Authors: Rosamond Bernier
Some of My Lives (26 page)
I
n the autumn of 1953, I was in Paris, busy preparing to launch
L'ÅIL
, when I received a telephone call from Alexander Liberman,
Vogue
's art director, in New York. He asked me to interview Chanel, who was about to relaunch her couture house, which had been closed since before World War II.
n the autumn of 1953, I was in Paris, busy preparing to launch
L'ÅIL
, when I received a telephone call from Alexander Liberman,
Vogue
's art director, in New York. He asked me to interview Chanel, who was about to relaunch her couture house, which had been closed since before World War II.
I had not been connected to
Vogue
for some years, but had remained on friendly terms with the Condé Nast people. So I accepted.
Vogue
for some years, but had remained on friendly terms with the Condé Nast people. So I accepted.
There had been a good deal of talk swirling around this event. Chanel's couture house had been enormously successful in the 1920s and 1930s.
Britain and France had declared a state of war with Germany in 1939. Three weeks later, Chanel closed her place of business without warning and laid off her entire staff. Only the boutique selling her perfume, the famous Chanel No. 5, remained open.
France was occupied by the Nazis. Gabrielle Chanel continued to live in her quarters at the Paris Ritz. She took up with a handsome, tall blond German who had been an attaché at the German embassy, Hans Günther von Dincklage, known as Spatz. Their liaison was public knowledge.
At the liberation, Spatz was already back in Germany. Chanel's position as a collaborator with the enemy could not have been more perilous.
Two weeks after de Gaulle's triumphant return to Paris, in 1944, Chanel was arrested. Two young men with the armbands of the FFI (a French resistance movement), revolvers at the ready, called at the Ritz to escort her to police headquarters.
Exactly what happened, under what circumstances, has never been revealed. The fact is that after only three hours, Chanel was released.
Her lawyers advised her to get out of the country immediately. She left for neutral Switzerland. Eventually, Spatz joined her there.
Rumors began circulating in 1950 that Chanel wanted to reopen her house. It seemed preposterous. But aside from her restlessness after years of inactivity, there was a practical reason why her business associates, who owned the perfume business, needed a jolt to spur sales of No. 5. It is the perfume business that supports the couture houses.
And she was piqued to hear of the triumphs of new people in the couture, especially of her bête noire, Christian Dior.
She decided, at seventy, to make a comeback. The date was set for February 5, 1954.
My interview with Chanel ran in the February 1954 issues of American and British
Vogue
.
Vogue
.
LISTENING TO CHANEL
Eric [
Vogue
's star fashion illustrator] and I went to see Chanel on the rue Cambon, where she lives over her salon and ateliers: vast premises, until recently empty, dormant. We went through the boutique with perfumes, soaps, sweaters, and scarves, into the mirrored hall of a mirrored staircase, strips of mirror breaking space, into a cloudless Cubist maze beyond time and space, hushed with carpets. Past massive dull gold Spanish arabesques, past the darkened showroom sliced with lacquered screens, up the famous staircase where Chanel's openings had crowded her high-titled employees and the most brilliant personalities of the day. “It's like a dream,” said Eric, “nothing has changed.”
Vogue
's star fashion illustrator] and I went to see Chanel on the rue Cambon, where she lives over her salon and ateliers: vast premises, until recently empty, dormant. We went through the boutique with perfumes, soaps, sweaters, and scarves, into the mirrored hall of a mirrored staircase, strips of mirror breaking space, into a cloudless Cubist maze beyond time and space, hushed with carpets. Past massive dull gold Spanish arabesques, past the darkened showroom sliced with lacquered screens, up the famous staircase where Chanel's openings had crowded her high-titled employees and the most brilliant personalities of the day. “It's like a dream,” said Eric, “nothing has changed.”
Now an entrance hall dark with paneled Oriental screens; pushing through the looking glass (more mirrored doors) into a small, dim study to findânot Sleeping Beautyâbut a small, brown idol hung with jewels, perched on the edge of an outsized brown sofa. A spare, taut, compressed figure; widely spaced large dark eyes, so alive that they deny the lines around them; a broad, shrewd face; wide mouth pulled straight across the face, turning down at the corners; determinedly penciled eyebrows. Black wisps of hair break from the navy blue felt hat spreading a little protective shade. A knot of diamonds and a
great unblinking emerald pendant at the throat of a white crepe collarless blouse, the cuffs turned back with art, caught with jewels; brief navy sweater; a plaque of jewels at the waist; earrings, pearls caught in a swarm of diamonds; short gray jersey skirtâthe legendary unchanged Chanel elegance. Her extraordinary hands, monumental on a small scale: powerful, broad knuckled, the hands of a sculptor, strong long fingers, short unpolished nails, massive emerald ring.
