Jean-Paul Goude in 2008

Jean-Paul Goude (born 1940 in Saint-Mandé) is a French graphic designer, illustrator, photographer and advertising film director.^[1] He has formerly worked as art director at Esquire Magazine in New York during the 1970s,^[2] and famously choreographed the 1989 Bicentennial Parade in Paris to mark the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution.^[3] In addition, over the last three decades, he has created well known campaigns and illustrations for brands including Perrier, Citroën, Kodak, and Chanel.^[4]

Early Life[link]

Goude was born in 1940 in Saint-Mandé, a small suburb of Paris.^[5] Both his father, a French Native, and his American mother, a former Broadway dancer,^[6] had been active in the New York show-business scene prior to his birth.^[7] In France, his mother ran a dance school, which he described as the ground for his “lifelong obsession with the dynamism of movement and form.”^[8] She also inspired him by exposing him to different forms of print media. "At home, we received American magazines,” Goude told Vogue Magazine. “The advertising, in the 1960s, was extraordinary. The first time an issue of Esquire arrived with a cover by George Lois, I said to myself, that’s what I want to do."^[9] He studied at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris before embarking on his career as an illustrator^[10].

Career[link]

Esquire Magazine[link]

In 1968, Harold Hayes, editor of Esquire Magazine, asked Goude to art direct a special edition of the magazine to celebrate its 75th issue. Several months later, Goude was asked to become the magazine's full time art editor, despite having limited experience working with layouts^[11]. Goude told WWD, "Harold Hayes...called and asked if I knew anyone that would be good for the job of art director; I proposed myself. A few days later, he offered me the job. I took everything I owned and moved to New York. I stayed for seven years and it was great, but I was not prepared for the literary world. I wish I had known more about it. I would see Gore Vidal in the hallways of Esquire. It was exciting."^[12] There, his illustrations for the magazine, including an oil-on-photo painting of Chairman Mao breasting the waves of the Yangtze River with a rubber Donald Duckie^[13], have been described as skirting on the edges of surrealism.^[14]

Grace Jones[link]

Goude worked closely with model-turned-pop-singer Grace Jones, consulting on her image, choreographing her live stage performances, directing her music videos, and creating her album covers.^[15] The two met during New York’s disco scene, stating in a 2009 interview "In 1977 or ’78, I met Grace and it was a period of decadence. People were still doing lots of drugs and I had been working so hard for so long and she made me part of her lifestyle, made me go out dancing at Studio 54. She became an obsession and we did everything together." ^[16] Soon after meeting, Goude and Jones pursued a romantic relationship, and he began stage-managing outrageous live shows and creating groundbreaking album covers.^[17] Goude used retouching before computer manipulation to depict Jones in an impossible pose for her Island Life album.^[18] Jones also appeared in much of Goude's other work, including his 1985 Citroën Cx 2 commercial.^[19] Their relationship ended after Jones became pregnant with their son, Paulo. "We both had our moments of weakness and when she announced she was pregnant," Goude said, "I had no intention of staying with her. I wasn’t happy with it. But she had the baby and then I became very soft and tender. I did [the book] “Jungle Fever” to keep sane. And things became so bad, I had to leave [Grace]. But I did my best work with her and we’re still very friendly. She is great."^[20]

Television Commercials[link]

Goude’s first television advertisement was a TV spot for Lee Cooper Jeans in 1982, in which he filmed a 10-minute mini opera set to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. He’s also created advertisements for clients such as Azzedine Alaia, Perrier, and Cacharel^[21]. In 1984, Goude shot a spot for Kodak that followed the adventures of the Kodakettes, mischievous kids clad in red-and-white stripes.^[22]. In 1992, he filmed an ad for Chanel Fragrance in which he put model Vanessa Paradis in a birdcage, because he thought she looked like Tweety.^[23]

Print Campaigns[link]

Some of Goude's most celebrated print campaigns have been for Galeries Lafayette, a leading Parisian department store. Proceeded by art directors, such as Jean Widmer (a student of Bauhaus teacher Johannes Itten) and Peter Knapp, Goude has worked with the company for more than 10 years, and has been given considerable creative freedom.^[24] He’s opted to shoot the on-going adventures of “a comic book character, half way between Herge’s Tintin and a heroine of an early Pearl Buck novel”.^[25]

Personal Life[link]

He has a son, Paulo, with his former muse, the model and performer Grace Jones (the two were never married). He has another son, Theo, and a daughter, Loreleï, both surnamed Goude, with his wife Karen Park Goude

Selected works[link]

• Several music videos for Grace Jones between 1981-1985
• Citroën CX, ad, 1984, with the car driving into the mouth of a giant robotic head looking like Grace Jones. Banned in several countries at the time.
• Design of the French Bicentennial 14th July parade on the Champ Elysées, 1989^[26]
• Chanel Egoïste, ad, 1990
• Chanel Coco (fragrance), ad, 1991, with Vanessa Paradis as a bird in a cage
• Prada (candy) with (Lea Seydoux)

References[link]

• Goude, Jean-Paul (2006). So Far, So Goude. Assouline. ISBN 2-84323-755-6. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jean-Paul Goude

• Official website
• Jean-Paul Goude at the Internet Movie Database
• Jean-Paul Goude at Music Video Database
• Model of Pictures

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Gabrielle "Coco" Bonheur Chanel (19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971)^[1] was an influential French fashion designer, founder of the famous brand Chanel, whose modernist thought, practical design, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important and influential figure in 20th-century fashion. She was the only fashion designer to be named on Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century.^[2]

Early life[link]

Gabrielle Chanel was born to an unwed mother, Jeanne Devolle, a laundrywoman, in "the charity hospital run by the Sisters of Providence"^[3] in Saumur, France. She was Devolle's second daughter. The father, Albert Chanel was an itinerant street peddler who lived a nomadic life, traveling to and from market towns, the family residing in rundown lodgings. He married Jeanne Devolle several years after Chanel was born, in 1884,^[4] after Jeanne's family "united, effectively, to pay Albert to marry her".^[5] At birth Chanel’s name was entered into the official registry as “Chasnel.” Jeanne was too unwell to attend the registration and Albert was registered as "travelling".^[3] With both parents absent, Gabrielle's last name was misspelt, probably due to a clerical error. The couple eventually had five other children: Julia-Berthe, (1882–1912), Antoinette (born 1887) and three brothers, Alphonse (born 1885 died 2001), Lucien (born 1889) and Augustin (born and died 1814).

