The Rise, Reign, and Ruin of Coco Chanel

Chanel was an awful person. It's taken a long time with countless journalists exploring her history, but we finally are relearning this fact about the designer. She was routinely vitriolic, cruel and unyielding even to her closest friends, not just the Jewish people she hated so much. Chanel is one of few people that have almost nothing positive said about their character. Her friends didn't like her, her business partners didn't like her, even the Nazis didn't like her. It says something about her character that there are next to no redeeming qualities found in her history. Sure, some biographies try to explain why she was the way that she was in a more sympathetic way, but none of these can excuse the many awful things Chanel chose to enact - even after warnings from friends and lovers. Fortunately today Chanel, the company, is far removed from Chanel the person thanks to an incredible marketing scheme from the Wertheimer's and from Karl Lagerfeld and we don't have to worry ourselves with financing such an abhorrent viewpoint. After all, the company today is ruined by exactly the people she wanted to own the company least! Chapters 0:00 Introduction 0:41 Chap. 1: Birth 6:48 Chap. 2: Auberzine 11:33 Chap. 3: Etienne Balsan 20:32 Chap. 4: Arthur Capel 27:30 Chap. 5: World War 1 32:03 Chap. 6: The Great Depression 41:17 Chap. 7: Action Française 49:27 Chap. 8: Nazism 54:35 Chap. 9: F-7124 1:03:53 Chap. 10: D-Day 1:09:50 Chap. 11: Switzerland 1:13:35 Chap. 12: A Failed R