the first
female designer.
352
00:23:45,523 --> 00:23:48,883
Chanel, in fact, was one
of a regiment of women
353
00:23:48,883 --> 00:23:52,923
who came into fashion
in the 1920s and '30s.
354
00:23:52,923 --> 00:23:56,523
But Chanel really captured
the imagination
355
00:23:56,523 --> 00:24:00,963
because she was a personality
before she was a couturiere.
356
00:24:00,963 --> 00:24:05,083
She was already famous for being
the sort of stylish mistress
357
00:24:05,083 --> 00:24:07,643
of a handsome, polo-playing man.
358
00:24:07,643 --> 00:24:11,963
And in that way, she separated
herself from the other dressmakers.
359
00:24:13,043 --> 00:24:15,723
She was the best advertisement
for her own clothing
360
00:24:15,723 --> 00:24:19,363
and she was the first,
in that sense, the first influencer.
361
00:24:19,363 --> 00:24:22,643
You think of the other great
couturieres - Madame Vionnet -
362
00:24:22,643 --> 00:24:24,603
I can't tell you
what she looked like.
363
00:24:24,603 --> 00:24:26,643
I mean, you know, very vaguely.
364
00:24:26,643 --> 00:24:29,603
Karl Lagerfeld once said
that Jeanne Lanvin
365
00:24:29,603 --> 00:24:32,283
was a great, great dressmaker
366
00:24:32,283 --> 00:24:34,923
but by the '20s
she was a nice old lady.
367
00:24:34,923 --> 00:24:40,843
You had Elsa Schiaparelli who came
from a very elite Roman family.
368
00:24:40,843 --> 00:24:44,603
Schiaparelli was working with
different surrealist artists,
369
00:24:44,603 --> 00:24:49,763
she was doing very new
and attention-grabbing fashions,
370
00:24:49,763 --> 00:24:53,083
and was soon Chanel's
biggest competitor,
371
00:24:53,083 --> 00:24:55,203
which drove Chanel crazy.
372
00:24:55,203 --> 00:24:57,363
Chanel dismissed her and said,
373
00:24:57,363 --> 00:25:00,883
"She's just that Italian artist
who makes clothes."
374
00:25:00,883 --> 00:25:03,603
Meanwhile, Schiaparelli
described Chanel
375
00:25:03,603 --> 00:25:06,043
as "that dreary little bourgeoisie".
376
00:25:07,123 --> 00:25:12,643
It may be an apocryphal story,
but there is a reference to Chanel
377
00:25:12,643 --> 00:25:15,203
meeting Schiaparelli
at a fancy dress party
378
00:25:15,203 --> 00:25:18,643
and manoeuvring her backwards
into a lit candle
379
00:25:18,643 --> 00:25:22,323
so that Schiaparelli's costume
went up in flames.
380
00:25:22,323 --> 00:25:25,043
I think she was dressed as
a Christmas tree, was she?
381
00:25:28,483 --> 00:25:32,123
A dress is neither a tragedy
nor a painting.
382
00:25:32,123 --> 00:25:35,243
It is a charming
and ephemeral creation,
383
00:25:35,243 --> 00:25:38,123
not an everlasting work of art.
384
00:25:38,123 --> 00:25:44,123
Fashion should die and die quickly
in order that commerce may survive.
385
00:25:44,123 --> 00:25:49,083
Very young, I had realised that
without money you are nothing.
386
00:25:49,083 --> 00:25:51,883
That with money you can do anything.
387
00:25:51,883 --> 00:25:55,083
Or else you had to depend
on a husband.
388
00:25:55,083 --> 00:25:57,563
Money is the key to freedom.
389
00:26:04,363 --> 00:26:08,083
Arthur Capel married a woman
of his own social station,
390
00:26:08,083 --> 00:26:10,363
which was crushing to Chanel,
391
00:26:10,363 --> 00:26:13,083
even while she knew all throughout
their relationship
392
00:26:13,083 --> 00:26:15,363
that he was seeing other women.
393
00:26:15,363 --> 00:26:20,563
But it did not end the relationship
because she remained his mistress.
394
00:26:22,643 --> 00:26:26,323
Very tragically, the real end
came when Boy Capel
395
00:26:26,323 --> 00:26:28,283
was killed in a car crash.
396
00:26:31,363 --> 00:26:36,363
She insisted that a friend of
Capel's drive her through the night
397
00:26:36,363 --> 00:26:41,043
to the site near the Riviera
where the crash happened.
398
00:26:44,083 --> 00:26:46,643
He's the only man I have loved.
399
00:26:46,643 --> 00:26:49,883
He was the great stroke of luck
in my life.
400
00:26:49,883 --> 00:26:53,603
I had met a human being
who did not demoralise me.
401
00:26:53,603 --> 00:26:55,363
He shaped me.
402
00:26:59,363 --> 00:27:04,523
She goes back home to her villa
on the outskirts of Paris
403
00:27:04,523 --> 00:27:07,363
and she wants everything
painted black.
404
00:27:07,363 --> 00:27:10,603
She wants the shutters of the house
painted black.
405
00:27:10,603 --> 00:27:13,083
She wants her bedroom painted black.
406
00:27:13,083 --> 00:27:15,563
She says she will wear only black.
407
00:27:16,643 --> 00:27:21,603
And then, somehow,
this strength within her
408
00:27:21,603 --> 00:27:24,443
that always emerges and defines her,
409
00:27:24,443 --> 00:27:28,363
and she says,
"I am going to wear black
410
00:27:28,363 --> 00:27:33,803
"but I am going to wear it as a
symbol of strength and freedom."
411
00:27:35,363 --> 00:27:39,123
And she designs her first
little black dress.
412
00:27:39,123 --> 00:27:43,883
And the little black dress
becomes synonymous in the 1920s
413
00:27:43,883 --> 00:27:47,123
with the independent woman,
with the jazz age,
414
00:27:47,123 --> 00:27:49,723
with the Roaring Twenties,
with the Flappers.
415
00:27:51,643 --> 00:27:55,523
She symbolises that
independent woman
416
00:27:55,523 --> 00:27:57,363
who is emancipated,
417
00:27:57,363 --> 00:28:01,803
and she's come to that point
in her own life through trauma.
418
00:28:01,803 --> 00:28:05,843
And she has made it
a source of strength
419
00:28:05,843 --> 00:28:09,123
in her life as a designer.
420
00:28:11,123 --> 00:28:15,123
The Chanel little black dress
is now a museum piece
421
00:28:15,123 --> 00:28:19,923
because it has acquired
the status of...
422
00:28:19,923 --> 00:28:21,763
..an artwork.
423
00:28:23,643 --> 00:28:29,083
So this dress was designed by Chanel
for the actress Delphine Seyrig
424
00:28:29,083 --> 00:28:32,443
in the film Last Year At Marienbad.
425
00:28:32,443 --> 00:28:36,483
But, of course, it is ultimately
this Chanel little black dress.
426
00:28:38,323 --> 00:28:40,283
I imposed black.
427
00:28:40,283 --> 00:28:42,483
It's still going strong today.
428
00:28:42,483 --> 00:28:46,403
For black wipes out
everything else around.
429
00:28:46,403 --> 00:28:48,563
Eccentricity was dying out.
430
00:28:49,643 --> 00:28:53,043
I hope, what's more,
that I helped kill it off.
431
00:28:59,883 --> 00:29:03,323
One of the most enduring
relationships of her life
432
00:29:03,323 --> 00:29:05,843
was with her friend, Misia Sert,
433
00:29:05,843 --> 00:29:08,603
a famous muse in Paris.
434
00:29:08,603 --> 00:29:10,963
She'd been painted...
435
00:29:10,963 --> 00:29:15,603
..by numerous artists, including
Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec.
436
00:29:15,603 --> 00:29:18,203
She was known for her beauty,
437
00:29:18,203 --> 00:29:20,003
especially her bosom!
438
00:29:21,083 --> 00:29:25,363
In Misia, Chanel found
an entree into a world
439
00:29:25,363 --> 00:29:28,283
that was kind of artistic
avant-garde.
440
00:29:29,923 --> 00:29:32,523
I mean, everybody gossiped in Paris.
441
00:29:32,523 --> 00:29:35,123
They knew everything
that was going on.
442
00:29:35,123 --> 00:29:38,883
They gossiped morning, noon
and night, for Christ's sakes.
443
00:29:38,883 --> 00:29:42,603
There were some rumours
that Chanel and Misia
444
00:29:42,603 --> 00:29:45,043
were lovers as well as
great friends.
445
00:29:45,043 --> 00:29:48,883
And when Misia married
for the second time,
446
00:29:48,883 --> 00:29:52,083
to Josep Maria Sert,
a Spanish artist,
447
00:29:52,083 --> 00:29:54,563
Chanel went on honeymoon with them.
448
00:29:57,643 --> 00:30:00,603
She loved to have objects
always going by pair,
449
00:30:00,603 --> 00:30:02,243
such as couple, you know.
450
00:30:02,243 --> 00:30:05,203
These very famous couple of deer,
451
00:30:05,203 --> 00:30:07,123
two lions on the chimney.
452
00:30:07,123 --> 00:30:10,723
She was never married, you see.
She was called Mademoiselle.
453
00:30:10,723 --> 00:30:16,003
So maybe she had for this wish
of couple spirituality.
454
00:30:17,083 --> 00:30:20,643
She became very good at
finding couple friends,
455
00:30:20,643 --> 00:30:24,403
and she tended to dress the woman
and seduce the husband.
456
00:30:25,483 --> 00:30:29,683
Picasso, she explained it,
it was, you see, something like
457
00:30:29,683 --> 00:30:33,123
a kind of, how do you say,
"attirance" in English, you see.
458
00:30:33,123 --> 00:30:38,483
They were looking for each other
but they were not free at the time.
459
00:30:40,363 --> 00:30:45,883
By this point, Chanel has an
extraordinarily grand townhouse
460
00:30:45,883 --> 00:30:51,443
on Faubourg Saint-Honore,
the grandest street in Paris.
461
00:30:51,443 --> 00:30:55,843
It was said that Picasso
had his own bedroom there
462
00:30:55,843 --> 00:30:59,043
just to be able to retreat.
463
00:31:00,643 --> 00:31:03,643
It's really interesting
when you think that she starts
464
00:31:03,643 --> 00:31:08,083
as a young woman who has nothing,
who is dependent on men,
465
00:31:08,083 --> 00:31:11,443
that then, by 1920,
466
00:31:11,443 --> 00:31:14,363
she is supporting men.
467
00:31:15,443 --> 00:31:19,683
There are a number of great writers
and artists and musicians
468
00:31:19,683 --> 00:31:22,203
who would have starved without her.
469
00:31:25,883 --> 00:31:30,363
She was supporting the French poet
Pierre Reverdy,
470
00:31:30,363 --> 00:31:35,123
who was a progressive, intellectual,
deeply religious man,
471
00:31:35,123 --> 00:31:39,643
who was constantly torn between
his faith, his Catholic faith,
472
00:31:39,643 --> 00:31:42,123
and his wish to be faithful
to his wife
473
00:31:42,123 --> 00:31:45,363
and his complete fascination
with Chanel.