In 1895, when Gabrielle was twelve years old, her mother died of bronchitis.^[6] She was only thirty-one years old.^[6] Gabrielle's father sent his two sons out to work as farm laborers and his three daughters to the Corrèze, in central France to the convent of Aubazine, whose religious order, the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Mary, was "founded to care for the poor and rejected, including running homes for abandoned and orphaned girls".^[7] It was a stark, frugal life demanding strict discipline. At age eighteen, Chanel, now too old to remain at Aubazine, went to live in a boarding house set aside for Catholic girls in the town of Moulins.^[8]

Having learned the sewing arts during her six years at Aubazine, Chanel was able to find employment as a seamstress. When not plying her trade with a needle, she sang in a cabaret frequented by cavalry officers. It was at this time that Gabrielle acquired the name “Coco,” a name possibly derived from a popular song she sang, or an allusion to the French word for kept woman: cocotte.^[8] As cafe entertainer, Chanel broadcast a juvenile allure and suggestion of a mysterious androgyny, tantalizing the military habitués of the cabaret.^[8]

Later in life, she concocted an elaborate, fabricated history to cover up her humble beginnings with a more compelling light. Of the various stories told about Coco Chanel, a great number were of her own invention. These legends were to be the undoing of the earliest of her biographies. These were ghosted memoirs commissioned by Chanel herself, but never published, always aborted before fruition, as she realized that the facts exposed a personage less laudatory than the mythic Chanel she had self-invented. Chanel would steadfastly claim that when her mother died, her father sailed for America to seek his fortune and she was sent to live with two cold-hearted spinster aunts. She even claimed to have been born in 1893 as opposed to 1883, and that her mother had died when Coco was two instead of twelve.^[9]

Personal life and early career[link]

Gabrielle Dorziat modelling a Chanel hat, May 1912. Published in Les Modes.

It was at Moulins that Chanel met a young, French, ex-cavalry officer, and wealthy textile heir Étienne Balsan. At age twenty-three, Chanel became Balsan’s mistress and for the next three years lived with him in his chateau Royallieu near Compiègne, an area known for its wooded equestrian paths and the hunting life.^[10] It was a life style of self-indulgence, Balsan’s wealth and leisure allowing the cultivation of a social set who reveled in partying and the gratification of human appetites with all the implied accompanying decadence. Balsan lavished Chanel with the beauties of "the rich life"— diamonds, dresses, and pearls. It was while living with Balsan that Chanel began designing hats, initially as a diversion that evolved into a commercial enterprise. Biographer Justine Picardie, in her 2010 study Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life (Harper Collins), suggests that the fashion designer's nephew, André Palasse, supposedly the only child of her sister Julia- Berthe who had committed suicide, actually was Chanel's child by Balsan.

Caricature by Sem of Chanel dancing with Boy Capel, 1913.

In 1908 Chanel began an affair with one of Balsan's friends, Captain Arthur Edward 'Boy' Capel.^[11] In later years Chanel reminisced of this time in her life: “...two gentlemen were outbidding for my hot little body.” ^[12] Capel, a wealthy member of the English upper-class, installed Chanel in an apartment in Paris ^[13] and financed Chanel's first shops. It is said Capel's own sartorial style influenced the conception of the Chanel look. The bottle design for Chanel No. 5 had two probable origins, both attributable to the sophisticated design sensibilities of Capel. It is believed Chanel adapted the rectangular, beveled lines of the Charvet toilery bottles he carried in his leather traveling case ^[14] or it was the design of the whiskey decanter Capel used, and Chanel so admired that she wished to reproduce it in “exquisite, expensive, delicate glass.” ^[15] The couple spent time together at fashionable resorts such as Deauville, but he was never faithful to Chanel.^[16] The affair lasted nine years, but even after Capel married an aristocratic English beauty in 1918, he did not completely break off with Chanel. His death in a car accident, in late 1919, was the single most devastating event in Chanel's life.^[17] She commissioned the placement of a roadside memorial at the site of the accident, which she visited in later years to lay flowers in remembrance.^[18] Twenty-five years after the event, Chanel then residing in Switzerland, confided to her friend Paul Morand: "His death was a terrible blow to me. In losing Capel, I lost everything. What followed was not a life of happiness I have to say." ^[19]

Chanel became a licensed modiste (hat maker) in 1910 and opened a boutique at 21 rue Cambon, Paris named Chanel Modes.^[20] Chanel's modiste career bloomed once theatre actress Gabrielle Dorziat modelled her hats in the F Noziere's play Bel Ami in 1912 (Subsequently, Dorziat modelled her hats again in Les Modes).^[20] In 1913, she established a boutique in Deauville, where she introduced luxe casual clothes that were suitable for leisure and sport.^[20] Chanel launched her career as fashion designer when she opened her next boutique, titled Chanel-Biarritz, in 1915,^[20] catering to the wealthy Spanish clientele who holidayed in Biarritz and were less affected by the war.^[21] Fashionable like Deauville, Chanel created loose casual clothes made out of jersey, a material typically used for men's underwear.^[20] By 1919, Chanel was registered as a couturiere and established her maison de couture at 31 rue Cambon.^[20]

