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I went and looked it up. Interesting article here https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.heyalma.com/yes-lets-keep-reminding-people-that-coco-chanel-was-a-nazi-supporter/amp/ to summarize, she felt cheated by her Jewish partners as they only let her keep 10% of her perfume profits (the jewish factory owner keeps 70%, the other jewish partner keeps 20% for introductory fees) and tries to take her company back but was outwitted by the Jewish partners. She fell in love with a Nazi spy and was surrounded by high profile German generals who may have embedded the anti-semantics in her.
It is all about the context. No excuses for Chanel but having that additional info is interesting
EY1 did you read the article? This isn’t a story of a woman entrepreneur trying to get hers. The Wertheimers were investors and business partners whose manufacturing resources made it possible for her brand to scale. When they fled France to escape the Nazis- literally running for their lives- they signed their ownership over to another local partner to preserve their own business. They didn’t « outwit » Chanel. She then became a member of Germany’s military intelligence- becoming a Nazi agent while her own country was fighting them. Nobody « may have embedded anti-semantics » in her (it’s anti-Semitism). These are deliberate choices that she made and actions she took.
I don’t hold the company’s current employees responsible for her decisions, but I do hold them (among others) responsible for continuing to promote an inaccurate version of her legacy that omits an very ugly chapter in her history. Their brand continues to take direct inspiration from her as a designer and as a woman. While I understand that every brand aspires to stay true to a founder’s vision to a certain extent, the degree to which she is idolized to this day is problematic to say the least.
I’ve bought some Chanel cosmetics in the past but no bigger-ticket items. Whether or not I will in the future is a difficult question. So many brands and wealthy individuals supported or collaborated with the Nazis in some way and I honestly don’t know what I feel right doing. I’m Jewish so this is more personal for me.
I’m definitely not here to tell anyone what to do with their money. But we should have honest discussions about our heroes and hold them accountable for their mistakes. OP I appreciate you bringing this up, thank you.
That’s terrible, but also an anachronistic way of looking at things. And also not the message that Chanel has been trying to pass on in the 70 years since that happened.
Here’s a list of household-name companies with some degree of involvement with Germany in those times, according to Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_involved_in_the_Holocaust)
Allianz
Audi
BMW
Bayer
BASF
Barclays
Chase
Coca-Cola
Hugo Boss
Mercedes-Benz
Nestlé
Siemens
Thyssen
Volkswagen
That past must not be erased or forgotten, and of course some part of their success might have come from horrible things done during that time. But is it really productive to judge what Chanel or any other brand represents in 2021 based on what it did in the 1930-40s?
A2 I agree that the issue here is accountability. Chanel as a company still promotes Chanel as a designer and explicitly draws inspiration from her and her legacy. The fact that this part of her story is consistently omitted is highly problematic. I’m not saying don’t buy products from any company that was involved with the Nazis, but we shouldn’t be idolizing a designer without being honest about her open collaboration with them.