474
00:31:45,363 --> 00:31:48,523
Here you have a book
by Pierre Reverdy.
475
00:31:48,523 --> 00:31:50,843
He used to be a lover
for Gabrielle Chanel.
476
00:32:06,363 --> 00:32:09,643
Cocteau is a morphine addict
477
00:32:09,643 --> 00:32:13,043
and so Chanel pays for him
to go into rehab.
478
00:32:14,643 --> 00:32:19,083
She's also financially supporting
Diaghilev and Stravinsky
479
00:32:19,083 --> 00:32:20,563
in the Ballets Russes.
480
00:32:20,563 --> 00:32:23,643
And as you see Modernism develop,
481
00:32:23,643 --> 00:32:28,643
whether it's through the paintings
of Picasso, the plays of Cocteau,
482
00:32:28,643 --> 00:32:33,443
the designs of Chanel,
they are all working together,
483
00:32:33,443 --> 00:32:37,323
so she's at the heart of Modernism.
484
00:32:45,603 --> 00:32:47,683
I came to know Stravinsky.
485
00:32:47,683 --> 00:32:50,683
He was very Russian in his ways,
486
00:32:50,683 --> 00:32:53,803
with the look of a clerk
in a Chekhov short story.
487
00:32:54,883 --> 00:32:58,763
He was young and shy.
He found me attractive.
488
00:32:59,803 --> 00:33:02,283
Russians fascinated me.
489
00:33:02,283 --> 00:33:05,963
Every Westerner should have
succumbed to Slavic charm
490
00:33:05,963 --> 00:33:07,923
to know what it is.
491
00:33:07,923 --> 00:33:10,043
I was captivated.
492
00:33:11,603 --> 00:33:17,123
It's almost certainly Misia Sert
who introduced Chanel to Stravinsky.
493
00:33:17,123 --> 00:33:20,443
In 1920, you'd just had
the Russian Revolution.
494
00:33:20,443 --> 00:33:24,883
Russian artists and noble classes
gravitated to Paris,
495
00:33:24,883 --> 00:33:29,843
and Stravinsky went from being
an incredibly successful artist
496
00:33:29,843 --> 00:33:33,723
to being completely impoverished
and uprooted
497
00:33:33,723 --> 00:33:35,643
and without a home.
498
00:33:37,603 --> 00:33:40,883
Chanel invited him to stay with her
499
00:33:40,883 --> 00:33:44,843
in her country house in Garches,
outside of Paris,
500
00:33:44,843 --> 00:33:48,883
and she invited not only Stravinsky,
but his wife Katherine,
501
00:33:48,883 --> 00:33:52,123
who was terminally ill
with tuberculosis at the time,
502
00:33:52,123 --> 00:33:55,043
as well as their four
young children.
503
00:33:56,843 --> 00:33:59,043
So it was quite a thing.
504
00:34:00,723 --> 00:34:04,123
And the first thing that was
installed in the house was a piano.
505
00:34:04,123 --> 00:34:06,843
It was a very deliberate move
on her part
506
00:34:06,843 --> 00:34:09,363
to support him artistically.
507
00:34:10,403 --> 00:34:12,603
Stravinsky pursued me.
508
00:34:12,603 --> 00:34:15,523
"You're married, Igor", I told him.
509
00:34:15,523 --> 00:34:18,083
"When Katherine, your wife,
gets to know."
510
00:34:18,083 --> 00:34:20,243
And he, very Russian,
511
00:34:20,243 --> 00:34:22,323
"She knows I love you.
512
00:34:22,323 --> 00:34:27,043
"To whom else if not to her could
I confide something so important?"
513
00:34:28,363 --> 00:34:31,643
It's an extraordinary set
of circumstances, really.
514
00:34:31,643 --> 00:34:35,043
The love of Chanel's life,
Boy Capel, had died.
515
00:34:36,083 --> 00:34:38,523
Chanel was in grief,
516
00:34:38,523 --> 00:34:43,363
so I think
they both felt the need for love.
517
00:34:43,363 --> 00:34:48,523
I think Stravinsky liberated Chanel
culturally and artistically
518
00:34:48,523 --> 00:34:51,843
and I think Chanel liberated
Stravinsky sexually.
519
00:34:51,843 --> 00:34:55,283
But I think the inspiration
was mutual.
520
00:34:56,843 --> 00:34:59,283
Stravinsky taught me about music.
521
00:34:59,283 --> 00:35:03,083
The little I know about it,
I owe to him.
522
00:35:03,083 --> 00:35:06,083
They meet at the piano,
they play at the piano,
523
00:35:06,083 --> 00:35:08,523
they make love at the piano.
524
00:35:08,523 --> 00:35:11,963
I think there's a correspondence
between the black and white
525
00:35:11,963 --> 00:35:15,243
of the piano, the black and white
of Chanel's designs.
526
00:35:16,323 --> 00:35:19,843
Stravinsky composed
Five Easy Pieces,
527
00:35:19,843 --> 00:35:22,803
and, in 1921, he composed
528
00:35:22,803 --> 00:35:25,643
Five Finger Exercises,
which they almost certainly
529
00:35:25,643 --> 00:35:28,123
played together on the piano
in Garches,
530
00:35:28,123 --> 00:35:30,723
so this number five
is kind of resonating.
531
00:35:36,083 --> 00:35:38,283
At the time of Gabrielle Chanel,
532
00:35:38,283 --> 00:35:42,243
the world of perfumes and fashion
were completely separated.
533
00:35:42,243 --> 00:35:45,643
It's not visual like music.
534
00:35:45,643 --> 00:35:49,963
Perfume flows in the air.
You can never really grasp it.
535
00:35:51,043 --> 00:35:56,123
She conceived the perfume
as if it was a part of her fashion
536
00:35:56,123 --> 00:35:58,963
and she had the take
of a fashion designer.
537
00:36:00,043 --> 00:36:04,803
Prior to this, perfumes smelled
overtly like flowers,
538
00:36:04,803 --> 00:36:08,243
they came in ornate flakons.
539
00:36:08,243 --> 00:36:10,123
Chanel wanted all of that gone.
540
00:36:11,283 --> 00:36:16,123
She went to Ernest Beaux, who was a
perfumer working in south of France,
541
00:36:16,123 --> 00:36:19,883
in Grasse, and she asked
for an abstract scent
542
00:36:19,883 --> 00:36:22,723
she felt could express
something of her style.
543
00:36:24,643 --> 00:36:28,443
She says she wants the scent
of a modern woman
544
00:36:28,443 --> 00:36:30,643
and he...
545
00:36:30,643 --> 00:36:34,043
..astonishingly,
is able to express that.
546
00:36:36,323 --> 00:36:40,243
She was a Leo, and you may know
that the Leo sign
547
00:36:40,243 --> 00:36:42,443
is the fifth sign of the Zodiac.
548
00:36:44,363 --> 00:36:48,123
Ernest Beaux must have shown her
certain perfumes,
549
00:36:48,123 --> 00:36:50,723
or at least a modification
of each other.
550
00:36:51,763 --> 00:36:54,643
And she picked lucky number,
551
00:36:54,643 --> 00:36:56,563
which was the fifth bottle.
552
00:36:58,203 --> 00:37:01,323
She launched the perfume
Chanel No 5
553
00:37:01,323 --> 00:37:04,363
in this building in 1921.
554
00:37:04,363 --> 00:37:08,123
And if you focus on
the iron structure,
555
00:37:08,123 --> 00:37:11,043
you will discover the number five.
556
00:37:13,363 --> 00:37:16,643
Long before people talked
about influencers,
557
00:37:16,643 --> 00:37:19,323
Chanel figured out
what an influencer was
558
00:37:19,323 --> 00:37:21,963
and how to use that...system.
559
00:37:21,963 --> 00:37:25,123
So instead of trying to market
her perfume right away,
560
00:37:25,123 --> 00:37:28,083
she simply started
just spraying it around.
561
00:37:28,083 --> 00:37:30,123
She would spray it in a restaurant
562
00:37:30,123 --> 00:37:33,483
and have people just walk through
a cloud of her perfume.
563
00:37:33,483 --> 00:37:35,443
And inevitably some would say,
564
00:37:35,443 --> 00:37:37,603
"Oh, my, what is that
amazing scent?"
565
00:37:37,603 --> 00:37:40,323
And she was giving it particularly
to her most affluent,
566
00:37:40,323 --> 00:37:44,123
beautiful friends, and they
would sort of waft through
567
00:37:44,123 --> 00:37:47,523
their society world,
trailing clouds of Chanel,
568
00:37:47,523 --> 00:37:52,163
and nothing could have been
more effective than that.
569
00:37:52,163 --> 00:37:54,603
Then she started selling it.
570
00:37:55,883 --> 00:37:59,123
Chanel was the first to figure out
that if she put her name
571
00:37:59,123 --> 00:38:01,643
on the perfume - no-one had
ever done that before -
572
00:38:01,643 --> 00:38:05,123
it was a way of saying,
you are buying a fragment of me.
573
00:38:05,123 --> 00:38:09,043
Share my life, share the scent,
enter into my...
574
00:38:10,083 --> 00:38:11,643
..atmosphere.
575
00:38:12,723 --> 00:38:17,363
Chanel No 5 inspired
very different artists.
576
00:38:17,363 --> 00:38:21,883
Andy Warhol used to wear No 5,
to use No 5 himself.
577
00:38:23,123 --> 00:38:27,123
There was this unexpected story
with Marilyn Monroe,
578
00:38:27,123 --> 00:38:30,643
who was asked,
"What do you sleep in at night?",
579
00:38:30,643 --> 00:38:34,803
and she mentioned that she was just
sleeping with a few drops of No 5.
580
00:38:36,643 --> 00:38:39,523
I have a letter from
the Queen Elizabeth.
581
00:38:39,523 --> 00:38:43,283
"I want to thank you very much
indeed for the birthday present
582
00:38:43,283 --> 00:38:45,123
"of the Chanel scent.
583
00:38:45,123 --> 00:38:50,283
"I'm already using it and I hope
smelling all the better for this."
584
00:38:51,843 --> 00:38:53,843
You don't have to ask for it.
585
00:38:53,843 --> 00:38:55,843
He knows what you want.
586
00:38:55,843 --> 00:38:57,523
Chanel.
587
00:38:57,523 --> 00:39:02,603
To make a perfume that is
identified for decades,
588
00:39:02,603 --> 00:39:06,043
for a century, with allure,
589
00:39:06,043 --> 00:39:08,563
says something about the person
who invented it.
590
00:39:16,123 --> 00:39:19,643
Grand Duke Dmitri would have
come to Garches
591
00:39:19,643 --> 00:39:22,643
and lived alongside Stravinsky
and his family,
592
00:39:22,643 --> 00:39:25,443
so it must have been
an extraordinary moment.
593
00:39:25,443 --> 00:39:27,643
He was a kind of
swashbuckling figure.
594
00:39:27,643 --> 00:39:31,483
He was one of the assassins
of Rasputin
595
00:39:31,483 --> 00:39:33,563
and then he'd fled Russia.