In 1920, she was introduced by ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev to Igor Stravinsky. Now a notable patron of the arts, Chanel guaranteed the production of the ballet Le Sacre du Printemps (“The Rite of Spring”) against financial loss, and provided her new home Bel Respiro, located in a Paris suburb, as a residence for composer Stravinsky and his family. ^[22] In addition to turning out her couture collections, Chanel threw her prodigious energies into designing dance costumes for the cutting-edge Ballet Russe. Between the years 1923-1937, she collaborated on productions choreographed by Diaghilev and dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, notably Le Train bleu, a dance-opera, Orphée and Oedipe Roi. ^[23]

In 1924, Chanel made an agreement with the Wertheimer brothers, Pierre and Paul, directors of the eminent perfume house Bourgeois since 1917, creating a corporate entity, "Parfums Chanel." The Wertheimers agreed to provide full financing for production, marketing and distribution of Chanel No. 5. For ten percent of the stock, Chanel licensed her name to "Parfums Chanel" and removed herself from involvement in all business operations.^[24] Displeased with the arrangement, Chanel worked for more than twenty years to gain full control of "Parfums Chanel."^[24] She proclaimed that Pierre Wertheimer was “the bandit who screwed me.”^[25]

One of Chanel’s longest and enduring associations was with Misia Sert, a notorious member of the Parisian, bohemian elite and wife of Spanish painter José-Maria Sert. It is said that theirs was an immediate bond of like souls, and Misia was attracted to Chanel by “her genius, lethal wit, sarcasm and maniacal destructiveness, which intrigued and appalled everyone.” ^[26] Both women, convent bred, maintained a friendship of shared interests, confidences and drug use. By 1935, Chanel had become a habitual drug user, injecting herself with morphine on a daily basis until the end of her life.^[27] According to Chandler Burr's The Emperor of Scent, Luca Turin related an apocryphal story in circulation that Chanel was "called Coco because she threw the most fabulous cocaine parties in Paris" ^[28]

Perfume Chanel No. 5

In 1923, Vera Bate Lombardi, born Sarah Gertrude Arkwright,^[29] reputedly the illegitimate daughter of the Marquess of Cambridge,^[29] afforded Chanel entry into the highest levels of British aristocracy. It was an elite group of associations revolving around such personages as Winston Churchill, aristocrats such as the Duke of Westminster and royals such as Edward, Prince of Wales. It was in Monte Carlo in 1923, at age forty-two that Chanel was introduced by Lombardi to the vastly wealthy Duke of Westminster, Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, known to his intimates as “Bendor”. The Duke of Westminster lavished Chanel with extravagant jewels, costly art, and a home in Mayfair. In 1929, he gifted her with a parcel of land he had purchased near Monte Carlo where Chanel built an opulent villa, La Pausa.^[30] His affair with Chanel lasted ten years.^[31] The Duke, an outspoken anti-Semite, intensified Chanel’s inherent antipathy toward Jews and shared with her an expressed homophobia. In 1946, Chanel is quoted by her friend and confidante, Paul Morand: “Homosexuals? ...I have seen young women ruined by these awful queers: drugs, divorce, scandal. They will use any means to destroy a competitor and to wreak vengeance on a woman. The queers want to be women—but they are lousy women. They are charming!” ^[32] Coinciding with her introduction to the Duke, was her introduction, again through Lombardi, to Lombardi's cousin, the Prince of Wales, Edward VIII. The Prince became smitten with Chanel and pursued her in spite of her involvement with the Duke of Westminster. It is said that he visited Chanel in her apartment and requested that she call him “David,” a privilege reserved only for his closest friends and family. Years later, Diana Vreeland, editor of Vogue, would insist: “the passionate, focused and fiercely independent Chanel, a virtual tour de force,” and the Prince, “had a great romantic moment together.” ^[33]

It was in 1931 while in Monte Carlo that Chanel made the acquaintance of Samuel Goldwyn. The introduction was made through a mutual friend, the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, cousin to the last czar of Russia, Nicolas II. Goldwyn offered Chanel a tantalizing proposition. For the sum of a million dollars (approximately seventy-five million today), he would bring her to Hollywood twice a year to design costumes for MGM stars. Chanel accepted the offer. En route to California from New York traveling in a white train car, which had been luxuriously outfitted specifically for her use, she was interviewed by Colliers magazine in 1932. Chanel said she had agreed to the arrangement to "see what the pictures have to offer me and what I have to offer the pictures."^[34] This enterprise with the film industry left Chanel with a dislike for the business of movie making and distaste for the Hollywood culture itself, which she denounced as “infantile.” ^[35] Chanel's verdict was that: "Hollywood is the capital of bad taste...and it is vulgar."^[36] Ultimately, her design aesthetic did not translate well to film. The New Yorker speculated that Chanel had left Hollywood because "they told her her dresses weren't sensational enough. She made a lady look like a lady. Hollywood wants a lady to look like two ladies."^[37] Chanel went on to design the costumes for several French films, including Jean Renoir's 1939 film La Règle du jeu where she was credited as La Maison Chanel. Left-wing Renoir was a friend of Chanel's – it was Chanel who introduced him to Luchino Visconti. Knowing that the shy Italian count wanted to work in film, Chanel introduced him to Renoir, who liked him and had him work with him on his next film.^[38]

Chanel was the mistress of some of the most influential men of her time, but she never married. She had affairs with the poet Pierre Reverdy, and illustrator and designer, Paul Iribe. After her romance with Reverdy ended in 1926, they still maintained a friendship which lasted some forty years.^[39] Her involvement with Iribe was a deep one until his sudden death in 1935. Iribe and Chanel shared the same reactionary politics, Chanel financing Iribe's monthly, ultra-nationalist and anti-republican newsletter, Le Témoin, which fueled an irrational fear of foreigners and preached anti-Semitism.^[40][41] One year after Le Témoin stopped publication, however, in 1936, Chanel also financed Pierre Lestringuez's radical left-wing magazine Futur^[42].

