Coco Chanel_ An Intimate Life - Lisa Chaney [200]
Susan recalls how “all Paris was in a buzz, and that practically every designer had paid tribute to Gabrielle’s comeback by trying to anticipate what she would do with a little Chanely look somewhere.” But when the day of Gabrielle’s show arrived, “it was a nightmare. It was like going back in a time capsule . . . Dior had changed everything.” Indeed, quite apart from the collection itself, Dior had transformed the idea of a couture collection from a sedate and rather stately masque, to a fast-moving, stylish and seductive show. In addition, he had decorated his svelte models with a brilliant display of accessories; something that Gabrielle had never done. And now here she was, stubbornly ignoring Dior’s effect on the tenor and tempo of fashion. Susan Train remembers:
At Chanel nothing had changed. The show took forever. There were no accessories . . . Just dresses, shoes. There were no hats, gloves, no jewelry . . . and clothes that had absolutely nothing to do with what was going on: “It was famously a disaster” . . . We came out, we got into the car . . . there was this deathly silence, and Jessica Daves said, with her Southern drawl, “Well, Bettina, do you really think that the collection we have just seen is worthy of the opening pages of Vogue’s Collection Report?”
Bettina Ballard told her young colleagues that, actually, it was no worse than some of Gabrielle’s collections in the late thirties, and suggested a photo shoot to see what they thought. Accordingly, that evening, Susan went with Bettina Ballard and Henry Clarke to Chanel, where they selected pieces from the collection. Bettina chose three or four of these and sent Susan down to the boutique with instructions to gather up whatever jewelry she could lay her hands on. (There was apparently very little to choose from.) She recalls Bettina Ballard’s familiarity with Gabrielle, saying, “She had an intimate knowledge of how she dressed, and had lent Bettina clothes.” Bettina encouraged her young colleagues with the comment, “There was always something in a Chanel collection that was worth it,” and Susan describes her “picking out that suit. She just knew it was going to start a whole new thing.”5
Susan says that there was an American manufacturer, Davidol, who had continued making Chanel suits throughout the war, and on into the fifties: “how much American women loved them . . . And the new one was easy, because it was so comfortable and yet elegant.” She continues:
And Bettina Ballard bought that suit herself. She not only bought it but she wore it for the Fashion Group Import Show meeting in New York, where all the retailers were shown the clothes that had been bought and brought over from Paris. Bettina stood up in her Chanel suit and said, “Mark my words; this is the beginning of a new thing.” And of course it was! 6
This was the navy suit Bettina Ballard had Henry Clarke photograph and Marie-Hélène Arnaud wear. It was midcalf (Dior’s highly fashionable couture was only just below the knee), and made of jersey, with an easy skirt with pockets, a semifitted open jacket and a white lawn blouse topped off by a pert straw boater. This was Gabrielle’s version of the Chanel suit she had initiated before the war. In 1954, to those who could see it, the suit gave an overwhelming impression of insouciant, youthful elegance, and Gabrielle was to continue perfecting it for the rest of her life.
The other two costumes Ballard selected for the Vogue photo shoot were worn by Suzy Parker, the magnificent, red-headed American, then perhaps the highest-paid model in the world. One dress was in a draped and clinging rose wool jersey, while the other was a mad, strapless evening dress. Vogue described this as “tiers of the most modern of fabrics, bubbly nylon seersucker in bright navy-blue, with huge full-blown