#64 Coco Chanel Her Life and Secrets

In the podcast, the host delves into the complex life and character of Coco Chanel, drawing from the book "Coco Chanel, Her Life and Her Secrets." The narrative reveals Chanel's transformation from a penniless orphan to a fashion icon, highlighting her relentless resourcefulness and quest for independence through her work. Chanel's unique approach, creating women's fashion with a masculine touch, and her differentiation strategy, are emphasized as key to her success. The host also touches on Chanel's personal struggles, her compulsive lying, and her legal battle with the Wertheimer brothers over her perfume profits, which resulted in her becoming one of the wealthiest women in the world. Chanel's deep passion for her work is underscored as she continued to design until her death, finding her greatest happiness in her creations rather than personal life.

• Coco Chanel valued work and genuine recognition over empty compliments.
• She believed that being congratulated for one's work was the most important form of acknowledgment.
• Chanel's satisfaction came from the understanding of her work's quality by those who attended her events.

"No one pays me compliments anymore simply to please me. It's my work that I'm congratulated on, and to me, that's the only thing that counts."

The quote emphasizes Chanel's disregard for flattery and her appreciation for genuine recognition of her professional achievements.

• The author met Coco Chanel in 1958 when she was 75 years old.
• Chanel was described as a "prodigy, beautified and triumphant," having succeeded in her life and imposed her style worldwide.
• Despite her success, Chanel expressed uncertainty about her happiness and a continuous pursuit of simplification and learning.
• Chanel's conversations were rich with maxims and reflections on truth and curiosity about death.

"I don't even know whether I've been happy... Every day I simplify something, because every day I learn something... Only truth has no frontiers."

Chanel's reflection reveals her introspective nature and her focus on personal growth and the essence of truth.

• The book is a compilation of interviews and stories, translated from French.
• The author sifted through extensive recordings to distill important aspects of Chanel's life.
• Chanel's personality is described as bizarre in a positive sense, characterized by her unique maxims.
• The book aims to explore Chanel's transformation from a poor orphan to a successful entrepreneur.

"From the flood of her talk, I sifted the nuggets... To enter her presence was to step into a monologue."

The author describes the process of extracting valuable insights from Chanel's monologues, highlighting the challenge of capturing her essence.

• Chanel often questioned her happiness and emphasized the importance of work.
• She felt that without the ability to create, she would be empty and finished.
• Chanel's life was marked by anxiety and the pressure of maintaining her independence and the House of Chanel.
• Her quotes reveal a deep sense of unhappiness despite her outward success.

"I've had no time for living... I've wept a great deal more than most people do... I've always been under pressure."

These quotes from Chanel show her internal struggle with finding personal happiness amidst her professional dedication and success.

• Chanel was known to be a compulsive liar, incorporating fictional elements into her life story.
• Her fabrications may have contributed to her business success in the high fashion industry.
• The book and secondary research indicate discrepancies in Chanel's life narrative, challenging factual accuracy.

"She was a compulsive liar... she was obsessed with these fantasies... she would take bits of those stories and in conversation with people, act as if that happened to her."

The quote illustrates Chanel's tendency to blend fiction with reality, which may have enhanced her brand's mystique.

• Chanel expressed her philosophy through maxims, sharing insights on happiness, art, and relationships.
• She lived a solitary life, particularly in her later years, despite her passion for her work.
• Chanel's maxims reflect her views on superiority, isolation, and the importance of choosing one's company wisely.

"Happiness consists in bringing one's thoughts to realization... Of necessity, superiority isolates one."

These maxims reveal Chanel's introspective thoughts on personal fulfillment and the consequences of success.

• The author faced difficulties in telling Chanel's story due to her complex personality and previous unsuccessful attempts with other authors.
• Chanel was invested in crafting her own legend, adding to the confusion around her life's truth.
• The author suggests that legends like Chanel are built on their myths rather than concrete facts.

"With Coco, what is the truth of any life?... Those on whom legends are built are their legends."

The quote reflects the challenge of separating Chanel's real life from the myth she carefully constructed.

• Chanel understood the power of media and influencer marketing in the early 20th century.
• She leveraged popular magazines to create a legend around her brand, enhancing customer experience.
• Chanel's customers were drawn to the allure of being part of her "magic place" and legend.

"These magazines are our publicity... They create our legend... For them, that is a far greater pleasure than ordering another suit."

Chanel's quote demonstrates her strategic use of media to build her brand and engage customers beyond the product itself.

