Follow-up to yesterday’s post about that otherwise amazing photo shoot I wrote about. I’m not exactly a Chanel-wearing fashionista. But I’d love to see the photo of Coco Chanel as a strong, female role-model pulled from Jaime Moore’s photos. And let me put a disclaimer here – I am not knocking the photos of Emma. I still think this is a fabulous idea and the photos are fantastic. And, like me, I’m sure she had no idea of Chanel’s horrible history.
Thanks to Facebook and the post of a stranger on someone else’s wall, I learned that Coco Chanel was pretty downright ruthless and evil. Yeah – evil. The Wertheimer family co-owned Chanel, a company that after the war would make millions. The Nazis were seizing control of Jewish assets and the lovely Coco reported her Jewish co-owners in hopes the Nazis would take control of the company and she could keep all of the earnings to herself. Nice woman, eh? The Wertheimer’s, seeing what was happening to Jewish property, handed their share of the company to a Christian and thwarted Chanel. The friend handed the Wertheimer’s ownership right back to them after the war. It’s a fascinating story. Note to self: see if there’s been a documentary on this.