When asked why she did not marry the The Duke of Westminster, she stated: "There have been several Duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Chanel."^[43]

Chanel was, "the first [designer] to show black dresses to be worn at any time." ^[44]

As the 1930s progressed, Chanel’s place on the throne of haute couture came under threat. The boyish look and the short skirts of the 1920s flapper seemed to disappear overnight. Chanel’s designs for film stars in Hollywood had met with failure, and had not aggrandized her reputation as expected. More significantly, Chanel’s star had been eclipsed by her premier rival, the designer, Elsa Schiaparelli. Schiaparelli’s innovative design, replete with playful references to Surrealism was creating much enthusiasm and excitement in the fashion world. Feeling she was losing her avant-garde edge, Chanel proceeded to collaborate with Jean Cocteau on his theatre piece, Oedipe Rex. The costumes she designed were mocked and critically lambasted: “Wrapped in bandages the actors looked like ambulant mummies or victims of some terrible accident.” ^[45]

World War II[link]

In 1939, at the beginning of World War II, Chanel closed her shops, maintaining her apartment situated above the couture house at 31 rue Cambon. She claimed that it was not a time for fashion.^[21] Three thousand female employees lost their jobs.^[46] The advent of war had given Chanel the opportunity to retaliate against those workers who, lobbying for fair wages and work hours, had closed down her business operation during the general labor strike in France in 1936. In closing her couture house, Chanel made a definitive statement of her political views. Her violent loathing of Jews, inculcated by her convent years and sharpened by her association with society elites had solidified her beliefs. She shared with most of her circle the conviction that Jews were a Bolshevik threat to Europe.^[46] During the German occupation Chanel resided at the Hotel Ritz, which was also noteworthy for being the preferred place of residence for upper echelon German military staff. Her romantic liaison with Hans Günther von Dincklage, a German officer who had been an operative in military intelligence since 1920,^[47] facilitated her arrangement to reside at the Ritz.^[48]

World War II, specifically the Nazi seizure of all Jewish-owned property and business enterprises, provided Chanel with the opportunity to gain the full monetary fortune generated by "Parfums Chanel" and its most profitable product, Chanel No. 5. The directors of "Parfums Chanel," the Wertheimers, were Jewish, and Chanel used her position as an “Aryan” to petition German officials to legalize her claim to sole ownership. On May 5, 1941, she wrote to the government administrator charged with ruling on the disposition of Jewish financial assets. Her grounds for proprietary ownership were based on the claim that “Parfums Chanel “is still the property of Jews”...and had been legally “abandoned” by the owners.^[49] “I have,” she wrote, “an indisputable right of priority...the profits that I have received from my creations since the foundation of this business...are disproportionate...[and] you can help to repair in part the prejudices I have suffered in the course of these seventeen years.”^[50] Chanel was not aware that the Wertheimers, anticipating the forthcoming Nazi mandates against Jews had, in May 1940, legally turned control of “Parfums Chanel” over to a Christian, French businessman and industrialist, Felix Amiot.^[49]

Ultimately, the Wertheimers and Chanel came to a mutual accommodation, re-negotiating the original 1924 contract. On May 17, 1947, Chanel received wartime profits from the sale of Chanel No. 5, in an amount equivalent to some nine million dollars in twenty-first century valuation. Further, her future share would be two percent of all Chanel No. 5 sales worldwide. The financial benefit to her would be enormous. Her earnings would be in the vicinity of twenty-five million dollars a year, making her at the time one of the richest women in the world. In addition, Pierre Wertheimer agreed to an unusual stipulation proposed by Chanel herself. Wertheimer agreed to pay all of Chanel’s living expenses— from the trivial to the large— for the rest of her life.^[51][52]

Activity as Nazi agent[link]

Archival documents unearthed by Hal Vaughan reveal that the French Préfecture de Police had a document on Chanel in which she was described as 'Couturier and perfumer. Pseudonym: Westminster. Agent reference: F 7124. Signalled as suspect in the file" (Pseudonyme: Westminster. Indicatif d'agent: F 7124. Signalée come suspecte au fichier").^[53] Vaughan concludes from this that Chanel acted as a Nazi spy, although this has been the subject of controversy.^[54] Anti-Nazi activist Serge Klarsfeld thus declared that "It is not because Chanel had a spy number that she was necessarily personally implicated. Some informers had numbers without being aware of it." ("Ce n'est pas parce Coco Chanel avait un numéro d'espion qu'elle était nécessairement impliquée personnellement. Certains indicateurs avaient des numéros sans le savoir").^[55] Vaughan believes that Chanel committed herself to the German cause as early as 1941 and worked for General Walter Schellenberg, chief of SS intelligence.^[56] At war’s end, Schellenberg was tried by the Nuremberg Military Tribunal, and sentenced to six years imprisonment for war crimes. He was released in 1951 due to incurable liver disease, and took refuge in Italy. Chanel paid for Schellenberg’s medical care and living expenses for himself, wife and family until his death in 1952 (She also paid for his funeral).^[57]

“Operation Modellhut”[link]