596
00:39:34,643 --> 00:39:37,363
He was associated with the Court
and the Romanovs
597
00:39:37,363 --> 00:39:39,923
and must have swept Chanel
off her feet.
598
00:39:41,003 --> 00:39:44,043
They both liked riding.
Stravinsky didn't ride.
599
00:39:44,043 --> 00:39:47,603
Grand Duke Dmitri was a rider,
and so they would have been taking
600
00:39:47,603 --> 00:39:49,803
long rides into the woods together.
601
00:39:50,883 --> 00:39:54,163
She was having a sort of romance
with this man who was younger
602
00:39:54,163 --> 00:39:57,283
and whom she was supporting
financially because he had nothing.
603
00:39:58,363 --> 00:40:00,883
In a very friendly way,
I said to him,
604
00:40:00,883 --> 00:40:05,003
"I have just bought a little blue
Rolls. Let's go to Monte Carlo."
605
00:40:06,323 --> 00:40:07,843
We set off.
606
00:40:07,843 --> 00:40:09,643
Misia was watching.
607
00:40:09,643 --> 00:40:14,123
She immediately sent a telegram
to Stravinsky in Spain.
608
00:40:14,123 --> 00:40:18,563
"Coco is a 'midinette' who prefers
grand dukes to artists."
609
00:40:21,323 --> 00:40:23,643
They stayed at the finest hotels.
610
00:40:23,643 --> 00:40:28,123
Dmitri loved to gamble
at the casinos of Monte Carlo.
611
00:40:28,123 --> 00:40:30,883
She was behaving
the way rich men did
612
00:40:30,883 --> 00:40:34,603
by, you know, picking up
this aristocratic
613
00:40:34,603 --> 00:40:37,043
but impoverished Russian prince
614
00:40:37,043 --> 00:40:41,123
and subsidising his gambling
and his high living, etc.
615
00:40:41,123 --> 00:40:44,643
This orphan girl from the Auvergne
could pay for her own pleasure,
616
00:40:44,643 --> 00:40:48,523
she was happy to, and it increased
her sense of independence.
617
00:40:49,603 --> 00:40:53,323
She also employs his sister,
the Grand Duchess Maria,
618
00:40:53,323 --> 00:40:55,643
in her embroidery workshop.
619
00:40:55,643 --> 00:41:01,523
Grand Duke Dmitri's sister was not
a glamorous woman, let's say,
620
00:41:01,523 --> 00:41:05,643
and so Chanel essentially
adopted her, forcibly,
621
00:41:05,643 --> 00:41:08,923
took her in and told her she had
to get rid of what she called
622
00:41:08,923 --> 00:41:12,683
"the brioche" she was wearing
on her head, cut her hair,
623
00:41:12,683 --> 00:41:15,483
guided Maria, apparently,
on weight loss techniques,
624
00:41:15,483 --> 00:41:19,643
so Maria wound up slimmed down
with a chic Paris-style,
625
00:41:19,643 --> 00:41:24,643
Chanel-style haircut, and became the
director of her embroidery atelier
626
00:41:24,643 --> 00:41:27,803
and was producing
the beautiful textiles
627
00:41:27,803 --> 00:41:31,563
that wound up being in several
of the seasons in the 1920s.
628
00:41:33,603 --> 00:41:36,083
I sometimes call Chanel "vampiric"
629
00:41:36,083 --> 00:41:39,363
because she would sort of
get in there and suck out
630
00:41:39,363 --> 00:41:42,963
what was the most interesting,
delicious and life-filled
631
00:41:42,963 --> 00:41:47,003
in other people aesthetically,
intellectually, artistically,
632
00:41:47,003 --> 00:41:49,123
and then make use of it in some way.
633
00:41:50,203 --> 00:41:54,643
The Grand Duke had no money, but
he may have had some baubles left,
634
00:41:54,643 --> 00:41:58,683
and it's said he gave her
a strand of Romanov pearls,
635
00:41:58,683 --> 00:42:02,323
which she promptly had copied
and turned into paste,
636
00:42:02,323 --> 00:42:04,843
and that's where we get...
637
00:42:04,843 --> 00:42:06,643
..erm, knock-off pearls
638
00:42:06,643 --> 00:42:09,443
as a normal, everyday motif
that women wear.
639
00:42:10,523 --> 00:42:13,043
But we're also really looking
at the remnants
640
00:42:13,043 --> 00:42:15,403
of Imperial Russia
when we look at that.
641
00:42:15,403 --> 00:42:17,723
It's a remarkable vector.
642
00:42:20,123 --> 00:42:23,003
Money adds to the decorative
pleasures of life,
643
00:42:23,003 --> 00:42:24,843
but it's not life.
644
00:42:24,843 --> 00:42:27,083
It's like jewels.
645
00:42:27,083 --> 00:42:30,883
Why allow yourself to become
obsessed with a beautiful stone?
646
00:42:30,883 --> 00:42:34,363
You might as well wear a cheque
around your neck.
647
00:42:34,363 --> 00:42:38,403
She's sort of the launcher
of the costume jewellery industry.
648
00:42:38,403 --> 00:42:40,523
But the idea that you can have fun,
649
00:42:40,523 --> 00:42:43,243
that you can mix the precious
and the fake.
650
00:42:43,243 --> 00:42:45,883
Let's say that that's a metaphor
for Chanel
651
00:42:45,883 --> 00:42:50,123
because, you know, she in some ways
is the fake pearl.
652
00:42:50,123 --> 00:42:53,363
Here's this child of an orphanage,
abandoned by her father,
653
00:42:53,363 --> 00:42:56,363
her mother dies,
makes her way in life,
654
00:42:56,363 --> 00:43:00,963
probably very gruelling
with a lot of humiliations,
655
00:43:00,963 --> 00:43:05,763
and she turns herself into sort of
the richest woman in the world.
656
00:43:07,643 --> 00:43:10,083
And then, of course,
there's a real pearl there.
657
00:43:10,083 --> 00:43:12,123
The real pearl of her genius.
658
00:43:12,123 --> 00:43:15,643
Real pearls form around grains
of irritation,
659
00:43:15,643 --> 00:43:18,363
so all the irritants of her life,
the genius,
660
00:43:18,363 --> 00:43:21,323
layered them with this nacreous
and beautiful
661
00:43:21,323 --> 00:43:24,043
and glamorous and valuable shell.
662
00:43:25,443 --> 00:43:28,683
So wearing those pearls together
is a statement of her identity.
663
00:43:28,683 --> 00:43:31,763
It refers to the price of women.
664
00:43:31,763 --> 00:43:34,043
Women who were priced.
665
00:43:34,043 --> 00:43:39,003
They were like racehorses in the
world of Etienne Balsan, Boy Capel.
666
00:43:40,123 --> 00:43:42,803
And so she makes herself
into a woman without a price.
667
00:43:50,723 --> 00:43:54,083
When Chanel met the
Duke of Westminster,
668
00:43:54,083 --> 00:43:56,603
it was Christmas 1923.
669
00:43:56,603 --> 00:43:58,803
Chanel was 40.
670
00:43:58,803 --> 00:44:04,403
She was immensely wealthy
but he was much, much richer.
671
00:44:04,403 --> 00:44:08,883
The Duke of Westminster was probably
the richest man in Europe.
672
00:44:09,963 --> 00:44:12,843
He was a playboy.
He had a reputation.
673
00:44:12,843 --> 00:44:15,643
But he really pursued Chanel.
674
00:44:17,363 --> 00:44:21,123
He invited her onto his yacht
in Monte Carlo,
675
00:44:21,123 --> 00:44:23,803
which was the biggest private yacht
in the world.
676
00:44:25,643 --> 00:44:29,643
She brought Dmitri with her
because she was still with him,
677
00:44:29,643 --> 00:44:34,283
and then quickly this sort of
evolved into her next relationship.
678
00:44:35,763 --> 00:44:39,643
To marry into his world
would have made her a duchess,
679
00:44:39,643 --> 00:44:42,883
it would have made her part
of the British aristocracy,
680
00:44:42,883 --> 00:44:47,843
it would have meant the kind of
apotheosis of her social ascent.
681
00:44:49,123 --> 00:44:53,123
By the spring of 1924,
they were an item.
682
00:44:53,123 --> 00:44:57,323
He had an estate in Cheshire,
which was called Eaton Hall,
683
00:44:57,323 --> 00:44:59,763
which was the size of a small town.
684
00:45:01,363 --> 00:45:06,243
It was normal to have dinner for 60
or more people at these vast tables
685
00:45:06,243 --> 00:45:09,083
and whole orchestras would be
brought in to entertain,
686
00:45:09,083 --> 00:45:11,843
and she was the lady of the manor.
687
00:45:39,643 --> 00:45:42,403
The idea of hunting,
shooting and fishing
688
00:45:42,403 --> 00:45:44,643
was something that
she really took to.
689
00:45:44,643 --> 00:45:48,603
And she spent time with the Duke
at his estates in Cheshire,
690
00:45:48,603 --> 00:45:52,763
his hunting lodge in France
and also in Scotland.
691
00:45:52,763 --> 00:45:56,643
She becomes an expert fisherwoman.
692
00:45:56,643 --> 00:46:00,963
She's actually catching even more
than the Duke of Westminster
693
00:46:00,963 --> 00:46:04,123
and his close friend
Winston Churchill,
694
00:46:04,123 --> 00:46:08,563
and she starts appearing in Winston
Churchill's correspondence.
695
00:46:08,563 --> 00:46:13,603
Churchill says,
"Oh, I've met the charming Coco.
696
00:46:13,603 --> 00:46:19,883
"She's a really great woman, capable
of ruling a man and an Empire."
697
00:46:20,963 --> 00:46:25,483
She began to borrow the Duke's
jackets, for instance -
698
00:46:25,483 --> 00:46:28,883
tweed jackets -
and she began to experiment it.
699
00:46:28,883 --> 00:46:32,483
She was really quite inspired
about what could be done
700
00:46:32,483 --> 00:46:35,323
with this usually humble fabric.
701
00:46:35,323 --> 00:46:39,363
And she met with William Linton
of Linton Tweeds in Carlisle
702
00:46:39,363 --> 00:46:43,563
in the mid-'20s, and they began
this incredible relationship.
703
00:46:45,363 --> 00:46:48,763
My dad came here in '63
as the mill manager.
704
00:46:49,803 --> 00:46:52,283
It was originally the Linton family,
705
00:46:52,283 --> 00:46:55,443
but then it became
our family business.
706
00:46:55,443 --> 00:46:58,923
I did find letters backwards
and forwards between Chanel
707
00:46:58,923 --> 00:47:01,043
and Linton Tweeds.
708
00:47:01,043 --> 00:47:04,603
But this one in particular
epitomises the relationship.
709
00:47:04,603 --> 00:47:07,643
"Mademoiselle Chanel, having
expressed the wish to see
710
00:47:07,643 --> 00:47:10,643
"your Collection, we would
appreciate it if you could arrange
711
00:47:10,643 --> 00:47:13,763
"to come over early next week,
preferably Tuesday."
712
00:47:13,763 --> 00:47:16,563
So that kind of defines
our relationship.
