by Lisa Chaney
The staff of the London Library were, as always, unfailingly helpful. I thank Lisa Dowdswell at the Society of Authors for her clear-headed advice; Lynsey Robertson at the Churchill Center Archives; Kerry Bennet at the Scottish Civic Trust; the Association Sainte-Agnès, France; Chantal Bittan, directrice générale, Polo de Paris; Christine Lauener, collaboratrice scienti-fique, Département Fédéral de l’Intérieur (DFI), Archives Fédérales Suisses (AFS); Christine de Metz, Municipal Archives, Mairie de Garches; Monique Beaufils, Municipal Archives, Mairie de Biarritz; Laura Potter at V&A Publications; and John Gray at Dancing Times.
I should like to thank the following for permission to quote excerpts from the cited works: Lady Polly Feversham, for Extracts from the Diaries of Viscountess d’Abernon; the Honorable Laura Ponsonby for Lady Dorothy Ponsonby’s unpublished diary; the Chanel Conservatoire for the Pierre Reverdy dedication (in Rousselot and Manol) in their collection; and François Capon at the Maeght Foundation for the same; Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres, for the excerpts from Salvador Dalí’s letters to Gabrielle; Christopher Osborn for Diana Capel’s letters in the Churchill Archives Center, and Arthur Capel’s letters to Diana; Pan Macmillan and Alfred A. Knopf for Misia, copyright © Gold and Fizdale, 1980; Random House and M. Gabriel Jardin (English language copyright) for Lewis et Irène, originally Editions Grasset, 1924; for Marcel Haedrich’s Coco Chanel, Editions Robert Lafont, copyright © 1971, English language translation copyright Little, Brown and Company, 1972; Editions Jean-Claude Lattès for Lilou Marquand’s Chanel m’a dit, copyright © 1990; Mercure de France, for Pierre Galante’s Mademoiselle Chanel, copyright © 1973. Every effort has been made to discover copyright holders. I will gladly make good in future editions any omissions brought to my attention.
In the early stages Clement Bosque was my able assistant. He was followed by Adelia Sabatini, whose ability to carry out research of all kinds, act as ambassador and fulfill numerous other tasks with intelligence, independence and good humor — including several discerning readings of the manuscript — have made working with her a great pleasure. I thank her for her tremendous contribution.
To my editor at Fig Tree, Juliet Annan, who commissioned the book, I am deeply grateful, both for her assured and reassuring editorial guidance and her great tact and forbearance. I also thank Jenny Lord for her helpful editorial contribution, and Sophie Missing for picture collecting. I thank my first U.S. editor, Alessandra Lusardi, who maintained her enthusiasm for the project. To Joy de Menil, who took over after Alessandra’s departure and has seen the book through to press, I am most thankful. Her final pruning was done with a deftness and graciousness that left the author grateful and the book undoubtedly improved.
My daughter Jessica brought her lucid and professional visual skills to bear as she expertly shepherded me through the difficult process of selecting pictures. She and her sister, Olivia, were also, as always, unfailingly wise and humorous advisers. My brother, Saul, was his characteristically hospitable self in France, as was Sira in London. While conversations with my father, Keith, were often critical, he also waded through a very long pre-edited manuscript. My other valiant readers were my sister Anna; my daughter Jessica; sister-in-law Vanessa; and friends Josephine Baker and Professor Jane Moody. Cheng Hao Zhou often kept me going. I owe them all a great deal for their thoughtful and astute observations, deletion of various howlers and sensitive recommendations. Jane’s authoritative and judicious suggestions for trimming made the book more transparent. My exemplary copy editor, Sarah Day, skillfully urged me on, spotted errors and suggested improvements, and I am very grateful. Meanwhile, any remaining flaws and errors are my responsibility.
This book took considerably longer than anticipated, and in the process I have neglected friends and family appallingly. Nevertheless, they continued to provide me with their support and good counsel, without which I could not have finished. They have my loving thanks. To Marcus I owe more than I can say.
NOTES
EPIGRAPH
1 Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 143.
PROLOGUE: You’re Proud, You’ll Suffer
1 Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 40.
2 Ibid., p. 34.
3 Ibid., p. 41.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid., pp. 20–21.
6 Ibid., p. 56.
7 Ibid., p. 42.
CHAPTER 1: Forebears
1 Jean Cocteau, Past Tense, vol. I, p. 50.
2 Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen, p. 410.
