Paris in Wartime, Part Two: The Ledger
Last week covered how Paris couture survived four years of Nazi occupation.
This week covers what it cost: Coco Chanel's wartime relationship with a German intelligence officer and the genuinely contested case for whether she worked for German intelligence herself; Louis Vuitton's well-documented collaboration with the Vichy government; the designers who thrived under occupation and the people stripped of their businesses, deported, and killed for being Jewish; and the handful who used the cover of couture for real courage.
Part One, on the industry itself, is also on the feed.
The skinny
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