713
00:47:16,563 --> 00:47:19,483
Basically, they ask us to jump
and we jump.
714
00:48:38,843 --> 00:48:42,803
She refused to stop working
and that used to annoy the Duke
715
00:48:42,803 --> 00:48:45,803
because he wanted
her undivided attention.
716
00:48:48,883 --> 00:48:53,123
In fact, once he arranged
for all her seamstresses
717
00:48:53,123 --> 00:48:56,763
to come to Cheshire, to Eaton Hall,
to work there,
718
00:48:56,763 --> 00:49:01,123
so that she could also be there
to entertain at a house party.
719
00:49:01,123 --> 00:49:05,043
And she was producing, you know,
two big collections a year.
720
00:49:11,643 --> 00:49:16,043
In 1927, the fashion press
report on the fact that
721
00:49:16,043 --> 00:49:19,123
she has set up a salon
right in the centre of London
722
00:49:19,123 --> 00:49:22,643
and a team of English workers
overseen by the French premier,
723
00:49:22,643 --> 00:49:25,883
so the head of the work rooms,
were brought over from France
724
00:49:25,883 --> 00:49:28,963
to make sure that everything
was to her specification.
725
00:49:31,363 --> 00:49:34,643
ARCHIVE: The Duke of Westminster
loans his house and well known
726
00:49:34,643 --> 00:49:37,123
members of London society
lend their services
727
00:49:37,123 --> 00:49:40,363
for this elegant fashion display
for which Mademoiselle Chanel
728
00:49:40,363 --> 00:49:43,083
crossed the Channel in order
to give to British materials
729
00:49:43,083 --> 00:49:44,603
her experienced Paris cut.
730
00:49:46,363 --> 00:49:49,963
This is Lady Pamela Smith, who shows
you how attractive one can look
731
00:49:49,963 --> 00:49:52,803
in a simple red and white
striped calico beach suit.
732
00:50:03,923 --> 00:50:07,563
Miss Hilary Charles wears a white
cotton frock, spotted red and black.
733
00:50:08,643 --> 00:50:12,363
People said I was an anarchist
and that I took an evil pleasure
734
00:50:12,363 --> 00:50:16,923
in humiliating people of standing
by placing them under my command.
735
00:50:19,123 --> 00:50:23,403
I have employed society people
not to indulge my vanity
736
00:50:23,403 --> 00:50:25,363
or to humiliate them -
737
00:50:25,363 --> 00:50:29,483
I would take other forms of revenge
supposing I were seeking them -
738
00:50:29,483 --> 00:50:32,363
but because they were useful to me.
739
00:50:33,883 --> 00:50:38,083
She was the queen of reverse
power dynamics.
740
00:50:38,083 --> 00:50:39,683
It was a way
741
00:50:39,683 --> 00:50:42,283
to turn the tables on people who
made her feel so inadequate
742
00:50:42,283 --> 00:50:43,643
for so long.
743
00:50:51,883 --> 00:50:57,643
The Duke and Chanel went on trips
along the Riviera
744
00:50:57,643 --> 00:51:04,003
in one of his yachts, and they came
across a piece of land at Roquebrune
745
00:51:04,003 --> 00:51:07,083
and decided to build a house.
746
00:51:07,083 --> 00:51:10,523
The house was called La Pausa.
747
00:51:10,523 --> 00:51:16,003
Chanel wanted to replicate,
in this house,
748
00:51:16,003 --> 00:51:20,443
the staircase at the abbey where
she'd spent her childhood.
749
00:51:22,243 --> 00:51:24,123
It was a place for both of them.
750
00:51:24,123 --> 00:51:28,283
But sadly, by this point,
their relationship,
751
00:51:28,283 --> 00:51:31,883
the cracks were really beginning
to show.
752
00:51:31,883 --> 00:51:34,283
They still had these glittering
house parties,
753
00:51:34,283 --> 00:51:37,563
but people would hear terrible rows.
754
00:51:44,163 --> 00:51:47,563
Chanel undoubtedly tried
to get pregnant,
755
00:51:47,563 --> 00:51:49,443
but it didn't happen.
756
00:51:49,443 --> 00:51:53,763
He'd clearly decided that he needed
to find a young bride
757
00:51:53,763 --> 00:51:56,243
who could give him a male heir.
758
00:51:57,563 --> 00:52:00,043
Which, by the way, he never got.
759
00:52:00,043 --> 00:52:03,963
But he did get his young bride,
who was called Loelia Ponsonby.
760
00:52:03,963 --> 00:52:06,203
She was the daughter of
a quintessential
761
00:52:06,203 --> 00:52:08,883
British courtier.
762
00:52:08,883 --> 00:52:13,243
He actually took her to meet
Chanel in Paris
763
00:52:13,243 --> 00:52:15,163
as if to get her looked over.
764
00:52:20,123 --> 00:52:24,523
Er, so this is a dress that belonged
to Loelia Ponsonby.
765
00:52:24,523 --> 00:52:26,403
Erm, and as you can see,
766
00:52:26,403 --> 00:52:29,923
it has this sort of Chanel
signature.
767
00:52:29,923 --> 00:52:31,243
The line is very simple.
768
00:52:31,243 --> 00:52:33,523
It's just a V neck with straps.
769
00:52:34,603 --> 00:52:37,883
The sequins are stitched and then
they're punched through.
770
00:52:37,883 --> 00:52:41,283
So you get this transparency
sort of at play.
771
00:52:43,283 --> 00:52:46,083
Loelia Ponsonby married the Duke
in 1930,
772
00:52:46,083 --> 00:52:49,363
and this Chanel dress is from 1932.
773
00:52:50,603 --> 00:52:52,803
The two women
weren't particularly friends,
774
00:52:52,803 --> 00:52:55,763
but, you know, her clothes were such
that Loelia,
775
00:52:55,763 --> 00:52:58,163
who was a very elegant woman,
776
00:52:58,163 --> 00:53:01,523
was very happy to wear
Chanel's designs,
777
00:53:01,523 --> 00:53:03,723
and Chanel was very happy
to design for her.
778
00:53:07,163 --> 00:53:11,243
Ten years of my life have been spent
with Westminster.
779
00:53:11,243 --> 00:53:15,483
Beneath his clumsy exterior,
he is a skilful hunter.
780
00:53:15,483 --> 00:53:19,243
You'd have to be skilful to hang on
to me for ten years!
781
00:53:20,603 --> 00:53:23,803
I loved him, or I thought
I loved him,
782
00:53:23,803 --> 00:53:26,163
which amounts to the same thing.
783
00:53:26,163 --> 00:53:29,603
He still belongs to a generation
of well-brought-up men.
784
00:53:29,603 --> 00:53:33,363
All English men, for that matter,
are well-brought-up -
785
00:53:33,363 --> 00:53:35,563
until they reach Calais, at least!
786
00:53:38,603 --> 00:53:42,043
In Mayfair, if you look at
the old lampposts,
787
00:53:42,043 --> 00:53:45,123
they have what looks like
a double C on them,
788
00:53:45,123 --> 00:53:46,243
and a W.
789
00:53:47,563 --> 00:53:50,483
Is that just urban myth
790
00:53:50,483 --> 00:53:54,283
that the double C is for Coco Chanel
and Westminster,
791
00:53:54,283 --> 00:53:56,123
the Duke of Westminster?
792
00:53:56,123 --> 00:53:59,643
Anyway, it has an emotional truth
to it,
793
00:53:59,643 --> 00:54:01,323
even if it's a fairy tale.
794
00:54:16,323 --> 00:54:19,723
The 1930s was a very polarising
period in France,
795
00:54:19,723 --> 00:54:22,443
when part of the population was
becoming more and more
796
00:54:22,443 --> 00:54:24,123
right wing and anti-Semitic.
797
00:54:24,123 --> 00:54:26,363
CHANTING
798
00:54:26,363 --> 00:54:30,483
And the other part was becoming more
and more radical and leftist.
799
00:54:31,643 --> 00:54:36,363
And there was a huge labour movement
and people were going on strike.
800
00:54:36,363 --> 00:54:38,363
Chanel's workers went on strike,
801
00:54:38,363 --> 00:54:40,563
and she just completely exploded.
802
00:54:40,563 --> 00:54:42,603
And she tried to fire them all.
803
00:54:42,603 --> 00:54:45,603
She did fire them all, but they
refused to leave.
804
00:54:45,603 --> 00:54:48,603
They occupied her atelier,
805
00:54:48,603 --> 00:54:52,403
and eventually she had to back down,
which she really hated.
806
00:54:54,483 --> 00:54:57,163
You see that someone who
grew up poor
807
00:54:57,163 --> 00:55:00,563
nevertheless didn't identify with
any of her workers at all.
808
00:55:02,363 --> 00:55:05,843
By the 1930s, she lives at The Ritz
809
00:55:05,843 --> 00:55:10,563
and she's in a relationship
with a designer,
810
00:55:10,563 --> 00:55:14,563
an illustrator called Paul Iribe.
811
00:55:14,563 --> 00:55:17,123
She was undoubtedly right-wing,
812
00:55:17,123 --> 00:55:20,363
and Paul Iribe was very,
very right-wing.
813
00:55:21,923 --> 00:55:24,443
Chanel was someone who'd very much
absorb the politics
814
00:55:24,443 --> 00:55:26,163
of those around her.
815
00:55:26,163 --> 00:55:29,683
Boy Capel
was a great progressive liberal,
816
00:55:29,683 --> 00:55:32,203
but by the time she got to Iribe,
817
00:55:32,203 --> 00:55:35,563
she was very ripe for the kind
of nationalism
818
00:55:35,563 --> 00:55:37,003
that he represented.
819
00:55:38,443 --> 00:55:41,603
And she bankrolled his journal,
820
00:55:41,603 --> 00:55:44,763
which was unmistakably
a proto-fascist,
821
00:55:44,763 --> 00:55:47,563
arch nationalist, right-wing
822
00:55:47,563 --> 00:55:49,923
but interesting, artistic journal.
823
00:55:53,283 --> 00:55:57,363
He used Coco as the face
of Marianne,
824
00:55:57,363 --> 00:55:59,923
the allegory of France,
825
00:55:59,923 --> 00:56:02,043
shown martyred on the cross
826
00:56:02,043 --> 00:56:05,723
or drowning in blood or her eyes
gouged out.
827
00:56:05,723 --> 00:56:09,043
I think she was sort of
the cover girl.
828
00:56:09,043 --> 00:56:12,603
She bypassed Tsarina, Duchess,
829
00:56:12,603 --> 00:56:15,723
and went straight to
allegorical emblem
830
00:56:15,723 --> 00:56:18,603
of the entire nation of France!
831
00:56:18,603 --> 00:56:20,843
Really, I don't know where you
go from there!
832
00:56:23,123 --> 00:56:27,683
The most complicated man I ever knew
was Paul Iribe.
833
00:56:27,683 --> 00:56:30,563
My relationship with Iribe was
a passionate one.
834
00:56:30,563 --> 00:56:33,083
How I loathe passion!
835
00:56:33,083 --> 00:56:35,043
What an abomination!