great unblinking emerald pendant at the throat of a white crepe collarless blouse, the cuffs turned back with art, caught with jewels; brief navy sweater; a plaque of jewels at the waist; earrings, pearls caught in a swarm of diamonds; short gray jersey skirtâthe legendary unchanged Chanel elegance. Her extraordinary hands, monumental on a small scale: powerful, broad knuckled, the hands of a sculptor, strong long fingers, short unpolished nails, massive emerald ring.
She leans forward as she talks, the angular jaw thrust forward like a Toulouse-Lautrec lithograph of Yvette Guilbert. Without prelude the talk flows endlessly in rapid-fire, dry, intense monotone. No full stops, no rhetorical effects, an uninterrupted long-playing record, no change of tempo or volume. A first-person-singular whirlpool, flinging off interpolations or questions, following its own course â¦
“What is Fashion?
La mode est un métier
and not an artâit is a
don
and not
du génie
. We keep hearing this word
génie
âeverything has geniusâa handbag, a pair of shoes. I tell you there is no
génie
to this business but
don
and tasteâI happen to have both. I make my dresses like a watchâif one tiny little wheel doesn't work, I remake the dress. A dress isn't right if it is uncomfortable, if it doesn't âwalk' properly. A dress must function or
on n'y tient pas
. Elegance in clothes means being able to move freely, to do anything with ease.
La mode est un métier
and not an artâit is a
don
and not
du génie
. We keep hearing this word
génie
âeverything has geniusâa handbag, a pair of shoes. I tell you there is no
génie
to this business but
don
and tasteâI happen to have both. I make my dresses like a watchâif one tiny little wheel doesn't work, I remake the dress. A dress isn't right if it is uncomfortable, if it doesn't âwalk' properly. A dress must function or
on n'y tient pas
. Elegance in clothes means being able to move freely, to do anything with ease.
“I shall show a collection on the fifth of Februaryâmaybe it will not be what is expected of me. Sometimes,
j'ai le trac
. I make everything in my collection, from bathing suits to evening dresses, one personality all the way through. Not like those houses where
modelistes
do some things, the designer another, there is no unityâwith me I do everything down to the last button. And on the subject of buttons: no button without a buttonhole.
j'ai le trac
. I make everything in my collection, from bathing suits to evening dresses, one personality all the way through. Not like those houses where
modelistes
do some things, the designer another, there is no unityâwith me I do everything down to the last button. And on the subject of buttons: no button without a buttonhole.
“Look at today's dresses: strapless evening dresses cutting across a woman's front like this [she cut an angry finger across her own]. Nothing is uglier for a woman: boned horrors, that's what they are. As soon as a woman is over twenty, she can't show all her upper arm that way; she needs the grace of a little something over the shoulders, or over the top of the
arms. Nothing shows age more than the upper arms, the arms in general, and the hands, then the neck, then the face. I wouldn't want to sit in a sleeveless dress next to a girl of twenty. I introduced the strapless dress, it's true; but gracefully done, with 1830 feminine charm. And these heavy dresses that won't pack into airplane luggage, ridiculous. All those boned and corseted bodicesâout with them. What's the good of going back to the rigidity of the corset? A woman in an evening dress like that has to hold herself like this [and she ramrodded, chin thrust forward].
arms. Nothing shows age more than the upper arms, the arms in general, and the hands, then the neck, then the face. I wouldn't want to sit in a sleeveless dress next to a girl of twenty. I introduced the strapless dress, it's true; but gracefully done, with 1830 feminine charm. And these heavy dresses that won't pack into airplane luggage, ridiculous. All those boned and corseted bodicesâout with them. What's the good of going back to the rigidity of the corset? A woman in an evening dress like that has to hold herself like this [and she ramrodded, chin thrust forward].
“Now women go in for simpler livesâthe big receptions are gone, the way of living has changedâsmall apartments, no servants. No good having dresses that must be ironed by a maid each time you put them on. No good
des robes a grand tralala
.
des robes a grand tralala
.
“My collection won't be a punch on the nose, it is not to disconcert. It will not be too simpleâwomen don't want to dress like their concierges. Changes must not be brutal, be made all of a suddenâthe eye must be given time to adapt itself to a new thought. It will be a collection made by a woman, with love. I want to make women look pretty and young.