In 1943, Chanel traveled to Berlin with Dinklage to meet with SS Reichsführer, Heinrich Himmler to formulate strategy.^[56] In late 1943 or early 1944, Chanel and her SS master, Schellenberg, devised a plan to press England to end hostilities with Germany. When interrogated by British intelligence at war’s end, Schellenberg maintained that Chanel was “a person who knew Churchill sufficiently to undertake political negotiations with him.” ^[58] For this mission, named “Operation Modellhut,” (“Model Hat”) they recruited Vera Lombardi. Count Joseph von Ledebur-Wicheln, a Nazi agent, who defected to the British Secret Service in 1944, recalled a meeting he had with Dinklage in early 1943. Dinklage proposed an inducement that would tantalize Chanel. He informed von Ledebur that Chanel's participation in the operation would be ensured if Lombardi was included: “The Abwehr had first to bring to France a young Italian woman [Lombardi] Coco Chanel was attached to because of her lesbian vices...”^[59] Unaware of the machinations of Schellenberg and her old friend Chanel, Lombardi played the part of their unwitting dupe, led to believe that the forthcoming journey to Spain would be a business trip exploring the possibilities of establishing the Chanel couture in Madrid. Lombardi's role was to act as intermediary, delivering a letter penned by Chanel to Winston Churchill, and forwarded to him via the British embassy in Madrid.^[60] Schellenberg’s SS laison officer, Captain Walter Kutcschmann, acted as bagman, “told to deliver a large sum of money to Chanel in Madrid.”^[61] Ultimately, the mission proved a failure. British intelligence files reveal that all collapsed, as Lombardi, on arrival, proceeded to denounce Chanel and others as Nazi spies.^[62]

Protection from prosecution[link]

In September 1944, Chanel was called in to be interrogated by the Free French Purge Committee, the épuration. The committee, which had no documented evidence of her collaboration activity, was obliged to release her. According to Chanel’s grand-niece, Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie, when Chanel returned home she said, “Churchill had me freed”. ^[63]

The extent of Winston Churchill’s intervention can only be speculated upon. However, Chanel’s escape from prosecution certainly speaks of layers of conspiracy, protection at the highest levels. It was feared that if Chanel were ever made to testify at trial, the pro-Nazi sympathies and activities of top-level British officials, members of the society elite and those of the royal family itself would be exposed. It is believed that Churchill instructed Duff Cooper, British ambassador to the French provisional government, to “protect Chanel”. ^[64]

Finally induced to appear in Paris before investigators in 1949, Chanel left her retreat in Switzerland to confront testimony given against her at the war crime trial of Baron Louis de Vaufreland, a French traitor and highly placed German intelligence agent. Chanel denied all accusations brought against her. She offered the presiding judge, Leclercq, a character reference: “I could arrange for a declaration to come from Mr. Duff Cooper.” ^[65]

Chanel’s friend and biographer Marcel Haedrich provided a telling estimation of her wartime interaction with the Nazi regime: “If one took seriously the few disclosures that Mademoiselle Chanel allowed herself to make about those black years of the occupation, one’s teeth would be set on edge.”^[66]

Haute couture Chanel suit circa 1960

Post-war life and career[link]

In 1945, she moved to Switzerland, eventually returning to Paris in 1954, the same year she returned to the fashion world.^[21] The re-establishment of her couture house in 1954 was fully financed by Chanel’s old nemesis in the perfume battle, Pierre Wertheimer. ^[67] Her new collection was not received well by Parisians whose memory of Chanel's treasonous collaboration with the Nazis still resonated in the public mind. However, her return to couture was applauded by the British and Americans, who became her faithful customers.^[68]

Death[link]

In early 1971 Chanel, then 87-years old, was tired and ailing but continued to adhere to her usual schedule, overseeing the preparation of the spring collection. She died on Sunday, January, 10th at the Hotel Ritz where she had resided for more than thirty years.^[69] She had gone for a long drive that afternoon and, not feeling well, had retired early to bed.^[70]

Legacy as design revolutionary[link]

As early as 1915, Harper's Bazaar raved over Chanel’s designs: “The woman who hasn’t at least one Chanel is hopelessly out of fashion...This season the name Chanel is on the lips of every buyer.” ^[71] Chanel’s ascendancy as a fashion avatar was the official deathblow to the corseted female silhouette. The frills, fuss, and constraints endured by earlier generations of women were now passé. Her genius redefined the fashionable woman for the post WW I era. The Chanel trademark was a look of youthful ease, a liberated physicality, and unencumbered sportive confidence.

The horse culture and penchant for hunting so passionately pursued by the elites, especially the British, fired Chanel’s imagination. Her own enthusiastic indulgence in the sporting life led to clothing designs informed by those activities. From her excursions on water with the yachting world, she appropriated the clothing associated with nautical pursuits: the horizontal striped shirt, bell bottom pants, crewneck sweaters, and espadrille shoes—all traditionally worn by sailors and fishermen.^[72]

Ethnic influence[link]

Designers such as Paul Poiret and Fortuny introduced ethnic references into haute couture in the 1900s and early 1910s.^[73] Chanel continued this trend with Slav-inspired designs in the early 1920s. The beading and embroidery on her garments at this time was exclusively executed by Kitmir, an embroidery house founded by an exiled Russian aristocrat, the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, the sister of her erstwhile lover, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich.^[74][75] Kitmir's fusion of oriental stitching with stylised folk motifs was highlighted in Chanel's early collections.^[75] One 1922 evening dress came with a matching embroidered 'babushka' headscarf.^[75] In addition to the headscarf, Chanel clothing from this period featured square-necked tunic tops and elbow length sleeves alluding to Russian peasant attire, with chenille cloche hats for day wear. Evening designs were often embroidered with sparkling crystal and black jet embroidery.^[76]

The Chanel suit[link]

Her initial triumph was the innovative use of jersey fabric, a material traditionally relegated to the manufacture of undergarments. Her wool jersey traveling suit consisted of a cardigan jacket, and pleated skirt, paired with a low-belted pullover top. This ensemble, worn with low-heeled shoes, became the casual look in expensive women’s wear.^[77]

The "little black dress"[link]

The concept of the “little black dress,” is often cited as a Chanel contribution to the fashion lexicon and as an article of clothing survives to this day. Its first incarnation was executed in thin silk, crèpe de chine, and had long sleeves.^[78] Upon its conception, it was lauded as a fashion-forward look—a spare sexiness that resonated with the young, fashionable woman of the 1920s.^{[citation needed]} An unadorned garment of this cut also served as the perfect foil for accessories—belts and particularly ropes of pearls, and jewelry worn in dramatic arrays.^{[citation needed]}