• Chanel's early life was marked by hardship, including being orphaned and dealing with family tragedies.
• Despite her difficult start, Chanel was determined and hardworking, traits common among successful entrepreneurs.
• Her early career involved making hats and jersey dresses, which quickly gained popularity due to her unique personality and storytelling.

The transcript does not provide a direct quote for this section, but it summarizes Chanel's rise from a challenging childhood to the inception of her career in fashion.

• Coco experienced the death of her mother at age six.
• Coco's father abandoned her, possibly fabricating his move to America.
• Coco was raised by strict aunts, which is likely untrue.
• Coco's parents were peddlers, not the occupations she claimed.
• Coco's childhood stories were often fabricated to shape her persona.
• Coco claimed she was not an orphan and that her father made her mother happy, despite being an actual orphan.

"She told me of her rather harsh childhood. The death of her mother when she was six. Her rejection by her father, who left her to make a new life for himself in America." "They were peddlers. Her father was exactly, essentially peddlers, wandering from town to town, from market to fair, always on the road." "I am not an orphan. I have a father. My father made my mother happy."

These quotes underscore the difficult circumstances of Coco's early life and her tendency to create a more favorable personal history. They reveal the discrepancies between her real life and the stories she told.

• Coco's life was marked by poverty and a drive for independence.
• Coco was not interested in money for its own sake but valued it for the independence and control it afforded.
• Coco learned early on the importance of earning her own way to achieve independence.
• Coco's pursuit of independence was a response to the lack of affection and harsh realities she faced as a child.

"I've never been interested in money, but I was concerned with independence. And I would also add control." "In order to attain her independence, she must earn her own way."

These quotes reflect Coco's focus on independence and control rather than wealth, highlighting her motivations and the formative role of her upbringing.

• Coco was known to fabricate stories about her past.
• The author realizes Coco's childhood stories were largely made up.
• Coco's storytelling may have contributed to the success of her fashion brand.
• Coco's insistence on being different influenced her innovative designs.

"Why, as I listened to her bring forth her past, should I have imagined that she was creating her own legend?" "I never tell the truth. And my note here is, well, stories sell fashion."

The quotes illustrate Coco's penchant for myth-making and how it may have played a role in building her brand's mystique and success.

• Coco saw herself as different from others and it reflected in her work.
• She emphasized the importance of being different in a world of sameness.
• Coco's unique approach to her products set her apart from competitors.

"I saw myself as very different from the rest." "There's a benefit in just being weird and different."

These quotes highlight Coco's self-perception and strategy for standing out in the fashion industry, which was to embrace uniqueness and differentiation.

• Coco associated money with the ability to achieve independence.
• Her desire for independence was driven by her experiences of poverty and charity.
• Coco's confidence in her abilities was a driving force despite her circumstances.

"Cocoa, whose dream was independence, knew already how she would achieve it, or knew she would only achieve it. Through money." "You shouldn't have a reason to have this profound belief in yourself."

These quotes connect Coco's pursuit of money to her quest for independence and self-belief, illustrating the psychological factors that motivated her ambitions.

• Entrepreneurs featured on the podcast share the common trait of being "relentlessly resourceful."
• Coco Chanel exemplified this resourcefulness by leveraging a wealthy individual's interest to gain access to high society.
• She started by creating unique hats and selling them at a high margin, demonstrating her business acumen.
• Chanel's resourcefulness extended to her personal life, prioritizing her independence and work over relationships.
• Resourcefulness also manifested in her ability to adapt and innovate, such as using jersey material for women's fashion due to exclusivity constraints.

"They're all relentlessly resourceful. I don't think I've covered one person that wasn't relentlessly resourceful." "She starts creating hats. And her first store is on the bottom floor of, like, this... it's a high trafficked area where other people of really high means have to go through."

These quotes highlight the critical characteristic of resourcefulness among entrepreneurs discussed on the podcast and provide an example of how Coco Chanel utilized her circumstances to create business opportunities.

• Coco Chanel challenged societal norms of the early 1900s, using her position to build her own wealth and change fashion.
• She defied expectations of women at the time by not seeking marriage for security but instead focusing on her career.
• Chanel's background as an orphan and a charity case fueled her drive to succeed and be taken seriously.

"She's basically the first free woman to make her own money." "She's living with him, she starts building, or building. She starts creating hats."

These quotes emphasize Coco Chanel's pioneering role as a woman entrepreneur in the early 20th century and her defiance of societal expectations by pursuing her own business instead of marriage.

