Sex, Sun and Survival: A Look at Chanel’s Charmed Life in the War Years

LONDON — Mademoiselle Chanel — her radical fashion, business nous, complicated past and chutzpah — have mesmerized many, whether or not they covet the tweed, pearls or perfume. Chanel’s artistic director Virginie Viard, who shows her fall 2020 ready-to-wear collection today, has been liberally referencing the founder in her collections, with runway sets recalling Chanel’s convent school, her Paris apartment and the zinc-lined rooftops of Paris’ Rue Cambon where she first set up shop, and where Chanel’s couture salons remain. In her latest book, “Chanel’s Riviera: Glamour, Decadence and Survival in Peace and War, 1930-1944” (St. Martin’s Press), Anne de Courcy looks at another important period in Chanel’s life — the time she spent on the Côte d’Azur before and during World War Two. In those years, the world’s most famous dress designer was up to nothing — and everything, according to de Courcy, a journalist and non-fiction author.   “Chanel’s Riviera” by Anne de Courcy.  Courtesy Photo   In 1930, the fabulously wealthy Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel bought, rebuilt and decorated La Pausa, her villa above Roquebrune, when she was still the lover of, and trying to have a child with, the Duke of Westminster. There she entertained, lavishly surrounded by swathes of beige silk, white taffeta, bowls

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