CHAPTER 2: The Bad One
1 Henry Gidel, Coco Chanel, pp. 21–25.
2 Ibid., p. 30.
CHAPTER 3: The Lost Years
1 Lilou Marquand, Chanel m’a dit, p. 45.
2 Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 22.
3 Ibid., both references p. 22.
4 Ibid., p. 23.
5 Ibid.
6 Marquand, p. 61.
7 Morand, Allure, p. 30.
8 Ibid., p. 24.
9 Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen, p. 325.
10 Ibid., pp. 326, 455.
11 Ibid., p. 313.
12 Ibid.
13 Morand, Allure, p. 19.
14 Ibid., p. 20.
15 Ibid., p. 19.
CHAPTER 4: Things That I Should Be and Which I Am Not
1 Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 27.
2 Ibid., p. 28.
3 Charles Roux, Chanel, p. 79.
4 Morand, Allure, p. 29.
5 Charles Roux, p. 84.
6 Morand, Allure, p. 31.
7 Pierre Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 60.
8 Judith Thurman, Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette, p. 111. This superlative biography of Colette was a fascinating comparison in my gradual understanding of Gabrielle.
9 Hickman, p. 12.
10 Liane de Pougy, My Blue Notebooks, p. 51.
11 Galante, p. 54.
CHAPTER 5: A Rich Man’s Game
1 Paul Morand, Venices, p. 42.
2 Judith Thurman, Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette, p. 113.
3 Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 52.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid., p. 146.
6 Ibid., p 31.
7 Shari Benstock, Women of the Left Bank, p. 46.
8 Ibid., pp. 54, 228.
9 Thurman, p. 165.
10 Valerie Steele, Paris Fashion, p. 164
11 Pierre Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 22.
12 Morand, Allure, p. 56.
13 Steele, Paris Fashion, p. 172.
14 Ibid., p. 170.
15 Ibid., p. 173, and Amy de la Haye, Chanel: The Couturière at Work, p. 9.
16 Galante, p. 63.
17 Ibid.
18 Morand, Allure, p. 39.
CHAPTER 6: Captive Mistress
1 Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 32.
2 Ibid., p. 23, and Marcel Haedrich, Coco Chanel, p. 79.
3 Katie Hickman, Courtesans, p. 6. Hickman was most instructive in my understanding of the courtesan’s attitudes and milieu.
4 Morand, Allure, p. 33.
5 Charles Roux, Chanel, p. 115, and Axel Madsen, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, p. 55.
6 Isabelle Fiemeyer, Coco Chanel: Un parfum de mystère, pp. 37, 53.
7 Lilou Marquand, Chanel m’a dit, p. 65.
8 Morand, Allure, p. 33.
9 Marquand, p. 56.
10 Morand, Allure, p. 33.
11 Marquand interview with author, January 2010.
12 Fiemeyer, p. 50.
13 Lourdes Font, Fashion Theory, p. 305.
14 Morand, Lewis et Irène, p. 23.
15 Ibid., p. 87.
16 Ibid., p. 108.
17 Morand, Allure, pp. 34, 53.
18 Morand, Lewis et Irène, p. 120.
19 Morand, Allure, p. 34.
20 Ibid., pp. 33, 39.
21 Ibid., p. 34.
22 Morand, Lewis et Irène, p. 307.
23 Morand, Allure, p. 34
.
24 Morand, Lewis et Irène, p. 306.
25 Morand, Allure, p. 32.
26 Henry Gidel, Coco Chanel, p. 53.
27 Ronald Courtenay Bodley, Indiscretions of a Young Man, p. 122.
28 Morand, Lewis et Irène, p. 307.
29 Morand, Allure, p. 36.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid., p. 34.
CHAPTER 7: Arthur Capel
1 Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 20.
2 Ibid., p. 34.
3 Arthur’s and his father Arthur Joseph’s birth certificates as well as the Census records revealed Arthur’s antecedents and their subsequent betterment.
4 Arthur Edward Capel was born at Bedford House, Marine Parade, Brighton.
5 Arthur Joseph Capel (from the London post office directory, between 1875 and 1884, one sees Arthur’s father’s rise to prominence as an entrepreneur). In 1874, he was a businessman and agent for travelers to Paris, and by 1880 he had become a major agent for train and shipping companies in Ireland, England, France and Spain. In 1884, he was a founder of a compressed air company licensed to lay pipes through the streets (Bulletin of Warwickshire Industrial Archeology Society, issue 5, summer 1995). This must have been a very lucrative venture.