“I once made a sudden change in fashion. Working on the collection, in 1929, I believe, I first lengthened evening skirts to below the knee, then I gradually brought them down to the ankles. My vendeuses wept when they saw what was happening; my people were in despair on the day of the presentation. I had been seeing it for two months, so it no longer looked strange to me. Afterward everyone had to follow me. As Monsieur Bendel used to say to me, I made the wholesale dress tradeâbecause, before Chanel, dresses were too complicated to be copied
en gros
.
en gros
.
“I am no longer interested in dressing a few hundred women, private clients; I shall dress thousands of women. But [and this seemed the core of her fashion philosophy] a widely repeated fashion, seen everywhere, cheaply produced, must start from luxury. At the top of the pinnacleâ
le point de départ
must be luxe.
le point de départ
must be luxe.
“I have always been copied by others. Half the women
one sees today are wearing Chanel (inspired) dresses. If a fashion isn't taken up and worn by everybody, it's not a fashion but an eccentricity, a fancy dress. An eccentric dress doesn't make an eccentricâa woman is just as dull in an eccentric dress if she is dull without it.
one sees today are wearing Chanel (inspired) dresses. If a fashion isn't taken up and worn by everybody, it's not a fashion but an eccentricity, a fancy dress. An eccentric dress doesn't make an eccentricâa woman is just as dull in an eccentric dress if she is dull without it.
“I want mannequins with bosoms and hips, with a real shape. I don't care about their faces, they must have elegance. Today's look [she struck a pose characterizing hollow-cheeked fashion models],
c'est l'élégance des cimetières
. They aren't women,
ce sont des ombres
. [Here she confirmed that her mannequins at one time wore hideous white cotton stockings: plain faces and those stockings kept attention riveted on the dresses.]
c'est l'élégance des cimetières
. They aren't women,
ce sont des ombres
. [Here she confirmed that her mannequins at one time wore hideous white cotton stockings: plain faces and those stockings kept attention riveted on the dresses.]
“The most important things are health and joie de vivre. To diet and be underfed in order to lose weightâthen one looks sad! What difference do a few kilos make? To be goodtempered and young in spirit is what counts. I tell these women who only gossip and say unpleasant things, âNothing makes you uglier than being malicious.' And if one wears ridiculous clothes or a silly-looking hat, it makes one bad humored.
“Women's clothes must be more glamorous, even Romanesque. Dresses are never gracious and flattering enough. My dresses make women look young. Women must do anything not to age, in their appearance and outlook. Aging is a state of mind, one must keep enthusiasm and curiosity. I said to a twenty-five-year-old friend of mine, âMy poor girl, how very old you are!' She wasn't interested in anything. Americans are wrong to overestimate very young girlsâthese are not the only beautiful women; for me, women become interesting after forty.
“Real elegance means elegance in manners, too. Look at women at tableâhow they take out boxes and things between courses, put them on the tableâthey are not even pretty most of the time, these objects [and she screwed up her face, dabbing at it with an imaginary powder puff, then scrubbed her lips with a nonexistent lipstick]. How can one be elegant doing that? And all those women who leave lipstick
all over table napkins and on glasses. I tell them, when you come to my house, I will provide you with paper napkins, my table linen is too fine to be spoiled by you. Yes, elegance in living is very important.
all over table napkins and on glasses. I tell them, when you come to my house, I will provide you with paper napkins, my table linen is too fine to be spoiled by you. Yes, elegance in living is very important.
“You ask what I feel to be my most important contribution to fashion history? Perhaps the suppression of many things ⦠no, the ensemble of what I did, not one thing. I began by making sweaters because I didn't know how to make other things; I began my career not knowing how even to sew on a button. Then I discovered I could do everything. I worked with enthusiasm, with love. Nothing distracted me from my work, or does now. I am implacable. I do everything myself. I won't fit a client, but I'll spend hours on my knees in front of a mannequin perfecting a dress. I give sketches to my ateliers, showing exactly how I want a dress to be put together; then I work on the figure, it is really sculpture. I always respect the body, and let it move freely under my clothes. No false bosoms, making breasts like bombs [she plucked her blue sweater into two points]. My men friends say it is no pleasure to dance with a woman wearing armor, they want to feel a living body.
