Gabrielle Chanel, queen of French elegance, had surprisingly close ties to the country on the other side of the English Channel. This was due to two fateful loves...
February 6, 1925 marked exactly one hundred years since the Chanel brand entered British soil. However, Gabrielle Chanel herself had felt an affinity for this country even before that – she had forever associated it with the great love of her life, Arthur "Boy" Capel. This wealthy and enterprising industrialist provided her with financial support in the early days. Thanks to him, she was able to open her own salon in Paris in 1910. His riding clothes and polo uniforms inspired her to use similarly flexible jersey fabrics with their distinctive aesthetic. The freedom of movement and boyish cut that Chanel adhered to offered women dignity and comfort that had previously been reserved for men, and her creations soon became known as "le style anglais" – the English style.
FIRST TRAGEDY
Chanel's relationship with Capel survived the turmoil of World War I, during which Capel served as a captain in the British Army – although in July 1918, he married a young aristocrat named Diana Wyndham (who subsequently became a long-time client of Chanel's studio). Despite this betrayal – of both his mistress and his wife, with whom he had two daughters – the romance continued until his death in a car accident in December 1919. "With the loss of Capel, I lost everything," Chanel later recalled, yet despite her deep pain, she did not lose her ambition or creative power. With the introduction of the elegant little black dress in the 1920s, she transformed the color of mourning into a symbol of strength and liberation in the Jazz Age, and her fame quickly spread from Paris to London and New York.
Chanel did not hold a grudge against the English: at the end of 1923, she was introduced to the second Duke of Westminster (known among close friends as Bendor or "Bennie," as his friend Winston Churchill called him). In the spring of 1924, the Duke was seen at her side on the Riviera, where she was working on costumes for the legendary Ballets Russes' production of Le Train Bleu. Their mutual friend, the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII), was also enchanted by Coco Chanel. The heir to the throne even flirted with Coco Chanel, but eventually backed off when it became clear that Bendor was crazy about her.
The following year, she accompanied Chanel to his remote estate in the Scottish Highlands, where she took up salmon fishing – and proved to be more than his equal. When Churchill joined the couple in early October 1927, he wrote to his wife Clementine: "Coco is here. ... She fishes from morning till night and has caught 50 salmon in two months. She is very pleasant – a truly great and powerful being capable of ruling a man or an empire. Bennie is content and, I think, extremely happy to have an equal at his side – her abilities balance his power. "
THE SCOTTISH EPISODE
At that time, Chanel brought a breath of French style to the austere interior of Rosehall, one of the Duke's many residences, where she hosted his friends. As in her relationship with Boy Capel, she began to incorporate Bendor's sportswear into her own wardrobe. She then began buying fabrics from a Cumbrian weaving mill (Linton Tweeds, near the Scottish border) and transforming them into her distinctive soft jackets, which remain as timelessly appealing today as they were a century ago.
Chanel remained true to her principles as always: a modern woman should be able to dress with the same comfort and ease as a gentleman. She expressed this in the August 1925 issue of Harper's Bazaar in the form of a letter from Scotland, in which she described "wading knee-deep in water while fishing for salmon." The magazine asked for her views on "la mode," to which she replied: "My style of dress is the result of life as it is lived today. It is practical, simple, but elegant."
In addition to accompanying the Duke to the races and on hunting trips—not to mention joining him on cruises on his two private yachts—Chanel somehow found time to juggle the many demands of her career. Churchill was captivated by her energy and versatility, noting in January 1927: "She hunted eagerly all day, drove to Paris after dinner, and today is busy approving and improving dresses on an endless stream of models. ... She does it with her own hands, pinning, cutting. ... "
The designer presented couture collections in Paris, her perfume and cosmetics division flourished after the launch of Chanel No. 5 in 1921, and she opened a studio in Mayfair, where her clients included the young Duchess of York (the future Queen Mother).
The brand's global headquarters moved to London in 2018, and at the end of this year, the company will open new offices in Berkeley Square, not far from Chanel's first studio in Mayfair. Matthieu Blazy will lead Chanel into a new era as its newly appointed creative director, and although his studio remains in its original premises at La Grande Mademoiselle on Rue Cambon in Paris, the connection with London will remain strong. Such is the enduring spirit of Coco Chanel...
