Chanel and Schiaparelli: Rivalry on the Riviera
THE FASHION ICON AND BUSINESSWOMAN COCO Chanel is known for her perfume, the little black dress, her quilted handbags. She was also a fixture of the social scene on the French Riviera in the ’30s on the brink of war, and one side of an intense rivalry with Elsa Schiaparelli, another up-and-coming designer who operated in similar circles. In this excerpt from her upcoming book Chanel’s Riviera: Glamour, Decadence and Survival in Peace and War, social historian Anne de Courcy shares the rise of Chanel’s fortunes and rivalries juxtaposed against the darkness of a war-threatened Europe.
In 1932, no one was better known than Gabrielle Bonheur, or “Coco,” Chanel. It would be some years before a serious rival showed up to challenge her supremacy, a woman whose ethos was completely opposed to her own but whose originality and alliance with the avant-garde in art made her a force to be reckoned with. This was Elsa Schiaparelli, and their opposing viewpoints encouraged each to play to her strengths. Chanel believed that the woman should wear the clothes, not the reverse; Schiaparelli, in contrast, would create the flamboyant