• Coco Chanel carefully crafted her public image and personal myth, often defending herself against perceived contradictions.
• The author of Chanel's biography observed her defense mechanisms and her selective storytelling to maintain her desired image.

"She's building her own myth, she's building her legend." "At the last moment, she recaptured them and thrust them back into their holes."

The quotes illustrate Chanel's conscious effort to control her narrative and the way she managed her personal history to construct a legend around herself.

• Chanel's strategy involved being different to attract attention, utilizing high society connections, and leveraging press coverage.
• She recognized the importance of financial independence and control over her business decisions.
• Chanel's success is highlighted by the growth of her business, including the large number of employees and international sales.

"I have nothing and I know I can do anything." "The house of Chanel isn't a thing made by money."

These quotes capture Chanel's self-confidence in her abilities and the pride she took in her accomplishments, as well as the strategic elements that contributed to the success of her brand.

• Chanel's innovation was born out of necessity, such as using jersey material for women's clothing due to legal constraints.
• She had a knack for transforming masculine fashion into something uniquely feminine and desirable.
• Chanel's ability to adapt and innovate set her apart from competitors and contributed to her brand's uniqueness.

"No one made real dresses out of Jersey. Jersey was for men." "Everything she borrowed from men became ultra feminine through her magic."

These quotes demonstrate Chanel's innovative approach to fashion design, turning constraints into opportunities and creating a distinctive style that became highly sought after.

• Coco Chanel was known for her amusing character and storytelling abilities.
• Her stories often derived from novels and were not true, but they captivated her audience.
• Chanel's storytelling brought humor and a sense of escape from the mundane to her customers.
• She managed to make life seem less drab and more comic through her narratives.

"People started to go to her, meaning going to her shop, because she was amusing. And then they would say stuff like, you know, that one's a real character."

This quote highlights Chanel's ability to draw people into her shop through her amusing and engaging personality.

"She's getting from novels and stuff. And they're just acting like, oh, yeah, this happened."

Chanel's stories were often fictional, inspired by novels, suggesting her creativity and ability to entertain through storytelling.

• Chanel was observant of her wealthy clientele and learned from them about setting prices.
• She understood the spending habits of the rich, who would skimp on necessities but splurge on frivolities.
• Chanel's advice to entrepreneurs would be to raise prices, reflecting her own successful strategy.

"She says the rich had introduced her to money, and this had helped her to work things out when she was setting her prices."

Chanel learned about money and pricing from observing the wealthy, which influenced her business strategy.

"She knew that they would pinch pennies over necessities and bankrupt themselves for vivalities."

This quote reveals Chanel's insight into the paradoxical spending patterns of the rich, which informed her pricing decisions.

• Chanel regretfully closed her fashion house at the beginning of World War II, thinking the war would destroy the market for dresses.
• She later realized her mistake, acknowledging that work should continue regardless of external circumstances.
• Chanel emphasizes the importance of focusing on one's work and adapting to new realities.

"I was so stupid, such a dummy about life, that it seemed impossible to me. I said to myself, you'll just put everything in order and find something else to keep you busy. Well, I made a mistake."

Chanel reflects on her error in judgment when she closed her business, showing her later realization of the value of perseverance.

• Chanel fought a legal battle to renegotiate terms with the Wertheimer brothers, who controlled the profits from her perfumes.
• She used her connections and created new perfumes to pressure a renegotiation.
• The settlement made Chanel one of the richest women in the world, with the Wertheimer brothers covering all her living expenses.

"An amicable settlement will bring you much more than litigation will, both lawyers reiterated to her. But she was out for blood."

Chanel's determination to get a better deal from the Wertheimer brothers was stronger than the advice of her lawyers, showing her tenacity.

"Her future share would be 2% of all Chanel number five sales world come. The financial benefit to her would be enormous."

The outcome of the settlement greatly favored Chanel, showcasing her strategic prowess in business negotiations.

• Chanel's love for her work transcended her financial status; she continued designing until her death.
• Her dedication to fashion design provided her with a sense of fulfillment unmatched by any other happiness in her life.
• Chanel's story is a testament to the power of finding and pursuing one's passion.

"I have already made a great deal of money in my life, but as you know, I've also spent a lot. Now, thanks to you, I shall never have to work again."

Despite her financial security, Chanel's passion for her work was the central joy of her life, not the money she earned.

"The collection is fundamental because it's the future."

Chanel's focus on her collection and her future designs, even at the age of 80, illustrates her unwavering commitment to her craft.