6 Joseph’s diverse business interests now required distant travel. In December 1884, he was at a coming-out ball for debutantes at Delmonico’s, the most distinguished public dining rooms in New York (The New York Times). By 1885, it appears he no longer needed to work.
7 Philip Sydney, Modern Rome in Modern England, pp. 114–15.
8 I am indebted to Father Tom McCoog, archivist at the British Province of the Society of Jesus, Mount Street, London, who pointed out the unlikelihood of Arthur’s attendance at Downside and suggested Stonyhurst as his school, and also passed me on to Bernardo Caparrini, who has worked on the history of Beaumont College. Bernardo recommended me to David Knight, archivist at Stonyhurst College, who was assiduous on my behalf in discovering Stonyhurst’s record of Arthur (including a photo of him with fellow Gentlemen Philosophers). In the Stonyhurst log, in Arthur’s own hand, he details his place of birth and schooling. The information at Stonyhurst was invaluable in my search for this most elusive man.
9 From Bernardo Caparrini, I had these crucial references for Arthur’s movements: The Beaumont Lists for Fifty Years, 1861–1911; Supplement to The Beaumont Review Old Windsor; The Beaumont Review Office, 1911, p. 17; The Beaumont Lists, 1861–1961; The Beaumont Review, no. 207, October. 1963, p. 470. Bernardo also referred to “a manuscript document at the Mount Street archives (box PE/2) titled “Lists from 1887–1909 (with follow-up notes)”… in which it says (folio 190)… “Capel, Arthur Edward (entered Oct. 14, 1891; left Aug., 1897) b. Brighton 1881, was at a school in Paris. Went to San Sebastian in Spain. Was a Philosopher at Stonyhurst, where he carried off the Keating Prize…” (The “Keating Prize” was for the best essay on Christian Sociology.)
10 H. J. A. Sire, Gentlemen Philosophers, p. 5. Sire, suggested by Bernardo Caparrini, details life at Stonyhurst College for the Gentlemen Philosophers.
11 The New York Times, June 12, 1902.
12 Arthur Capel noted at a polo match at Deauville. Le Gaulois, August 16, 1909.
13 Paul Morand, Lewis et Irène, p. 61.
14 Following polo at Deauville, Arthur is noted by Le Gaulois arriving at Dieppe on his yacht and then spotted the next day at the casino. Throughout the 1910s, he is regularly referred to in Le Figaro, The New York Times, et cetera.
15 Letter from Arthur Capel to Diana Wyndham: “I hate the main road & the crowd. The world I know is of my own making, the other makes me sick. Their morals, their convictions, their ambitions mean nothing to me. Fancy, sympathy & illusion have ever been my bed mates & I would never change them for Consideration, Position or Power.” Capel correspondence, courtesy of Christopher Osborn. This letter is undated, as are all those from Arthur.
16 Valerie Steele, Paris Fashion, pp. 71–72. I based my argument here on Ms. Steele’s description of the grisettes in this thought-provoking book.
17 Ibid., p. 71.
18 Ibid.
19 Charles Roux, Chanel, p. 113.
20 Elisabeth de Clermont-Tonnerre née de Gramont, Mémoires, vol. IV, La treizième heure, p. 154.
CHAPTER 8: Refashioning Paris
1 Vanessa Schwartz, Spectacular Realities, p. 229. Ms. Schwartz informed my descriptions of the development of mass culture in Paris.
2 Colin Jones, Paris: Biography of a City, p. 410. I am indebted, for this section, to this excellent work on Paris.
3 Ibid., p. 365.
4 Ibid., p. 386.
5 Schwartz, p. 92.
6 Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 37.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Arthur Capel, What Will Tomorrow Be Made Of?, p. 77.
CHAPTER 9: The Rite of Spring
1 Revue de Paris, t. 6, pp. 279, 276. Blanche, regarded by some as ingratiating, was sharp tongued, a fine portraitist, and also made it his business to know everyone.