836
00:56:35,043 --> 00:56:37,163
What a ghastly disease!
837
00:56:40,723 --> 00:56:43,843
She was going to marry Iribe.
838
00:56:47,083 --> 00:56:52,123
He took the Train Bleu to join her
at La Pausa.
839
00:56:53,283 --> 00:56:56,563
And when he arrived, he went down
to the court de tennis
840
00:56:56,563 --> 00:56:59,963
and he was, you know, white.
841
00:57:01,083 --> 00:57:03,523
And she came and she saw him...
842
00:57:04,683 --> 00:57:06,403
..fall down. He was dead.
843
00:57:08,803 --> 00:57:12,323
He dies in front of Chanel.
844
00:57:12,323 --> 00:57:15,963
Again, the loss of somebody
that she loves.
845
00:57:18,283 --> 00:57:21,963
She couldn't sleep any more
after that.
846
00:57:23,163 --> 00:57:26,723
She was terrified that death
was really
847
00:57:26,723 --> 00:57:30,443
taking such a power in her life.
848
00:57:49,683 --> 00:57:52,043
When war is declared,
849
00:57:52,043 --> 00:57:54,563
Chanel flees Paris
850
00:57:54,563 --> 00:57:57,963
and she goes to stay at the home
851
00:57:57,963 --> 00:58:01,603
of her nephew, Andre,
in the countryside.
852
00:58:01,603 --> 00:58:04,243
REPORTER: And now the Nazis
entered Paris.
853
00:58:04,243 --> 00:58:07,563
This had been the dream of a Kaiser
in the last war.
854
00:58:07,563 --> 00:58:09,123
Hitler achieved it.
855
00:58:10,563 --> 00:58:12,763
Paris is occupied.
856
00:58:12,763 --> 00:58:16,163
Calm is apparently restored.
857
00:58:16,163 --> 00:58:19,883
And like many inhabitants,
she goes back.
858
00:58:22,243 --> 00:58:25,843
She wants to return to her rooms
859
00:58:25,843 --> 00:58:30,123
where she's lived at The Ritz
since the 1930s.
860
00:58:32,043 --> 00:58:36,363
But her former suite, at the grand
part overlooking Place Vendome,
861
00:58:36,363 --> 00:58:39,283
is occupied by German officers.
862
00:58:41,603 --> 00:58:45,403
She somehow manages to persuade
the manager of The Ritz
863
00:58:45,403 --> 00:58:48,083
to let her have a room
at the very back,
864
00:58:48,083 --> 00:58:51,123
an attic room on the
Rue Cambon side,
865
00:58:51,123 --> 00:58:54,443
which was where her business is.
866
00:58:54,443 --> 00:58:57,123
And she keeps a low profile.
867
00:59:02,163 --> 00:59:05,563
Baron von Dincklage, also known
as Spatz,
868
00:59:05,563 --> 00:59:08,283
was a German officer
869
00:59:08,283 --> 00:59:11,523
who Chanel may have met years prior.
870
00:59:11,523 --> 00:59:16,123
He had been a spy in France
before the war,
871
00:59:16,123 --> 00:59:19,323
and he'd been sent to France
by the Germans
872
00:59:19,323 --> 00:59:22,443
to infiltrate French society.
873
00:59:22,443 --> 00:59:25,363
He'd been on the Riviera at the same
time that Chanel,
874
00:59:25,363 --> 00:59:28,163
he sort of presented himself
as a tennis pro
875
00:59:28,163 --> 00:59:32,243
or a businessman to learn about
what was seductive
876
00:59:32,243 --> 00:59:34,443
to French women. In particular,
877
00:59:34,443 --> 00:59:38,923
how to tailor Nazi propaganda
to make it palatable.
878
00:59:38,923 --> 00:59:41,123
And I think he used that
to his advantage
879
00:59:41,123 --> 00:59:42,883
with Chanel, among others.
880
00:59:44,603 --> 00:59:48,403
And he and Chanel started a romance
during these years
881
00:59:48,403 --> 00:59:52,563
when he spent a lot of time at her
apartment in The Ritz.
882
00:59:54,763 --> 00:59:57,563
She did claim innocence.
883
00:59:57,563 --> 01:00:01,723
There's a apocryphal story that
she said to Cecil Beaton.
884
01:00:01,723 --> 01:00:04,483
"When a lady my age has a chance
at a lover,
885
01:00:04,483 --> 01:00:06,563
"she does not ask to see
his passport."
886
01:00:07,603 --> 01:00:09,123
And it's true.
887
01:00:09,123 --> 01:00:11,043
You know,
he did have an English mother
888
01:00:11,043 --> 01:00:12,563
and they did speak English
889
01:00:12,563 --> 01:00:15,323
and she always had a soft spot
for an Englishman.
890
01:00:15,323 --> 01:00:18,363
So perhaps she convinced herself
891
01:00:18,363 --> 01:00:20,683
that he was more English
than German.
892
01:00:22,123 --> 01:00:25,163
But in fact, he was a German agent.
893
01:00:27,603 --> 01:00:33,443
Andre, who was her nephew,
or possibly her son -
894
01:00:33,443 --> 01:00:37,043
we will never know, even he may
never have actually known -
895
01:00:37,043 --> 01:00:39,883
was in the French army and
had been captured
896
01:00:39,883 --> 01:00:43,243
and was in a German
prisoner of war camp.
897
01:00:44,803 --> 01:00:46,603
Of all the people in her life,
898
01:00:46,603 --> 01:00:49,963
she was most attached
emotionally to Andre.
899
01:00:49,963 --> 01:00:52,803
It was his picture she kept in
her purse all her life,
900
01:00:52,803 --> 01:00:54,163
no-one else's.
901
01:00:54,163 --> 01:00:57,323
And she was desperate to get
him released.
902
01:00:57,323 --> 01:01:00,963
Chanel got news from him
that he had TB
903
01:01:00,963 --> 01:01:02,763
and was very, very sick.
904
01:01:02,763 --> 01:01:05,283
And this was what had killed
her mother.
905
01:01:05,283 --> 01:01:09,603
And it is at this point that
she becomes involved
906
01:01:09,603 --> 01:01:13,323
with the German agent -
that the affair begins.
907
01:01:13,323 --> 01:01:16,323
And I think - I'm speculating,
of course -
908
01:01:16,323 --> 01:01:22,083
that she would do whatever
it took to save Andre.
909
01:01:23,603 --> 01:01:26,843
He was duly released from the
prisoner of war camp
910
01:01:26,843 --> 01:01:29,683
and he did return to France,
911
01:01:29,683 --> 01:01:33,243
and she probably saved his life
as a consequence.
912
01:01:35,683 --> 01:01:37,003
And yet,
913
01:01:37,003 --> 01:01:40,603
the relationship continues
with Spatz
914
01:01:40,603 --> 01:01:45,803
and then Chanel becomes involved in
this frankly implausible plot.
915
01:01:47,763 --> 01:01:51,563
It was a kind of spy mission
designed to broker
916
01:01:51,563 --> 01:01:54,083
a separate peace with Churchill,
917
01:01:54,083 --> 01:01:56,563
around the back, if you will,
of Hitler.
918
01:01:58,603 --> 01:02:02,843
Her Nazi handlers had a name for her
cooperation with them.
919
01:02:02,843 --> 01:02:04,563
It was called Operation Modelhut,
920
01:02:04,563 --> 01:02:07,883
which means "fashion hat" in German.
921
01:02:07,883 --> 01:02:10,203
Through the Duke of Westminster,
she'd been a friend
922
01:02:10,203 --> 01:02:11,323
of Winston Churchill.
923
01:02:11,323 --> 01:02:14,563
And she'd somehow fantastically
volunteered as a go-between
924
01:02:14,563 --> 01:02:16,243
between the English and the Germans,
925
01:02:16,243 --> 01:02:18,243
if you can imagine Chanel
doing that,
926
01:02:18,243 --> 01:02:20,243
shacked up at The Ritz
with her Nazi officer.
927
01:02:20,243 --> 01:02:22,563
One thing you learn from the world
of the courtesans
928
01:02:22,563 --> 01:02:24,923
is to be an exquisite opportunist.
929
01:02:26,083 --> 01:02:30,603
Her code name was "Westminster",
which tells you everything.
930
01:02:30,603 --> 01:02:34,283
Her connections
through the British aristocracy
931
01:02:34,283 --> 01:02:36,483
were prized by the Nazis.
932
01:02:37,803 --> 01:02:41,083
She's going to meet Churchill
in Madrid
933
01:02:41,083 --> 01:02:42,603
and deliver this message
934
01:02:42,603 --> 01:02:45,803
that Schellenberg and others
in Berlin
935
01:02:45,803 --> 01:02:48,923
want a negotiated peace settlement.
936
01:02:50,403 --> 01:02:52,883
She was in over her head,
937
01:02:52,883 --> 01:02:56,403
but I think she imagined herself
the saviour of Europe
938
01:02:56,403 --> 01:02:59,563
and the kind of heroine who brought
an end to the war -
939
01:02:59,563 --> 01:03:00,923
on German terms.
940
01:03:02,723 --> 01:03:05,403
This, of course, is doomed
to failure.
941
01:03:05,403 --> 01:03:07,603
It seems highly unlikely,
942
01:03:07,603 --> 01:03:11,603
in the midst of trying to save the
free world from the Nazis,
943
01:03:11,603 --> 01:03:15,803
that Churchill was going to have
time to meet with Coco Chanel.
944
01:03:15,803 --> 01:03:20,403
So this implausible and frankly
hopeless plot went wrong.
945
01:03:21,603 --> 01:03:24,203
REPORTER: Yes, sir.
Liberation looks like this.
946
01:03:24,203 --> 01:03:27,843
This was Paris again
after four years
947
01:03:27,843 --> 01:03:29,123
of a foul grief.
948
01:03:30,603 --> 01:03:37,043
When the tide turned and the Allies
came and retook Paris,
949
01:03:37,043 --> 01:03:39,043
Chanel quickly understood
950
01:03:39,043 --> 01:03:41,563
that she was going to have
to change allegiances.
951
01:03:41,563 --> 01:03:44,043
She was nothing if not flexible,
952
01:03:44,043 --> 01:03:47,843
and she understood that she was
at risk
953
01:03:47,843 --> 01:03:53,363
for being tried and accused
as a collaborationist.
954
01:03:53,363 --> 01:03:56,563
And French citizens who had been
involved in helping the Nazis
955
01:03:56,563 --> 01:03:58,683
were severely punished.
956
01:04:02,203 --> 01:04:06,363
She received a visit
from Malcolm Muggeridge,
957
01:04:06,363 --> 01:04:10,283
who was a British spy working
for intelligence in Paris,
958
01:04:10,283 --> 01:04:14,643
and he was rather interested in
meeting the famous Chanel.
959
01:04:15,763 --> 01:04:19,563
And he went to have dinner with her
in her apartment,
960
01:04:19,563 --> 01:04:22,003
where they had delicious food
and wine,
961
01:04:22,003 --> 01:04:23,883
but she didn't eat very much.
962
01:04:24,963 --> 01:04:27,763
He said she was impossible
to pin down.
