Chanel was a Nazi? Whaaat?

Via the NY Times Book Review:
Sleeping with the Enemy - Coco Chanel's Secret War

I was still recovering from my allergy/cold's cruel alliances when I came across the Lifetime Movie:

Who hasn't heard of the legendary Coco and her keen eye and incredible talent to take women's fashion in a direction that had not yet been seen?

The movie was entertaining, LOOONG, but entertaining.

Before now I really wasn't interested in the history of the fashion icon. So I decided to hit Wikipedia and see what else may have been out there.

There were tid bits about her early life as the daughter of an unwed couple, that she was sent to an orphanage when she was 12 (or six depending who you're asking) and that she was a Nazi collaborator.

Wait, what?

During that time she was criticized for having an affair with Hans Gunther von Dincklage, a German military intelligence officer who arranged for her to remain in the hotel. Chanel was herself a NAzi intelligence operative, Abwehr Agent 7124, code name "Westminster".

Sure Wikipedia.

You got me again. I fell for your "information" once before. There's a reason I can't use you as a resource for school.

So I hit the web and low and be hold the NY Times mentions this "nazi" crazy talk again

Gabrielle Chanel — better known as Coco — was a wretched human being. Anti-Semitic, homophobic, social climbing, opportunistic, ridiculously snobbish and given to sins of phrase-making like “If blonde, use blue perfume,” she was addicted to morphine and actively collaborated with the Germans during the Nazi occupation of Paris. And yet, her clean, modern, kinetic designs, which brought a high-society look to low-regarded fabrics, revolutionized women’s fashion, and to this day have kept her name synonymous with the most glorious notions of French taste and élan.

Oh dear.

Then again this is a book that's stating all of this. What is the Chanel company's say about this?

"Such insinuations cannot go unchallenged," a Chanelspokesperson took the unusual step of telling us. "She would hardlyhave formed a relationship with the family of the owners or countedJewish people among her close friends and professional partnerssuch as the Rothschild family, the photographer Irving Penn or thewell-known French writer Joseph Kessel had these really been herviews. It is unlikely."

Hmmmm....

If it is true and she was this crazy bigot who sided with the dark reich then of course her company would deny it.

But if it isn't true the company would still react the same way to ensure that the icon's image would not be tarnished.

There is no denying that the woman had vision and resilience. Should the errors of the past negate the success of an early women's fashion pioneer?

Via British Vogue