Coco Chanel - Post-war Life and Career

Post-war Life and Career

In 1945, Chanel moved to Switzerland, eventually returning to Paris in 1954. In 1953 she sold her villa La Pausa on the French Riviera to Emery Reves. La Pausa has been partially replicated at the Dallas Museum of Art, and contains pieces of furniture original to the villa and houses the Reves collection of art.

Unlike the pre-war era, when women reigned as the premier couturiers, the success of Christian Dior’s “New Look,” in 1947, brought to prominence a cadre of male designers—Christian Dior, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Robert Piguet, Jacques Fath. Chanel was convinced that women would ultimately rebel against the aesthetic favored by the male couturiers, what she called “illogical” design—the “waist cinchers, padded bras, heavy skirts, and stiffened jackets." Now over seventy years old, after a fifteen-year absence, she felt the time was right for her to re-enter the fashion world. The re-establishment of her couture house in 1954 was fully financed by Chanel’s old nemesis in the perfume battle, Pierre Wertheimer. Her new collection was not received well by Parisians who felt her reputation had been tainted by her wartime association with the Nazis. However, her return to couture was applauded by the British and Americans, who became her faithful customers.