963
01:04:30,443 --> 01:04:34,563
Chanel was briefly arrested for
her being a collaborator
964
01:04:34,563 --> 01:04:35,883
by the free French,
965
01:04:35,883 --> 01:04:38,163
and then she was let go
quite rapidly,
966
01:04:38,163 --> 01:04:42,243
possibly through the intervention
of Churchill.
967
01:04:42,243 --> 01:04:44,723
Not only had he been her friend
968
01:04:44,723 --> 01:04:46,963
when she was with
the Duke of Westminster,
969
01:04:46,963 --> 01:04:49,603
but also more likely because she
might have said things
970
01:04:49,603 --> 01:04:52,283
about other pro-Nazi British
aristocrats,
971
01:04:52,283 --> 01:04:53,883
including the Duke of Windsor.
972
01:04:57,403 --> 01:04:59,603
She was gone for a few hours
973
01:04:59,603 --> 01:05:02,963
and came back to her suite
at The Ritz
974
01:05:02,963 --> 01:05:06,323
and soon thereafter was able to pack
up her belongings
975
01:05:06,323 --> 01:05:08,603
and hightail it to Switzerland,
976
01:05:08,603 --> 01:05:11,563
where she would spend the next
more than a decade.
977
01:05:12,843 --> 01:05:14,603
She was a great survivor.
978
01:05:14,603 --> 01:05:17,403
She had survived the traumas
of her childhood.
979
01:05:17,403 --> 01:05:19,883
She had survived bereavement.
980
01:05:19,883 --> 01:05:22,203
And she was going to survive
the occupation.
981
01:05:22,203 --> 01:05:23,883
And she did what it took.
982
01:05:26,683 --> 01:05:30,603
Perhaps the worst thing she did
during the occupation
983
01:05:30,603 --> 01:05:33,363
was to try and get back
complete control
984
01:05:33,363 --> 01:05:35,443
of her perfume company.
985
01:05:35,443 --> 01:05:38,763
She only owned 10% of it.
986
01:05:38,763 --> 01:05:42,323
The remainder of it was owned
by the Wertheimers.
987
01:05:42,323 --> 01:05:44,603
The perfume part
of her business was owned
988
01:05:44,603 --> 01:05:47,483
by a very, very rich Jewish family,
the Wertheimers.
989
01:05:47,483 --> 01:05:51,443
And during the war, she tried to get
the business back from them -
990
01:05:51,443 --> 01:05:52,923
they had fled to America -
991
01:05:52,923 --> 01:05:57,803
by invoking the Nazi race laws
against this Jewish family.
992
01:05:57,803 --> 01:05:59,923
She didn't succeed.
993
01:05:59,923 --> 01:06:01,643
But... But she tried.
994
01:06:02,803 --> 01:06:05,003
She had no sense of loyalty to them.
995
01:06:05,003 --> 01:06:08,123
They had made her the equivalent
of billions of dollars.
996
01:06:08,123 --> 01:06:10,803
So, erm, yeah, that was...
997
01:06:10,803 --> 01:06:12,963
That was the Chanel of the 1940s.
998
01:06:15,043 --> 01:06:18,563
Somehow, despite all these
ups and downs
999
01:06:18,563 --> 01:06:22,963
and legal actions and war and peace,
1000
01:06:22,963 --> 01:06:26,683
she remained friends with them,
1001
01:06:26,683 --> 01:06:28,043
remarkably.
1002
01:06:28,043 --> 01:06:31,923
So when she makes her comeback
in 1954,
1003
01:06:31,923 --> 01:06:34,763
after a long period of inactivity,
1004
01:06:34,763 --> 01:06:39,923
it's financed and backed
by the Wertheimers.
1005
01:06:39,923 --> 01:06:44,683
And Pierre Wertheimer stands loyally
by her side.
1006
01:06:45,923 --> 01:06:47,883
She was valuable property,
1007
01:06:47,883 --> 01:06:50,923
and I think the Wertheimers probably
encouraged her also
1008
01:06:50,923 --> 01:06:52,603
to start up after the war,
1009
01:06:52,603 --> 01:06:54,603
because at the very least,
even if she failed,
1010
01:06:54,603 --> 01:06:57,083
it would give temporary publicity
to the perfume.
1011
01:07:02,603 --> 01:07:06,323
That voice that gushed forth
from her mouth like lava,
1012
01:07:06,323 --> 01:07:09,963
those words that crackled
like dry vines,
1013
01:07:09,963 --> 01:07:13,003
I heard them all
over entire evenings
1014
01:07:13,003 --> 01:07:14,723
in the hotel in St Moritz
1015
01:07:14,723 --> 01:07:18,123
where I met her in the winter
of 1946,
1016
01:07:18,123 --> 01:07:20,363
unemployed and with nothing to do
1017
01:07:20,363 --> 01:07:24,163
for the first time in her life,
chomping at the bit.
1018
01:07:24,163 --> 01:07:26,763
She had gone into voluntary exile,
1019
01:07:26,763 --> 01:07:29,683
unsure whether to return
to Rue Cambon
1020
01:07:29,683 --> 01:07:32,483
and waiting to become wealthy again.
1021
01:07:35,123 --> 01:07:37,803
Chanel, the volcano from
the Auvergne,
1022
01:07:37,803 --> 01:07:40,923
which Paris was mistaken in
believing was extinct.
1023
01:07:47,083 --> 01:07:49,043
REPORTER: From Paris come
the first pictures of
1024
01:07:49,043 --> 01:07:51,563
the controversial
new Christian Dior fashion.
1025
01:07:55,883 --> 01:07:58,283
After the war, Christian Dior
1026
01:07:58,283 --> 01:08:02,483
becomes the most successful designer
in the world
1027
01:08:02,483 --> 01:08:05,363
with his famous New Look.
1028
01:08:05,363 --> 01:08:08,363
And it is the antithesis
1029
01:08:08,363 --> 01:08:12,283
of everything Chanel has stood for.
1030
01:08:12,283 --> 01:08:17,603
Dior does this highly romanticised
vision of femininity,
1031
01:08:17,603 --> 01:08:19,723
which actually, although it's called
the New Look,
1032
01:08:19,723 --> 01:08:22,603
really looks back to
La Belle Epoque,
1033
01:08:22,603 --> 01:08:25,403
an era that Chanel remembered
all too well,
1034
01:08:25,403 --> 01:08:28,323
where women wore corsets
and long skirts.
1035
01:08:28,323 --> 01:08:32,203
And Chanel was so enraged by this.
1036
01:08:32,203 --> 01:08:36,403
The sight of a woman in
a New Look dress,
1037
01:08:36,403 --> 01:08:39,443
one of her friends said, was like
waving a red flag
1038
01:08:39,443 --> 01:08:40,563
in front of a bull.
1039
01:09:08,003 --> 01:09:10,803
She did, in fact, launch a new line
1040
01:09:10,803 --> 01:09:15,043
in '54 to much, much anticipation.
1041
01:09:17,483 --> 01:09:19,403
How was it received?
1042
01:09:19,403 --> 01:09:21,003
Total flop.
1043
01:09:21,003 --> 01:09:24,563
It was an enormous disappointment.
1044
01:09:24,563 --> 01:09:26,563
The press was vicious.
1045
01:09:26,563 --> 01:09:29,003
"She is living in the past.
1046
01:09:29,003 --> 01:09:30,763
"This is boring.
1047
01:09:30,763 --> 01:09:32,483
"She's lost her touch."
1048
01:09:32,483 --> 01:09:35,283
It was met essentially
with a big yawn.
1049
01:09:35,283 --> 01:09:39,723
But it was also clear that there
was a collaborationist cloud
1050
01:09:39,723 --> 01:09:44,363
around her that was very difficult
for the French to accept still.
1051
01:09:46,403 --> 01:09:49,523
Another person might have been
disheartened and said,
1052
01:09:49,523 --> 01:09:53,403
"Well, you know, I tried and
it's not my moment any more."
1053
01:09:55,123 --> 01:09:57,523
But that was not her reaction
at all.
1054
01:10:23,803 --> 01:10:26,723
Even though at this point
she's in her 70s,
1055
01:10:26,723 --> 01:10:33,123
her vision is recognised by some
American fashion editors
1056
01:10:33,123 --> 01:10:37,323
who said, "Yes, actually, this looks
rather youthful and appealing."
1057
01:10:41,003 --> 01:10:45,043
In 1957, Coco Chanel took a trip
to the United States,
1058
01:10:45,043 --> 01:10:47,603
to this very city of Dallas, Texas,
1059
01:10:47,603 --> 01:10:53,283
at the invitation of department
store magnate Stanley Marcus.
1060
01:10:53,283 --> 01:10:58,323
Dallas is home to the great fashion
emporium Neiman Marcus,
1061
01:10:58,323 --> 01:11:01,883
and Stanley Marcus knew the power
of Parisian fashion
1062
01:11:01,883 --> 01:11:04,483
and the influence it was already
having in America,
1063
01:11:04,483 --> 01:11:08,603
and he made sure that she was feted
within an inch of her life.
1064
01:11:11,603 --> 01:11:16,443
Here, she and Stanley Marcus
are at his ranch.
1065
01:11:16,443 --> 01:11:18,963
Chanel is wearing a fur stole.
1066
01:11:18,963 --> 01:11:21,283
But it's September in Dallas.
1067
01:11:21,283 --> 01:11:24,243
But for style, she kept it on.
1068
01:11:24,243 --> 01:11:28,443
Stanley Marcus staged a bovine
fashion show
1069
01:11:28,443 --> 01:11:30,243
for Coco Chanel,
1070
01:11:30,243 --> 01:11:33,483
in which cows were dressed
in pearls
1071
01:11:33,483 --> 01:11:37,603
as a kind of blending of their
two worlds.
1072
01:11:37,603 --> 01:11:41,083
She went dressed in a kind
of cowgirl outfit.
1073
01:12:05,763 --> 01:12:08,603
I like to say that Americans
are very amnesiac,
1074
01:12:08,603 --> 01:12:14,363
and they managed not to think about
Chanel's wartime connections.
1075
01:12:14,363 --> 01:12:19,243
And the breezy, casual, athletic
look of Chanel's clothes
1076
01:12:19,243 --> 01:12:22,323
struck a chord with postwar America.
1077
01:12:22,323 --> 01:12:24,043
They loved France,
1078
01:12:24,043 --> 01:12:26,323
and suddenly,
the French seemed American.
1079
01:12:26,323 --> 01:12:28,723
And Chanel found herself the toast
1080
01:12:28,723 --> 01:12:30,803
of American fashion.
1081
01:12:35,523 --> 01:12:37,923
Unlike many couturiers,
1082
01:12:37,923 --> 01:12:40,963
she didn't mind the Chanel look
being copied.
1083
01:12:40,963 --> 01:12:44,643
She thought imitation was the
sincerest form of flattery.
1084
01:12:58,763 --> 01:13:01,803
When she came back in the '50s
and '60s,
1085
01:13:01,803 --> 01:13:05,123
she was far and away most famous
for these tailored suits.
1086
01:13:05,123 --> 01:13:07,323
And over here, we have a copy.