Costume jewelry[link]

Ever the canny innovator, Chanel turned unenviable costume jewelry into a coveted accessory—especially when worn in excess displays, as did Chanel herself. Originally inspired by the opulent, costly jewels and pearls gifted to her by her aristocratic lovers, Chanel raided her own jewel vault and partnered with Duke Fulco di Verdura to launch a House of Chanel jewelry line. The fashionable and wealthy loved the creations and made it wildly successful. Ever the oracle for the modern, society elite, Chanel put forth her own disingenuous PR statement delivered in the inevitable dictatorial manner: “It’s disgusting to walk around with millions around the neck because one happens to be rich. I only like fake jewelry...because it’s provocative.”^[79]

Film depictions[link]

The first film about Chanel was Chanel Solitaire (1981), directed by George Kaczender and starring Marie-France Pisier, Timothy Dalton, and Rutger Hauer.

The American television movie Coco Chanel debuted on 13 September 2008 on Lifetime Television, starring Shirley MacLaine as a 70-year-old Chanel. Directed by Christian Duguay, the film also starred Barbora Bobulova as the young Chanel, Olivier Sitruk as Boy Capel, and Malcolm McDowell. The movie substantially rewrote Chanel's personal history, such as its portrayal of her status as a professional mistress as instead a series of "love stories," and glossing over both her Nazi collaboration and her use of British Royal connections to avoid post-war trial as a collaborator.

A film starring Audrey Tautou as the young Coco, titled Coco avant Chanel (Coco Before Chanel), was released on 22 April 2009. Audrey Tautou is the new spokeswoman of Chanel S.A.

The film Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, directed by Jan Kounen and starring Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen, concerns the purported affair between Chanel and Igor Stravinsky. The film is based on the 2002 novel Coco & Igor by Chris Greenhalgh, and was chosen to close the Cannes Film Festival of 2009.^[80] Two more projects are said to be in the works, including one directed by Daniele Thompson.^[81]

Literary depictions[link]

Coco & Igor is a novel, written by Chris Greenhalgh, which depicts the affair between Chanel and Igor Stravinsky and the creative achievements that this affair inspired. The novel was first published in 2003.

In 2008 a children's book entitled Different like Coco was published. It depicted the humble childhood of Coco Chanel and chronicled how she made drastic changes to the fashion industry.

Chanel boutique on Rodeo Drive (Beverly Hills)

The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman is a novel written by Karen Karbo. Published in 2009, it chronicles the humble beginnings and legendary achievements of Coco Chanel while providing insight and advice on everything from embracing the moment to living life on your own terms.

Stage depictions[link]

The Broadway musical Coco, music by Andre Previn, book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, opened 18 December 1969 and closed 3 October 1970. It is set in 1953–1954 at the time that Chanel was reestablishing her couture house. Chanel was played by Katharine Hepburn for the first eight months, and by Danielle Darrieux for the rest of its run.

References[link]

Footnotes[link]

Works cited[link]

• Chaney, Lisa (2011). Chanel: An Intimate Life. London: Fig Tree. ISBN 9781905490363. 
• Vaughan, Hal (2011). Sleeping with the enemy : Coco Chanel's secret war. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-0-307-59263-7. 
• Mazzeo, Tilar J. (2010). The Secret of Chanel No. 5. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-179101-7. 

Further reading[link]

• Chaney, Lisa (2011). Chanel: An Intimate Life. Fig Tree. ISBN 9781905490363. 
• Charles-Roux, Edmonde (2005). The World of Coco Chanel: Friends, Fashion, Fame. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-51216-6. 
• Davis, Mary (December 2006). "Chanel, Stravinsky, and Musical Chic". Fashion Theory 10 (4): 431–60. DOI:10.2752/136270406778664986. 
• Fiemeyer, Isabelle (2011). Intimate Chanel. Flammarion. ISBN 978-2-080-30162-8. 
• Madsen, Axel (2009). Coco Chanel: A Biography. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. ISBN 978-1408805817. 
• Morand, Paul (2009). The Allure of Chanel. Pushkin Press. ISBN 978-1-901285-98-7. 
• Picardie, Justine (2010). Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-196385-8. 
• Simon, Linda (2011). Coco Chanel. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-86189-859-3.  (Reviewed in The Montreal Review)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Coco Chanel

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Coco Chanel

• Official Site of Chanel
• Coco Chanel in the 1920s
• Coco Chanel designer profile at Fashion Model Directory
• Coco Chanel in the Art Deco Era
• Sewing patterns by Chanel
• Coco Chanel, Boy Capel and the Monsignor
• Interactive timeline of couture houses and couturier biographies Victoria and Albert Museum

v t e Chanel Designers Coco Chanel · Karl Lagerfeld Owners Alain Wertheimer · Gerard Wertheimer · Jacques Wertheimer · Pierre Wertheimer Garments Little black dress · Pink Chanel suit of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Perfumes Bois des Îles · Chanel No. 5 · Chanel No. 19 · Chanel No. 22 · Coco Mademoiselle · Cuir de Russie Perfumers Ernest Beaux · Jacques Polge · Henri Robert Handbags Chanel 2.55 Watches Chanel J12 Spokesmodels Carole Bouquet · Catherine Deneuve · Inès de La Fressange · Nicole Kidman · Keira Knightley · Kate Moss · Vanessa Paradis · Audrey Tautou  · Gaspard Ulliel Films Chanel Solitaire · Coco Before Chanel · Coco Chanel · Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (December 2011)

Johann Paul Friedrich Richter
Born	(1763-03-21)21 March 1763 Wunsiedel, Holy Roman Empire
Died	14 November 1825(1825-11-14) (aged 62) Bayreuth, Germany
Pen name	Jean Paul
Occupation	novelist
Nationality	German
Period	1783-1825
Genres	Humour
Subjects	Education, politics

Jean Paul (21 March 1763 – 14 November 1825), born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, was a German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories.

