The first Broadway musical I ever saw in New York was in the summer of 1970 – Katharine Hepburn in COCO, recreating the life of the famous French designer Gabrielle Chanel. It was at the Mark Hellinger Theater, we were able to get “standing room only SRO) tickets for $5.00. The show had been sold out for months despite getting reviews that were not so favorable. The reason it was so successful of course was because everyone came to see Katharine Hepburn in her return to the stage after an absence of seventeen years. I was absolutely breathless when the big curtain went up, and there was Hepburn coming down a huge spiral staircase as the orchestra music began to swell. The first line of the show was Katharine Hepburn saying “SHIT!” She was Coco Chanel from that moment on and I was star struck and hooked!
At the time, the only thing I knew about Coco Chanel was that the perfume Chanel No 5 was my choice for fragrance. I had never thought about the person that might have designed it. So my introduction to Coco was through seeing this musical. As I have found out since, Coco Chanel had a very interesting and intriguing life. I am writing about her today on August 19, 2021 which would have been Coco’s 138th birthday!
Gabrielle Chanel was born in 1883 in a poorhouse hospice in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France. One of six children, her family moved to Brive-la-Gaillarde but when she was eleven years old her mother died and she was sent to an orphanage that was operated by sisters of the convent Aubazine. The orphanage was where Coco learned to sew. At eighteen, she moved to Moulins, lived in a boarding house and worked as a seamstress. She also sang in a cabaret frequented by cavalry officers. She appeared on stage as well and it was there that she adopted the name of Coco. In 1906 she moved to the spa resort town of Vichy, hoping to become a noted performer, a career that didn’t work out.
Coco returned to Moulins and met a young ex-cavalry officer named Etienne Balsan and she became his mistress. He showered her with diamonds, beautiful dresses and pearls – Coco’s introduction to wealth and prominence. In 1908 she began an affair with Captain Arthur Edward Capel, a wealthy member of the English upper class who gave Coco an apartment in Paris. She wanted to have a shop, where she would design and make dresses – the Captain made that happen for Coco and she excelled at both designing and making clothes for upper class Parisian women. The affair with Capel lasted nine years and ended when he was killed in a car accident.
Coco then reopened her shop in Paris and became a licensed milliner adding hats to her collections. Her shop at 21 rue Cambon was named Chanel Modes. She had also opened a shop in Deauville expanding her collections. She also opened a shop in Biarritz on the Cote Basque and her business began to really thrive. In 1916 she met the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia and began an affair with him. At the same time she was now registered as a couturiere and established her famous Maison de Couture in Paris.
In 1920 Coco met the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Diaghilev an impresario of the Ballet Russes. Now she was designing and making costumes for the ballet. Coco found herself in high society and established relationships with Pierre Werheimer, Misia Sert, Jose-Maria Sert, Luca Turin and the writer Colette. This grew into wider circles that included the highest level of British Aristocracy – Winston Churchill, the Duke of Westminster, Edward, Prince of Wales and Arthur Grosvenor who had an affair with Coco for ten years. It was said that Coco attracted her friends and acquaintances because of her genius, lethal wit, sarcasm and maniacal destructiveness the intrigued and appalled everyone! She and these aristocrats also shared a daily morphine and cocaine habit that Coco continued until her death
In 1931 Coco met Samuel Goldwyn. He offered her $1M ($75M today) to design the costumes for his stars. She went to Hollywood twice a year travelling to California from New York in her white train carriage luxuriously outfitted for her use. She designed for Gloria Swanson and Ina Clair. Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich became private clients.
By 1935 Chanel couture was a lucrative business employing 4000 people. She was being challenged for notoriety by Elsa Schiaparelli and Karinska for edgy unique designs. And then World War II began. Coco closed her shops saying that it was not a time for fashion. During the war Coco lived at the Hotel Ritz, a hotel known for being a residence for upper-echelon German military staff. In 1940 she lost control of Parfums Chanel but at the end of the war she fought to regain control of her brand. It has been said that Chanel had a good relationship with the German officers and supported their occupation and mission. However she was instrumental in securing negotiations between the Germans and the British with Winston Churchill for defections of some Germans to the British Secret Service. After the war Coco was investigated for being a Nazi sympathizer but was never found to be guilty of such activities.
In 1945 she moved to Switzerland with Baron Hans Gunther von Dincklage a former Prussian Army officer and Attorney General. Chanel was being challenged again in the fashion world by Christian Dior, Cristobal Balenciaga, Robert Piguet and Jacques Fath. She began to sell her designs in the United States and became firmly established in the couture world here.
Gabrielle Chanel died in 1971 at the Hotel Ritz where she had lived for more than 30 years leaving a legacy that still exists today! Known for the little black dress, Chanel suit and Chanel bag, she also leaves a story of her unprecedented life for all of us to enjoy. I’m so pleased that I saw that Broadway play – and I actually saw it twice. My favorite Chanel quote – “You can be gorgeous at thirty, charming at forty, and irresistible for the rest of your life”. Happy Birthday!