2 Modris Eksteins, Rites of Spring, p. 31.
3 Ibid., p. 72.
4 Ibid., p. 73.
5 Sjeng Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 454.
6 Jane Pritchard, Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes, “Diaghilev the Man,” p. 41.
7 Eksteins, p. 39.
8 Mary Davis, Classic Chic, p. 26. Mary Davis’s seminal work was most helpful in the section on Poiret and the relationship between fashion and developing modernism.
9 Ibid.
10 Valerie Steele, Paris Fashion, p. 230.
11 Femina, September 1, 1913.
12 Francis Steegmuller, Cocteau, p. 89.
13 Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 37.
CHAPTER 10: The End of an Epoque
1 Paul Morand, Lewis et Irène, p. 124.
2 Ibid.
3 Arthur Capel, What Will Tomorrow Be Made Of?, p. 18.
4 George de Symons Barrow, The Fire of Life, p. 149.
5 Ibid., p. 151.
6 Elisabeth de Clermont-Tonnerre, Mémoires, vol. III: Clair de lune et taxi-auto, p. 36.
7 Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 43.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid., pp. 43, 45.
1 °Clermont-Tonnerre, Mémoires, vol. III, p. 79.
11 Ernest de la Grange, Open House in Flanders, December 29, 1914, p. 77.
CHAPTER 11: Master of Her Art
1 Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 46.
2 All references in this section ibid., p. 52.
3 Ibid., p. 45.
4 Pierre Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 37.
5 Amy de la Haye, Chanel: The Couturière at Work, p. 20.
6 Baronne de la Grange, Open House in Flanders, August 8, 1915, p. 143.
7 Morand, Allure, p. 39.
8 Galante, p. 38.
9 Ibid., p. 37.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid., p. 39.
12 Ibid.
13 Morand, Allure, p. 42.
CHAPTER 12: The War Bans the Bizarre
1 Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 38.
2 Letter from “the General Officer, Commander in Chief, the British Army in France” to “the Secretary, War Office, London,” March 20, 1916, National Archives, Kew.
3 C. E. Callwell, Sir Henry Wilson: His Life and Diaries, vol. I, p. 205.
4 Morand, Allure, p. 42.
5 Max Egremont, Under Two Flags, p. 27. This admirable biography was instructive in my understanding of what Arthur Capel’s work as a liaison officer would have been like. Spears’s comments on Arthur (from Spears’s diaries in Colonel Anthony Aylmer’s collection) were another vital step in discovering Arthur’s life.
6 Cahiers André Gide, vol. VIII, p. 214, J. E. Blanche to André Gide, February 15, 1917.
7 Charles Roux, Chanel, p. 162, and John Pomian, J. Retinger: Memoirs of an Eminence Grise, p. 35.
8 Francis Steegmuller, Cocteau, p. 184.
9 Sjeng Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 323.
10 Mary Davis, Classic Chic, p. 117.
11 Scheijen, p. 331.
12 Davis, p. 117.
13 Ibid., pp. 128–29.
CHAPTER 13: Remember That You’re a Woman
1 Charles Roux, Chanel, p. 164.
2 Robert Fizdale and Arthur Gold, The Life of Misia Sert, p. 198.
3 Ibid., p. 196.
4 Ibid., p. 202.
5 Ibid., p. 197.
6 Paul Morand, Lewis et Irène, p. 144.
7 Ibid., p. 135.
8 Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 143.
9 Morand, Lewis et Irène, p. 142.
10 Sir Jeremy Hutchinson in interview with author, September 2008.
11 Christopher Osborn in interview with author, September 2008.
12 Arthur Capel’s correspondence, Christopher Osborn. These letters proved invaluable in “reading” Arthur and the relationships with Diana and Gabrielle.
13 Ibid.
14 Christopher Osborn, in interview with author, June 2009.
15 Arthur Capel correspondence, Christopher Osborn.
16 Ibid.
17 Max Egremont, Under Two Flags, p. 66.
18 Michelle Maurois, Déchirez cette lettre, p. 125.
19 Edward Stanley, Paris 1918: The War Diary of the British Ambassador, May 29, 1918, p. 25.
20 Georges Bernstein-Gruber, Bernstein le magnifique, p. 165.
21 Arthur Capel, What Will Tomorrow Be Made Of?, p. 79.
22 Ibid., pp. 79–80.
23 Ibid., p. 80.
24 Maurois, p. 160.