Life and work[link]

Jean Paul was born at Wunsiedel, in the Fichtelgebirge mountains (Bavaria). His father was an organist at Wunsiedel. In 1765 his father became a pastor at Joditz near Hof, and in 1767 at Schwarzenbach, but he died on 25 April 1779, leaving the family in great poverty. After attending the Gymnasium at Hof, Jean Paul went in 1781 to the University of Leipzig. His original intention was to enter his father's profession, but theology did not interest him, and he soon devoted himself wholly to the study of literature. Unable to maintain himself at Leipzig he returned in 1784 to Hof, where he lived with his mother. From 1787 to 1789 he served as a tutor at Töpen, a village near Hof; and from 1790 to 1794 he taught the children of several families in a school he had founded in nearby Schwarzenbach.

Jean Paul began his career as a man of letters with Grönländische Prozesse ("Greenland Lawsuits", published anonymously in Berlin) and Auswahl aus des Teufels Papieren ("Selections from the Devil's Papers", signed J. P. F. Hasus), the former of which was issued in 1783-84, the latter in 1789. These works were not received with much favour, and in later life Richter himself had little sympathy for their satirical tone. A spiritual crisis he suffered on 15 November 1790, in which he had a vision of his own death, altered his outlook profoundly. His next book, Die unsichtbare Loge ("The Invisible Lodge"), a romance published in 1793 under the pen-name Jean Paul (in honour of Jean Jacques Rousseau), had all the qualities that were soon to make him famous, and its power was immediately recognized by some of the best critics of the day.

Encouraged by the reception of Die unsichtbare Loge, Richter composed a number of books in rapid succession: Leben des vergnügten Schulmeisterleins Maria Wutz in Auenthal ("Life of the Cheerful Schoolmaster Maria Wutz", 1793), the best-selling Hesperus (1795), which made him famous, Biographische Belustigungen unter der Gehirnschale einer Riesin ("Biographical Recreations under the Brainpan of a Giantess", 1796), Leben des Quintus Fixlein ("Life of Quintus Fixlein", 1796), Der Jubelsenior ("The Parson in Jubilee", 1797), and Das Kampaner Tal ("The Valley of Campan", 1797). Also among these was the novel Blumen- Frucht- und Dornenstücke, oder Ehestand, Tod und Hochzeit des Armenadvokaten Siebenkäs ("Flower, Fruit and Thorn Pieces; or, the Married Life, Death and Wedding of Siebenkäs, Poor Man's Lawyer") in 1796-97.

The book's slightly supernatural theme, involving a Doppelgänger and pseudocide, stirred some controversy over its interpretation of the Resurrection, but these criticisms served only to draw awareness to the author. This series of writings assured Richter a place in German literature, and during the rest of his life every work he produced was welcomed by a wide circle of admirers.

After his mother's death in 1797, Richter went to Leipzig, and in the following year to Weimar, where he started work on his most ambitious novel, Titan, published between 1801-02. Richter became friends with such Weimar notables as Herder, by whom he was warmly appreciated, but despite their close proximity, Richter never become close to Goethe and Schiller, both of whom found his literary methods repugnant; but in Weimar, as elsewhere, his remarkable conversational powers and his genial manners made him a favorite in general society. The English writers Thomas Carlyle and Thomas de Quincy took an interest in Jean Paul's work.

In 1801 he married Caroline Meyer, whom he had met in Berlin the year before. They lived first at Meiningen, then at Coburg; and finally, in 1804, they settled at Bayreuth. Here Richter spent a quiet, simple and happy life, constantly occupied with his work as a writer. In 1808 he was fortunately delivered from anxiety about outward necessities by Prince Primate Karl Theodor von Dalberg, who gave him an annual pension of 1,000 florins which was later continued by the king of Bavaria.

Jean Paul's Titan was followed by Flegeljahre ("The Awkward Age", 1804-5). His later imaginative works were Dr Katzenbergers Badereise ("Dr Katzenberger's Trip to the Medicinal Springs", 1809), Des Feldpredigers Schmelzle Reise nach Flätz ("Army Chaplain Schmelzle's Voyage to Flätz", 1809), Leben Fibels ("Life of Fibel", 1812), and Der Komet, oder Nikolaus Marggraf ("The Comet, or, Nikolaus Markgraf", 1820–22). In Vorschule der Aesthetik ("Introduction to Aesthetics", 1804) he expounded his ideas on art; he discussed the principles of education in Levana, oder Erziehungslehre ("Levana, or, Pedagogy", 1807); and the opinions suggested by current events he set forth in Friedenspredigt ("Peace Sermon", 1808), Dämmerungen für Deutschland ("Twilights for Germany", 1809), Mars und Phöbus Thronwechsel im Jahre 1814 ("Mars and Phoebus Exchange Thrones in the Year 1814", 1814), and Politische Fastenpredigten ("Political Lenten Sermons", 1817). In his last years he began Wahrheit aus Jean Pauls Leben ("The Truth from Jean Paul's Life"), to which additions from his papers and other sources were made after his death by C. Otto and E. Förster.

Also during this time he supported the younger writer E. T. A. Hoffmann, who long counted Richter among his influences. Richter wrote the preface to Fantasy Pieces, a collection of Hoffmann's short stories published in 1814.

In September 1821 Jean Paul lost his only son, Max, a youth of the highest promise; and he never quite recovered from this shock. He lost his sight in 1824, and died of dropsy at Bayreuth, on 14 November 1825.

Characteristics of his work[link]

Friedrich Schiller said of Jean Paul that he would have been worthy of admiration if he had made as good use of his riches as other men made of their poverty—the classic approach of "Weimar".

