Coco Chanel's Wartime Secret (Paris in Wartime, Part Two)

Last week covered how Paris couture survived four years of Nazi occupation. This week covers what it cost. Coco Chanel's wartime relationship with a German intelligence officer, and the genuinely contested case for whether she worked for German intelligence herself. Louis Vuitton's extraordinarily well-documented collaboration with the Vichy government, down to the thousands of Pétain busts its factory produced. The designers who thrived under occupation, and the people who were stripped of their businesses, deported, and killed for being Jewish. And the handful of people - Christian Dior's sister, a couturière who sewed two Stars of David into a dress lining, a naval-intelligence courier shot four days after the Allied landings in Provence her own work helped make possible - who used the cover of couture to do something genuinely brave. This is Part Two of a two-part episode; Part One, on the industry itself, is also on this channel. ------------- Find our Podcast on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music or where ever you listen to your podcasts. We have a Substack as well - https://thefashionmemoir1.substack.com/ ------------- Watch our other videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM3OqLHVo6eGkl86dsCJlWdQg9UNuNoWm https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM3OqLHVo6eH5hSfUOdjVzGLZxfJOKbeG -------------- 💬 Which fashion icon should we explore next? Let me know what you think in the comments. 👍 Like, 🔔 subscribe, and click the bell so you never miss an icon. http