Coco Chanel

For years, there has been speculation that famed French fashion designer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel spied for the Germans during World War II. Her lover Hans von Dincklage was a member of the Abwehr military intelligence unit, who, notes biographer Lisa Chaney, “offered his superiors the services of Chanel in order to exploit her Anglo-Saxon relations in aid of German intelligence.” Whether or not Chanel was a willing participant remains open for interpretation. What is known is that she did travel with von Dincklage and did associate with numerous German officers. After the Liberation of Paris, she was taken in and interrogated by French authorities.

Many of her friends faced long prison sentences or worse for collaborating (“horizontally” or otherwise) with the enemy. Chanel, however, managed to evade the same fate. Chaney contends it was Chanel’s connection to Winston Churchill that saved her. British officers, deputized for the occasion, were sent to procure her release. Churchill was fond of Chanel; his close friend, the Duke of Westminster, had been the designer’s lover. “Churchill’s possible intervention may have also been encouraged by the knowledge that Gabrielle may have things to say about the rumored pro-Nazi sympathies of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor,” writes Chaney. “This would not have helped the reputation of the royal family with the British people.”

In Coco Chanel, she chronicles the fashion icon’s extraordinary life and sheds light on her actions during WWII. She recounts new details about Chanel’s numerous (and often tragic) liaisons. In addition to her affair with von Dincklage, she was also muse, patron or mistress to some of the century's most celebrated artists, including Picasso, Dalí and Stravinsky. Chaney follows Chanel from her tumultuous childhood to her rise to the top of the fashion industry and transformation into a celebrity.

Born into abject poverty, Chanel learned early on how to make herself stand out: she adorned herself not with fancy clothes but with an indomitable and charismatic personality. In her later years, she strove to promote her legacy by portraying herself as the person who had singlehandedly revolutionized women’s fashion. The source of her success lay in her instinctive understanding of the changing times and anticipation of what those times needed.

Drawing on newly discovered love letters and other records, Chaney reveals the truth about Chanel's drug habit and romances with Nazi spies. Highlighting her far-reaching influence on the modern arts, she paints a deeper and darker picture of Coco Chanel than any so far. This compelling biography illuminates the creative power and secret suffering of an exceptional and often misread woman.