1087
01:13:07,323 --> 01:13:09,803
The department stores in New York
1088
01:13:09,803 --> 01:13:13,163
would proudly have fashion shows
showing their licensed copies.
1089
01:13:13,163 --> 01:13:15,363
They'd even proudly put them
in the window saying,
1090
01:13:15,363 --> 01:13:17,283
"Couture, 400.
1091
01:13:17,283 --> 01:13:19,283
"Our version, $35."
1092
01:13:19,283 --> 01:13:20,603
TILL RINGS
1093
01:13:20,603 --> 01:13:24,923
You could buy the prestige
of having a Chanel suit
1094
01:13:24,923 --> 01:13:26,683
by buying a licensed copy.
1095
01:13:28,563 --> 01:13:30,923
It was presciently modern.
1096
01:13:30,923 --> 01:13:34,163
It sort of anticipates sampling,
right?
1097
01:13:34,163 --> 01:13:36,563
It anticipates the sampling
of the art world,
1098
01:13:36,563 --> 01:13:37,963
the sampling of the music world.
1099
01:13:37,963 --> 01:13:40,563
It was the sampling of
the fashion world.
1100
01:13:40,563 --> 01:13:42,563
It's a form of immortality.
1101
01:13:54,123 --> 01:13:56,923
If you consider it a battle between
the Dior aesthetic
1102
01:13:56,923 --> 01:13:58,163
and Chanel's aesthetic,
1103
01:13:58,163 --> 01:14:00,523
it's very clear that Chanel won
that battle.
1104
01:14:02,043 --> 01:14:04,723
She's dressing Jackie Kennedy,
1105
01:14:04,723 --> 01:14:06,603
one of the most famous women
in the world.
1106
01:14:06,603 --> 01:14:08,963
She's dressing French movie stars.
1107
01:14:08,963 --> 01:14:10,683
She's dressing Elizabeth Taylor.
1108
01:14:10,683 --> 01:14:14,123
She becomes incredibly famous again.
1109
01:14:14,123 --> 01:14:19,443
She's synonymous with chic
in the 1950s and '60s,
1110
01:14:19,443 --> 01:14:23,683
just as much as she has been
in the '20s and '30s.
1111
01:14:24,843 --> 01:14:28,843
These suits became a new kind
of haute bourgeois uniform.
1112
01:14:31,243 --> 01:14:34,123
The first year I bought
Chanel couture,
1113
01:14:34,123 --> 01:14:37,043
I think that was '59.
1114
01:14:37,043 --> 01:14:39,563
I found a suit
1115
01:14:39,563 --> 01:14:43,083
that I must have worn for...
1116
01:14:43,083 --> 01:14:44,803
..eight or ten years.
1117
01:14:44,803 --> 01:14:46,803
It was totally classic.
1118
01:14:46,803 --> 01:14:49,243
It was very like this colour,
1119
01:14:49,243 --> 01:14:52,803
but without the silver woven in.
1120
01:14:52,803 --> 01:14:56,003
I just felt wonderful in it.
1121
01:14:56,003 --> 01:14:59,283
And I loved the fact...
1122
01:14:59,283 --> 01:15:02,603
I bought a lot of tweeds there
1123
01:15:02,603 --> 01:15:05,603
because of travelling a lot -
they don't wrinkle.
1124
01:15:08,923 --> 01:15:13,083
I managed to make it two or three
times a year to Paris
1125
01:15:13,083 --> 01:15:15,443
to see the whole collection.
1126
01:15:16,523 --> 01:15:20,883
In those days, it was so different
than now.
1127
01:15:20,883 --> 01:15:22,083
It was quiet.
1128
01:15:22,083 --> 01:15:25,003
There was no music, there were
no celebrities.
1129
01:15:25,003 --> 01:15:26,563
I mean, there'd be an actress,
1130
01:15:26,563 --> 01:15:28,563
and usually the wife
1131
01:15:28,563 --> 01:15:31,243
of the President of France would go.
1132
01:15:32,843 --> 01:15:36,003
I remember she would sit up
on the stairs
1133
01:15:36,003 --> 01:15:39,563
just intensely watching
the mannequins,
1134
01:15:39,563 --> 01:15:41,323
and then she'd quickly vanish.
1135
01:16:37,283 --> 01:16:40,843
I had done the movie Otto E Mezzo -
Eight And A Half.
1136
01:16:40,843 --> 01:16:45,603
We went over to Paris
for the weekend
1137
01:16:45,603 --> 01:16:50,203
and I ran into my great friend
who I adored - Salvador Dali.
1138
01:16:50,203 --> 01:16:55,123
And he said, "You've got to go
and see Mademoiselle,
1139
01:16:55,123 --> 01:16:57,083
"and why don't you work there?"
1140
01:16:57,083 --> 01:16:59,403
I said, "How the hell am I going
to work for HER?"
1141
01:16:59,403 --> 01:17:01,523
He said, "She's looking for models."
1142
01:17:01,523 --> 01:17:03,603
I said, "How fabulous!"
1143
01:17:03,603 --> 01:17:07,883
So I called up and they said,
"Please, come right away."
1144
01:17:09,283 --> 01:17:13,603
So I ran there and she stood
at the top of the stairs,
1145
01:17:13,603 --> 01:17:16,123
lauding.
1146
01:17:13,603 --> 01:17:16,123
HAUGHTY LAUGHTER
1147
01:17:19,043 --> 01:17:21,043
Saying, "Wonderful shoulders."
1148
01:17:23,323 --> 01:17:26,283
She came down the stairs
and she hired me.
1149
01:17:28,123 --> 01:17:30,203
We all wanted to be the favourite.
1150
01:17:30,203 --> 01:17:33,603
We all think we were the favourite,
in fact.
1151
01:17:33,603 --> 01:17:35,803
That's the, the cote...
1152
01:17:35,803 --> 01:17:39,163
The mischievous side of Chanel.
1153
01:17:39,163 --> 01:17:42,603
To get everybody under control.
1154
01:17:42,603 --> 01:17:46,723
She played the seduction
with everyone.
1155
01:17:46,723 --> 01:17:49,563
I was her favourite.
There was no-one else.
1156
01:17:49,563 --> 01:17:51,723
I was numero uno.
1157
01:17:51,723 --> 01:17:54,523
Chanel called me the
American Cowboy.
1158
01:18:25,963 --> 01:18:29,163
In this apartment, you will see
no bedroom.
1159
01:18:29,163 --> 01:18:31,883
Because actually Gabrielle Chanel
was living at the Hotel Ritz,
1160
01:18:31,883 --> 01:18:33,883
which is just across the street.
1161
01:18:33,883 --> 01:18:36,163
It was very practical for her.
1162
01:18:36,163 --> 01:18:38,323
She would be at The Ritz,
1163
01:18:38,323 --> 01:18:40,563
and she'd leave there around
12 o'clock
1164
01:18:40,563 --> 01:18:44,083
to come down to the salon.
1165
01:18:44,083 --> 01:18:46,603
And everybody would say,
"She's coming, she's coming!
1166
01:18:46,603 --> 01:18:49,763
"And clean the stairs and make sure
everything's immaculate,"
1167
01:18:49,763 --> 01:18:51,163
da-da-da-da!
1168
01:18:51,163 --> 01:18:53,603
And someone was here to welcome her.
1169
01:18:53,603 --> 01:18:56,403
And before they would spray
the perfume Chanel No 5
1170
01:18:56,403 --> 01:18:59,363
in the staircase, in the
haute couture salon.
1171
01:18:59,363 --> 01:19:01,683
It was very important for
Gabrielle Chanel
1172
01:19:01,683 --> 01:19:04,243
that the perfume No 5
would precede her.
1173
01:19:04,243 --> 01:19:06,443
And then she'd arrive!
1174
01:19:06,443 --> 01:19:09,283
And I'd start working
with her immediately.
1175
01:19:10,683 --> 01:19:13,683
She never drew.
She always fit them on me.
1176
01:19:13,683 --> 01:19:17,003
Always the high armhole close
to the body.
1177
01:19:18,323 --> 01:19:21,083
You know, she'd try this,
try that.
1178
01:19:21,083 --> 01:19:23,163
You know, it took hours.
1179
01:19:23,163 --> 01:19:26,243
How was that?
Boring as hell!
1180
01:19:26,243 --> 01:19:29,163
We all knew that she was a genius,
1181
01:19:29,163 --> 01:19:32,883
that she had such a strong
personality,
1182
01:19:32,883 --> 01:19:35,523
that she was a difficult person,
1183
01:19:35,523 --> 01:19:37,043
very capricious.
1184
01:19:37,043 --> 01:19:39,003
So everybody was trembling a bit.
1185
01:19:39,003 --> 01:19:41,723
But that was part of the excitement.
1186
01:19:41,723 --> 01:19:43,283
You know, she talked.
1187
01:19:43,283 --> 01:19:47,563
Chanel talked and talked until
she couldn't talk.
1188
01:19:47,563 --> 01:19:49,963
She just never shut up!
1189
01:19:49,963 --> 01:19:52,763
She would basically work
into the evening,
1190
01:19:52,763 --> 01:19:55,083
eating nothing, subsisting
on cigarettes
1191
01:19:55,083 --> 01:19:57,043
and many, many cups of coffee,
1192
01:19:57,043 --> 01:20:00,363
assisted by, among other people,
Lilou Marquand.
1193
01:20:46,603 --> 01:20:51,163
She was going to come to America
for the opening of Coco,
1194
01:20:51,163 --> 01:20:53,363
the show.
1195
01:20:53,363 --> 01:20:57,563
She thought that Audrey Hepburn
was going to play her.
1196
01:20:57,563 --> 01:20:58,923
I mean, it was not.
1197
01:20:58,923 --> 01:21:00,363
It was the older one.
1198
01:21:00,363 --> 01:21:01,803
What do you...?
1199
01:21:01,803 --> 01:21:03,563
Katharine Hepburn.
1200
01:21:03,563 --> 01:21:04,843
And she was furious.
1201
01:21:05,923 --> 01:21:09,123
Why's that?
Because she was too old!
1202
01:21:09,123 --> 01:21:10,763
She didn't come.
1203
01:21:10,763 --> 01:21:12,283
I got all dressed.
1204
01:21:12,283 --> 01:21:15,323
She made me a beautiful suit.
1205
01:21:15,323 --> 01:21:17,283
And she never arrived.
1206
01:21:18,563 --> 01:21:20,723
I didn't see her again after that.
1207
01:21:24,123 --> 01:21:25,923
And she never did see the musical?
1208
01:21:25,923 --> 01:21:26,963
Never!
1209
01:21:26,963 --> 01:21:29,403
Oh, it didn't exist for her!
1210
01:21:29,403 --> 01:21:31,883
You know, she wanted to...
1211
01:21:31,883 --> 01:21:34,603
To tell her own story herself.
1212
01:21:35,643 --> 01:21:37,563
And this is what she did
in her fashion.
1213
01:21:54,603 --> 01:21:57,203
I think people still hear
of Gabrielle Chanel
1214
01:21:57,203 --> 01:21:59,563
because the House Of Chanel
wants it as well.
