Lisa Chaney - Coco Chanel - An Intimate Life

A crucial element in the signature design of the Chanel № 5 bottle is the small black letter C within a black circle set as the seal at the neck. On the top of the lid are two more Cs, intertwined back to back. We know from the little Chanel catalogue mentioned above that from at least 1924, the № 5 bottles sported the unmistakable logo. While we can’t be certain who designed the minimalist art deco bottles for the perfume, the equally inspired piece of graphic design, the black letters CC, definitely originated with Gabrielle. It is of course correct that these two Cs refer to Gabrielle — in other words, to Coco Chanel herself, and would become the logo of the House of Chanel. But a discovery we made gives a possible additional meaning to these intertwined Cs.

Gabrielle was fascinated by symbols and surrounded herself with objects ripe with meaning. (She apparently also read tarot cards.) Wheat, for example, traditional symbol of prosperity, is a recurrent theme. Then there are the lions — symbols of Gabrielle’s astrological sign, Leo — in wood, silver, bronze and alabaster. (Gabrielle also used the lion as a signature symbol on her buttons.) In 1921, she had Baccarat make her a stately crystal chandelier, incorporating several numbers and letters. This magnificent sculptural object, now in Gabrielle’s apartment on rue Cambon, includes among its great glass pendants of fruit and flowers in crystal and semi-precious stones repeated metal figures of the number five (Gabrielle’s lucky number), B for Boy (Arthur) Capel and several double Cs for Coco Chanel.

At the Paris Polo Club, where Arthur had played so often, there is a large silver trophy inscribed “Arthur Capel Cup.” This was donated by his sister, Bertha, in Arthur’s memory, almost certainly in collaboration with Gabrielle. The top of the cup sports what is a most unusual form of decoration on a polo trophy for the period, a relief band of intertwined circles, or back-to-back Cs. The cup was first presented to a player in August 1922, only nine months after Arthur’s death. These Cs may represent Arthur and Gabrielle’s surnames. With Arthur still uppermost in Gabrielle’s mind, it could well have occurred to her to suggest this decoration to Bertha. Representing Arthur’s and her own name: Capel and Chanel. If not in actuality, in a symbolic fantasy Gabrielle and Arthur would be conjoined.

As for the perfume’s name, the claim that № 5 was the first perfume to be named simply by a number, rather than the descriptive titles then in vogue, is not correct. As we have seen, Ernest Beaux had already set the precedent several years earlier, when renaming his Bouquet de Catherine with a number: Rallet № 1. Yet while Rallet № 1 would drop from the perfume repertoire, the apparently indeterminate name Chanel № 5 would acquire its own very modern kind of romance. This would help sustain № 5’s developing myth, in turn assisted by one of the longest and most sophisticated advertising campaigns of the century. The very first image was created by Gabrielle’s friend the caricaturist Sem. Here a slim short-haired girl in a slight blue dress, the same as the ones Gabrielle then wore, ecstatically holds up her hands to a huge bottle of Chanel № 5.

Whatever the real chronology of the development and launch of Chanel № 5, shortly after Gabrielle and Dmitri’s return from the south of France, in late spring 1921, Gabrielle invited Dmitri (accompanied by his faithful servant Piotr) to stay with her at Bel Respiro, Arthur’s former house. For a while, this elegant house on the edge of Paris became a rendezvous for Dmitri’s émigré comrades and Gabrielle’s avant-garde artist friends. Then, when Paris closed its doors for the summer vacation, Gabrielle hired a house on the Bay of Biscay, not far from the flourishing southern resort of Arcachon.

Parts of this dramatic Atlantic coastline were frequented in summer by a sprinkling of artists and writers — both those who eschewed the more developed resorts and those with deeper purses who preferred to be more remote in their villas. With the surf breaking against the garden wall of their white villa, the lovers were taken care of by Piotr and Gabrielle’s faithful Joseph and Marie. In the two months they spent by the sea, the days merged quietly one into the other, with swimming and walking on the beach or through the pine woods. While a handful of friends had villas nearby, there were not many visitors. But it seems to have pleased Gabrielle and Dmitri to live quietly like this for a while.

Once the summer was over, Gabrielle launched herself into a venture she had already instituted back in Paris. For some time, she had used her rooms at the Ritz for overnight stays. But shortly before her holiday she had left behind her quiet retreat, Bel Respiro, and taken up residence in a distinguished eighteenth-century hôtel particulier on the Faubourg Saint-Honoré.

Gabrielle believed that in losing Arthur she had lost her life’s companion, and this had left her essentially lonely. In some sense, it also released her and would drive her forward even further. Yet in releasing her from some of the private constraints accompanying real dependence upon a man, it also left Gabrielle without an emotional anchor.

In 1921, Gabrielle was thirty-eight but looked almost ten years younger. She was extremely attractive, in possession of considerable wealth, much experience and growing social prestige. However, her emotional hardships, combined with her growing power, had brought about a certain disillusion. During the twenties, a change would take place in Gabrielle: it was now she who might well initiate a relationship. Meanwhile, in combination with her pride in herself and her achievements, the genuine modesty that went hand in hand with Gabrielle’s self-assurance was sometimes obscured by her great force of character. And her subtlety could go unnoticed by all but those few who knew her well.

Beginning with Stravinsky, for the next ten years and more, Gabrielle was to have a series of high-profile affairs, sometimes simultaneously. She would later say, “My love life got very disorganized, because the person I loved had died.” 14At the same time, in the years after Arthur’s death, Gabrielle was to apply herself professionally with such initiative and vigor that her name would become known far beyond the shores of France. Later, she went on to become more famous still, and even wealthier, but in this period her life took on a kind of emotional and artistic fervor in which she would become not only a discreet artistic patron but would also create the closest she ever came to a salon, where her palatial home became one of the artistic nuclei of Paris.

These years could fairly be described as the high point of Gabrielle’s life. The increase (one might say the confirmation) of her status was inseparable from the life she lived, itself reflected in her clothes. She was the absolute personification of modern woman. Indeed, during Gabrielle’s years at Faubourg Saint-Honoré, she was to become one of the most glamorous figures in the world.

The Hôtel de Lauzan, at 29 Faubourg Saint-Honoré, was built in 1719 for the Duchesse de Rohan-Montbazon, with very large formal gardens running all the way down to the avenue Gabriel. Perhaps it was no coincidence that its new occupant had chosen this address. It was on the avenue Gabriel that she had spent her happiest years with Arthur Capel, before the appearance of Diana Wyndham.

Gabrielle had taken the magnificent ground-floor rooms of the Hôtel de Lauzan while the owner, Comte Pillet-Will, remained on the floor above. When she declared that “the interior of a home is the natural projection of a soul,” and that “Balzac was right to attach as much importance to it as he did to clothing,” she effectively gave both her creed and a statement of intent. Her immediate response to the Faubourg Saint-Honoré was to enjoy its grandeur. The main rooms had last been altered in the previous century, and she hated the greenish, gilded paneled walls she was not permitted to change. It is said that she asked the Serts to redecorate and furnish her new home.