Sleeping with the enemy: Coco Chanel's secret war

Abstract

"The book pieces together how Coco Chanel became a German intelligence operative; how and why she was enlisted in a number of spy missions; how she escaped arrest in France after the war, despite her activities being known to the Gaullist intelligence network; how she fled to Switzerland for a nine-year exile with her lover Dincklage. And how, despite the French court's opening a case concerning Chanel's espionage activities during the war, she was able to return to Paris at age seventy and triumphantly resurrect and reinvent herself--and rebuild what has become the iconic House of Chanel."--Page [3] of jacket.

Contents

Metamorphosis : Gabrielle becomes Coco -- The scent of a woman -- Coco's golden duke -- A Hollywood divertissement -- Exit Paul, enter Spatz -- And then the war came -- Paris occupied : Chanel, a refugee -- Dincklage meets Hitler, Chanel becomes an Abwehr agent -- Checkmated by the Wertheimers -- A mission for Himmler -- Coco's luck -- Come back Coco.