1215
01:22:01,603 --> 01:22:06,123
Virginie Viard really...loves the
story of Gabrielle Chanel
1216
01:22:06,123 --> 01:22:07,603
and her designs,
1217
01:22:07,603 --> 01:22:11,003
and she revisits her designs
in a very modern way.
1218
01:22:14,123 --> 01:22:18,563
Chanel still owes so much
to Coco Chanel.
1219
01:22:18,563 --> 01:22:20,563
Her codes are still there,
1220
01:22:20,563 --> 01:22:23,003
her iconography is still there
1221
01:22:23,003 --> 01:22:27,363
and remain alive long after
the founder's death.
1222
01:22:29,123 --> 01:22:33,003
She was an entrepreneur when it
wasn't the time to be one.
1223
01:22:33,003 --> 01:22:36,003
I mean, she was avant-garde
1224
01:22:36,003 --> 01:22:40,723
and she paved the way for so many
women and designers.
1225
01:22:44,603 --> 01:22:46,963
When people buy a Chanel bag today,
1226
01:22:46,963 --> 01:22:50,603
they're buying a piece of
the Chanel legacy.
1227
01:22:50,603 --> 01:22:53,923
It was really Coco Chanel that first
popularised the shoulder bag.
1228
01:22:53,923 --> 01:22:56,603
And of course, every time you see
a shoulder bag,
1229
01:22:56,603 --> 01:22:59,243
you can think that designer was
influenced by Coco Chanel,
1230
01:22:59,243 --> 01:23:00,723
whether or not they know it.
1231
01:23:00,723 --> 01:23:02,443
And they probably DO know it.
1232
01:23:02,443 --> 01:23:04,683
What I like about the flat bag
1233
01:23:04,683 --> 01:23:06,203
is they're quite easy to access
1234
01:23:06,203 --> 01:23:07,643
compared to, like, you know,
1235
01:23:07,643 --> 01:23:09,843
other bags that maybe you have to...
1236
01:23:09,843 --> 01:23:13,083
I like the way you can be
holding a glass
1237
01:23:13,083 --> 01:23:15,083
and smoking a cigarette
1238
01:23:15,083 --> 01:23:17,363
at the same time.
1239
01:23:17,363 --> 01:23:20,603
One of my, like, key obsessions
growing up
1240
01:23:20,603 --> 01:23:22,603
was Mum's Chanel jewellery
collection,
1241
01:23:22,603 --> 01:23:25,603
because it was the most bold
and, you know,
1242
01:23:25,603 --> 01:23:28,563
over the top thing that I could kind
of find in her closet.
1243
01:23:28,563 --> 01:23:30,563
These are old ones.
1244
01:23:30,563 --> 01:23:33,603
Chanel. But they're fake, yeah.
1245
01:23:33,603 --> 01:23:35,723
Costume. I wear a lot
of fake jewellery.
1246
01:23:35,723 --> 01:23:38,563
I mean... But it's still expensive.
1247
01:23:38,563 --> 01:23:39,963
You know?
1248
01:23:39,963 --> 01:23:43,923
Coco Chanel got women wearing
trousers and suits.
1249
01:23:43,923 --> 01:23:46,603
I think she was a great feminist,
1250
01:23:46,603 --> 01:23:49,843
and I think she had an amazing
sense of glamour.
1251
01:23:49,843 --> 01:23:51,843
You know, simple, chic,
1252
01:23:51,843 --> 01:23:53,683
beautiful, timeless.
1253
01:23:54,763 --> 01:23:56,083
This is a favourite.
1254
01:23:56,083 --> 01:23:57,563
This Chanel belt,
1255
01:23:57,563 --> 01:23:59,163
as you can see, it's tiny, tiny.
1256
01:23:59,163 --> 01:24:01,603
This almost looks like a choker
or necklace.
1257
01:24:01,603 --> 01:24:04,923
But this is one of my first belts,
and I loved it.
1258
01:24:04,923 --> 01:24:07,363
It's just so luxe and heavy.
1259
01:24:07,363 --> 01:24:09,443
I mean, this thing, you can knock
someone out with it.
1260
01:24:11,123 --> 01:24:13,323
Chanel probably was conservative,
1261
01:24:13,323 --> 01:24:17,043
but the way I saw it
was just affluent.
1262
01:24:17,043 --> 01:24:20,123
And as we experienced success
and, you know,
1263
01:24:20,123 --> 01:24:24,403
and started making money, the first
place we went to was Chanel.
1264
01:24:24,403 --> 01:24:27,963
I mean, we would wear chain Chanel
belts and a white wife beater
1265
01:24:27,963 --> 01:24:30,283
and a baseball cap and combat boots.
1266
01:24:30,283 --> 01:24:32,603
So we surely turned it
on its head.
1267
01:24:32,603 --> 01:24:34,923
So if it was conservative,
it was not any more
1268
01:24:34,923 --> 01:24:36,203
after we got done with it.
1269
01:24:37,603 --> 01:24:41,003
The way that we used Chanel
in hip-hop culture
1270
01:24:41,003 --> 01:24:44,003
was very similar to the energy
of Miss Coco Chanel.
1271
01:24:44,003 --> 01:24:46,563
She was rebellious.
1272
01:24:46,563 --> 01:24:48,083
She was a gamechanger.
1273
01:24:48,083 --> 01:24:51,083
She was all about freedom of
expression for women.
1274
01:24:51,083 --> 01:24:52,923
And she did that through fashion.
1275
01:24:52,923 --> 01:24:55,363
And so I connect with that
all the way.
1276
01:24:58,843 --> 01:25:01,443
I wonder how much people know
about the real Chanel.
1277
01:25:01,443 --> 01:25:05,203
What does the name Chanel mean
to them? Does it mean CC?
1278
01:25:05,203 --> 01:25:07,683
Does it mean the intimidating
boutique
1279
01:25:07,683 --> 01:25:09,363
where you kind of dare not go in?
1280
01:25:09,363 --> 01:25:11,603
What does it mean?
1281
01:25:11,603 --> 01:25:13,963
All kinds of girls are
now called Chanel.
1282
01:25:13,963 --> 01:25:17,323
Are they naming their daughters
after the suit, the brand,
1283
01:25:17,323 --> 01:25:19,403
or are they naming their daughters
after the woman?
1284
01:25:19,403 --> 01:25:21,523
And they're not naming their
daughters after the woman
1285
01:25:21,523 --> 01:25:22,923
about whom they don't know much.
1286
01:25:22,923 --> 01:25:25,083
They're naming the daughters
after an ideal
1287
01:25:25,083 --> 01:25:27,323
of consummate glamour.
1288
01:25:30,363 --> 01:25:32,443
But two-dimensional Chanel
is in a way
1289
01:25:32,443 --> 01:25:35,563
more valuable than
a three-dimensional Chanel,
1290
01:25:35,563 --> 01:25:37,483
for which you need the paradoxes.
1291
01:25:39,363 --> 01:25:41,163
In order to keep something
exclusive,
1292
01:25:41,163 --> 01:25:44,003
you have to keep the palace gates
guarded.
1293
01:25:44,003 --> 01:25:46,923
And that includes guarding the
three-dimensional woman.
1294
01:25:46,923 --> 01:25:49,843
You have to keep Chanel's ghost
out of the palace.
1295
01:25:52,403 --> 01:25:57,203
The modern tendency to want our
heroes to have been nice people
1296
01:25:57,203 --> 01:26:00,363
is understandable, but also
unrealistic.
1297
01:26:01,803 --> 01:26:06,043
In many ways, Chanel was not
a likeable person,
1298
01:26:06,043 --> 01:26:10,563
but it would be very hard to have
someone who was as ambitious
1299
01:26:10,563 --> 01:26:13,163
and as complicated
1300
01:26:13,163 --> 01:26:16,163
to be all a nice, nice person.
1301
01:26:16,163 --> 01:26:20,603
The success of her clothes,
in a way, is a tribute
1302
01:26:20,603 --> 01:26:25,443
to the sort of brutal incisiveness
of her approach.
1303
01:26:29,043 --> 01:26:34,163
I think the reason Chanel's story
still speaks to us today
1304
01:26:34,163 --> 01:26:38,603
is it is of the struggle
for independence,
1305
01:26:38,603 --> 01:26:43,043
of not being defined by one's role
as a woman.
1306
01:26:44,443 --> 01:26:49,163
And yet it is also a story of love
and loss.
1307
01:26:49,163 --> 01:26:53,603
And love and loss
are the great emotions
1308
01:26:53,603 --> 01:26:57,043
that we all share as humans,
and which define us.
1309
01:26:59,723 --> 01:27:04,843
The last word on the L'hotel du
Ritz when I left her,
1310
01:27:04,843 --> 01:27:07,563
the last Sunday we spent together,
1311
01:27:07,563 --> 01:27:08,683
she told me...
1312
01:27:11,803 --> 01:27:13,643
This was her last word.
1313
01:27:13,643 --> 01:27:18,843
And then I saw in that transparency
where she disappeared.
1314
01:27:18,843 --> 01:27:21,483
That was the last time I saw her.
1315
01:27:28,323 --> 01:27:33,603
I have been responsible for some
wonderful and useful inventions.
1316
01:27:33,603 --> 01:27:35,563
I have been reviled.
1317
01:27:35,563 --> 01:27:37,163
I have dressed the whole world,
1318
01:27:37,163 --> 01:27:39,803
and today it goes about naked.
1319
01:27:42,243 --> 01:27:45,203
All of that satisfies
this deep taste
1320
01:27:45,203 --> 01:27:48,883
for destruction and evolution
that is within me.
1321
01:27:50,763 --> 01:27:54,803
Life is recognisable through
its inconsistencies.
1322
01:27:54,803 --> 01:27:58,123
The world is nothing but struggle
and confusion.
1323
01:27:59,323 --> 01:28:01,563
I would make a very bad dead person
1324
01:28:01,563 --> 01:28:04,003
because, once I was put under,
1325
01:28:04,003 --> 01:28:06,363
I would grow restless
1326
01:28:06,363 --> 01:28:09,443
and would think only of returning
to Earth
1327
01:28:09,443 --> 01:28:11,563
and starting all over again.
1328
01:28:19,003 --> 01:28:22,083
She knew what she wanted
on that gravestone.
1329
01:28:22,083 --> 01:28:24,403
She wanted lions.
1330
01:28:24,403 --> 01:28:25,883
Lions' heads.
1331
01:28:25,883 --> 01:28:27,483
And there are five of them,
1332
01:28:27,483 --> 01:28:29,923
five being her special number.
1333
01:28:29,923 --> 01:28:32,163
A gravestone, of course, is normally
centrally placed
1334
01:28:32,163 --> 01:28:33,563
at the head of the grave,
1335
01:28:33,563 --> 01:28:35,563
and hers is to one side,
1336
01:28:35,563 --> 01:28:37,883
at her request, specifically,
1337
01:28:37,883 --> 01:28:42,043
because Chanel believed that she
would need a way out.
1338
01:28:43,443 --> 01:28:46,003
She left space for herself
to escape death.
1339
01:28:46,003 --> 01:28:48,403
And I think, in many ways,
she succeeded.