I don't know much about Coco Chanel. There I said it. Actually, maybe not a lot of people do. The real Coco Chanel anyway.

Sure there was that movie with the ever so lovely Audrey Tautou (whom I adore!) but even that isn't the whole truth, or even a fraction of it. And I suppose we won't ever know the whole truth as Coco Chanel was extremely keen on shaping her past and her life the way she saw fit.

Frankly, the more I read about Coco Chanel the more I battle with my love/hate relationship with her. Did she make beautiful clothes that changed the shape of women's fashion? Yes. Was she nice? Not so much... in fact, not really at all.

Coco Chanel was meticulous about her work and a perfectionist | source

6 Things About Coco Chanel You Didn't Know

1.] Diana Vreeland said of Coco Chanel that she wasn't particularly a nice person but they were friends. But was she pleasant, not at all. I read this in Diana Vreeland's autobiography "DV" when she talks about her life in Paris.

Coco Chanel photographed in 1937 by Boris Lipnitzki | source

2.] Her last major love affair was with a German spy, right at the dawn of World War II. His name was Hans Gunther von Dincklage and he arranged for Coco to reside in the Hotel Ritz during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. {source}

3.] At the age of 20 she found work as a seamstress having honed her sewing skills at the Aubazine convent. BTW, side note, if you've never seen photos of Aubazine, you should. {source}

4.] Coco Chanel is depicted naked in a political cartoon drawn by her antisemitic lover Paul Iribe in which she represents France and is being cradled by Adolf Hitler and protected from Jews. {source}

5.] At her funeral, Coco Chanel's fashion models occupied the first seats and her coffin was covered with camellias, gardenias, orchids, and azaleas. A few red roses were also present as accent flowers. from Wikipedia

6.] She made suntans cool. Prior to Coco Chanel's time, being tanned usually meant you were a laborer. But she changed the outlook of being sun kissed with the idea that if you were bronzed it meant you lived a life of leisure. From the book Chanel and Her World (1981)

Coco Chanel as a young lady c.1910 | source

Coco Chanel photographed for Vogue c.1954 by Henry Clarke | source

Coco Chanel on the balcony of the Ritz hotel where she lived during the war years | source