“It is deplorable that women all dress alikeâto please each other rather than to please men. Look at them, playing canasta, all dressed in the identical âlittle black,' screwing up their faces over their cards. Why waste all that time over massage, pedicures, depilations, hairdressers, to reach this uniform result? Anyhow, I find that men have better taste and judgment about clothes than women. When I want an opinion about what I have done, I ask some men friends to come in and tell me what they think: not professionals in the couture, just friends. I value their reactions much more than women's. Women should always bring a man with them when choosing dresses. A woman friend will probably give them an insincere opinion; the man can be trusted.
“About this collection: I am starting with the most difficult,
des petites robes de sport
. They are the basis of a collection, but they are not what is suitable for photographs, or drawings,
or descriptions. I am making many cocktail dressesâthis category didn't exist before, I never made any before. And, of course, dresses for
les belles soirées de printemps
, many of these. A woman can never be overdressed in my clothes; nothing is worse than being overdressed, and that goes for the mind too. A woman showing off intellectually is as bad as a woman wearing satin for breakfast. Now women have started showing naked shoulders at five o'clock, even at the races; that never existed before. It must come from all the nakedness on beaches; people lose their sense of the appropriate.”
des petites robes de sport
. They are the basis of a collection, but they are not what is suitable for photographs, or drawings,
or descriptions. I am making many cocktail dressesâthis category didn't exist before, I never made any before. And, of course, dresses for
les belles soirées de printemps
, many of these. A woman can never be overdressed in my clothes; nothing is worse than being overdressed, and that goes for the mind too. A woman showing off intellectually is as bad as a woman wearing satin for breakfast. Now women have started showing naked shoulders at five o'clock, even at the races; that never existed before. It must come from all the nakedness on beaches; people lose their sense of the appropriate.”
The telephone rang; someone suggesting a mannequin for Chanel.
“Elle n'a plus ses vingt-cinq ans?”
Coco echoed her interlocutor.
“Alors, moi je les lui donnerai!”
“Elle n'a plus ses vingt-cinq ans?”
Coco echoed her interlocutor.
“Alors, moi je les lui donnerai!”
This break, the only one since we arrived, made it possible for the first time to look fleetingly at the surroundings. (Not a pause ever, she didn't even light a cigarette.) For she projects the tentacles of her talk with such intensity, riveting one with her black tragic gaze, that for over an hour I saw nothing but herself. Only now did I take in a fabulous Louis XIV clockâa wonderful baroque pile of bronzeâa sober, imposing mirror, Louis XIV too, in a gold frame with double coat of arms on top, flanked with exuberant Italian baroque gilded wood scrolls and cherubs, in an entirely different tempo. On a low table in front of the sofa, the clear cool surfaces of Chinese rock crystal, rose quartz, jade animals: “I always arrange them in couples, somehow it seems
plus gentil
.”
plus gentil
.”
In her four-room apartment, Chanel lives, has meals, and receives friends, but she actually sleeps at the Ritz. “If I didn't have to go out to sleep, I would never get out at all, and I don't like to sleep in a room where I've been during the day, filled with objectsâjust white walls, empty space, and quiet for real rest.”
The apartment is dimly lit and filled with treasures of the most diversified periodsâall of superb quality. Throughout her famous collection of Coromandel screens. She likes moving her objects around and buying new ones. She is impatient with the idea of decorating in one style. (“How ridiculous to
say âthis Louis XV chair won't go in my Empire room.' If the elements are beautiful, that's all that matters.”) She enjoys ruling out architectural demands in a room by a lavish use of mirrors (“I've made small rooms large and large rooms small by my mirrors”). She loves large pieces of furniture in a small roomânote the outsized sofa in her living room.
say âthis Louis XV chair won't go in my Empire room.' If the elements are beautiful, that's all that matters.”) She enjoys ruling out architectural demands in a room by a lavish use of mirrors (“I've made small rooms large and large rooms small by my mirrors”). She loves large pieces of furniture in a small roomânote the outsized sofa in her living room.
Chanel was back again (the small boy's figure, furrowed face, flat shoes). The web of words began again, this time to be interrupted by knocks on the door. Chanel sprang to her feet. “
Je viens, je viens
,” and to us, “Now you must goâbut you must come back. Yes. I'll show you my dresses, and look, I'm arranging a new room.” She opened a door, a glimpse of dark Coromandel screens with fan designs. “Come back and I'll show you everything, and we'll talk!”
Je viens, je viens
,” and to us, “Now you must goâbut you must come back. Yes. I'll show you my dresses, and look, I'm arranging a new room.” She opened a door, a glimpse of dark Coromandel screens with fan designs. “Come back and I'll show you everything, and we'll talk!”
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