Coco Chanel_ An Intimate Life - Lisa Chaney [44]
In September 1909, that same year in which Gabrielle began living with Arthur Capel, a fashionable young actress, Lucienne Roger, was featured wearing one of Gabrielle’s hats on the cover of one of these magazines, Comœ-dia Illustré. Inside the magazine were two more of Gabrielle’s hats, bearing the commentary:
I have just written a name which needs to be introduced to those of my readers for whom it should still be unknown. In this column we show two delightful models by the refined artist Gabrielle Chanel. First and foremost a lover of the line, her imagination is always . . . inspired and full of surprises, and always remains in good taste.
Comœdia Illustré was the recently launched weekly supplement to the French daily Comœdia. Run by Maurice de Brunhoff, scion of one of the most influential publishing families in France, Comœdia Illustré was devoted to coverage of the arts, and catered to an eclectic band of sophisticates whose social mix would have been virtually impossible a few decades earlier. Brunhoff set his sights on the personalities and professionals who were representative of the social changes sweeping through large sections of French society. The financiers, industrialists, socialites, artists, writers, actors and demimondaines read such a magazine because it made them feel they were keeping abreast of the increasingly fragmenting artistic world and the radical changes emerging in all matters of style and taste.
Comœdia Illustré acted as cultural guide for its elite readership. Besides fashion, it presented photographs (very few magazines yet did this), illustrations, exhibition reviews and new elite music as well as popular entertainment. And the magazine’s largely youthful readership also identified with its undertone of rebellion. When Gabrielle had used her powers of persuasion on this, one of the city’s most stylish magazines, her liaison with one of the most high-profile young men in Paris would not have gone unnoticed. With Lucienne Roger wearing Gabrielle’s hat on Comœdia’s cover, Gabrielle had carried off a brilliant piece of self-promotion.
Maurice de Brunhoff ’s gamble on the newcomer paid off; the response to Gabrielle’s hats was good. As a result, for the next month’s issue, October 1909, Gabrielle herself modeled two of her designs. Whether large, or small and close to the head, her hats were very simple, with no more than a single flourish. They were described as having “a style and harmony of lines that are unique to her,” and in November, Gabrielle once again got herself coverage, taking up a full page of the magazine. The December issue had another actress modeling another of Gabrielle Chanel’s hats, and throughout the following year, coverage of her work continued, with comments such as: “This design and those which surround it are of a rare distinction, and they honor Gabrielle Chanel, whose chosen and numerous clientele appreciates the assured and delicate taste more every day.”
The actresses and demimondaines of Gabrielle’s acquaintance were regularly prevailed upon to help in her promotion. Thus, in January 1911, her friend the actress Jeanne Dirys appeared on a Comœdia Illustré cover in an illustration done by the precocious young artist Paul Iribe. By May that year, the same magazine is telling us that Gabrielle Chanel’s distinguished work is now just as much sought after by beautiful women in town as in the theater.
As so often in the past, under the influence of actresses and the demimonde , society women were beginning to take note. In early 1912, Gabrielle’s work was described as “original,” and she herself was hailed as “this clear-sighted artist.” Meanwhile, Gabrielle Dorziat,