Coco Chanel/Nazi collaborator

[ipanemagirl]

I only recently read that Coco Chanel spent the the Nazi occupation of Paris in the Ritz hotel holed up with her Nazi boyfriend.

I'm just reading about how the French suffered under occupation and am appalled by the collaboration stories.

Apparently she did suffer some dip in popularity after the war and had to shuffle off and keep her head down in Switzerland for a few years. But really, how bady does that reflect on her extremely successful brand? I just wonder why it has remained so popular despite this extraoridinary level of collaboration with the Nazis? And do you think her brand's celebrity endorsers don't know, or know and don't care. yuck.

I didn't know that about her, certainly affects my opinion of her and and her brand now. I remember reading an interview with a writer who had researched French companies that collaborated with the Nazis, and there were quite a few.

I'm sure there were many who did. I'm not saying I would have been heroic in the war and none of us knows how we would respond in that situation but it does seem odd to me that her brand has now nearly washed itself clean of that pretty nasty mark. I mean living in the Ritz with a Nazi officer? That is pretty extreme collaboration by any standards isn't it?

I agree, it does seem to have been conveniently swept under the carpet.