But in working out his conceptions, Jean Paul found it appropriate to express any powerful feeling by which he might happen to be moved. He made it his style to use seemingly out-of-the-way facts or psychological notions which occurred to him. Hence every one of his works is irregular in structure and his style lacks directness, though never grace. His imagination was one of extraordinary fertility, and he had a surprising power of suggesting great thoughts by means of the simplest incidents and relations.

The love of nature was one of Jean Paul's deepest pleasures; his expressions of religious feelings are also marked by a truly poetic spirit, for to him visible things were but the symbols of the invisible, and in the unseen realities alone he found elements which seemed to him to give significance and dignity to human life. His humour, the most distinctive of his qualities, cannot be dissociated from the other characteristics of his writings. It mingled with all his thoughts, and to some extent determined the form in which he embodied even his most serious reflections. That it is sometimes extravagant and grotesque cannot be disputed, but it is never harsh nor vulgar, and generally it springs naturally from the perception of the incongruity between ordinary facts and ideal laws.

Jean Paul's personality was deep and many-sided; with all his willfulness and eccentricity he was a man of a pure and sensitive spirit, with a passionate scorn for pretence and an ardent enthusiasm for truth and goodness.

The last scene of Jean Paul's Flegeljahre was the inspiration behind Robert Schumann's composition "Papillons" Op. 2, and Schumann´s Humoreske Op. 20 is inspired by Jean Paul.

19th century works on Jean Paul[link]

Richter's Sämtliche Werke (Complete Works) appeared in 1826-28 in 60 volumes, to which were added 5 volumes of Literarischer Nachlass (literary bequest) in 1836-38; a second edition was published in 1840-42 (33 volumes); a third in 1860-62 (24 volumes). The last complete edition is that edited by R. Gottschall (60 parts, 1879). Editions of selected works appeared in 16 volumes (1865), in Kürschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur (edited by P. Nerrlich, 6 vols, pp. 388–487), &c. The chief collections of Richter's correspondence are:

• Jean Pauls Briefe an F. H. Jacobi (1828)
• Briefwechsel Jean Pauls mit seinem Freunde C. Otto (1829–33)
• Briefwechsel zwischen H. Voss und Jean Paul (1833)
• Briefe an eine Jugendfreundin (1858)
• P. Nerrlich, Jean Pauls Briefwechsel mit seiner Frau und seinem Freunde Otto (1902).

See further:

• The continuation of Richter's autobiography by C. Otto and E. Fürster (1826–33)
• H. Dring, J. P. F. Richters Leben und Charakteristik (1830–32)
• Richard Otto Spazier, JPF Richter: ein biographischer Commentar zu dessen Werken (5 vols, 1833)
• E. Förster, Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben von J. P. F. Richter (1863)
• Paul Nerrlich, Jean Paul und seine Zeitgenossen (1876)
• J. Firmery, Étude sur la vie et les œuvres de J. P. F. Richter (1886)
• P. Nerrlich, Jean Paul, sein Leben und seine Werke (1889)
• Ferdinand Josef Schneider, Jean Pauls Altersdichtung (1901); and Jean Pauls Jugend und erstes Auftreten in der Literatur (1906).
• Thomas Carlyle's two essays on Richter.

Quotations[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jean Paul

• Joy is inexhaustible, unlike seriousness.
• Music is the moonlight in the gloomy night of life.
• Many young people get worked up about opinions that they will share in 20 years.
• Too much trust is a foolishness, too much distrust a tragedy.
• The German language is the organ among the languages. (Die deutsche Sprache ist die Orgel unter den Sprachen.)
• A man never describes his own character so clearly as when he describes another.
• We learn our virtues from our friends who love us; our faults from the enemy who hates us. We cannot easily discover our real character from a friend. He is a mirror, on which the warmth of our breath impedes the clearness of the reflection.
• What a father says to his children is not heard by the world, but it will be heard by posterity.

Works[link]

• Grönländische Prozesse 1783-1784
• Auswahl aus des Teufels Papieren 1789
• Leben des vergnügten Schulmeisterlein Maria Wutz 1790
• Die unsichtbare Loge 1793
• Hesperus (book) 1795
• Biographische Belustigungen 1796
• Leben des Quintus Fixlein 1796
• Siebenkäs 1796
• Der Jubelsenior 1797
• Das Kampaner Tal 1797
• Des Luftschiffers Giannozzo Seebuch 1801
• Titan 1800-03
• Flegeljahre (unfinished) 1804
• Vorschule der Aesthetik 1804
• Levana oder Erziehlehre 1807
• Dr. Katzenbergers Badereise 1809
• Des Feldpredigers Schmelzle Reise nach Flätz 1809
• Leben Fibels 1812
• Bemerkungen über uns närrische Menschen
• Clavis Fichtiana (see also Johann Gottlieb Fichte)
• Das heimliche Klaglied der jetzigen Männer
• Der Komet 1820-1822
• Der Maschinenmann
• Die wunderbare Gesellschaft in der Neujahrsnacht
• Freiheits-Büchlein

English translations[link]

Richter's more important works have been translated into English, for example:

• Quintus Fixlein and Schmelzles Reise, by Carlyle
• Walt and Vult by Lee (1846)
• Titan by Brooks (1863)
• Flower, Fruit and Thorn Pieces by Ewing (1877)
• Levana by Wood (1887)

References[link]

• Fleming, Paul. The Pleasures of Abandonment: Jean Paul and the Life of Humor. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2006.
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Richter, Johann Paul Friedrich". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
•  "Richter, Johann Paul Friedrich". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jean Paul

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jean Paul

• Works by Jean Paul on Open Library at the Internet Archive
• Works by Jean Paul at Zeno.org (German)
• Jean Paul's works at Projekt Gutenberg-DE (in German)
• Famous Quotes by Jean Paul Richter
•  James Wood (1907). "Richter, Jean Paul Friedrich". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. 

Grace Jones
Grace Jones on her Hurricane Tour 2009
Background information
Birth name	Grace Jones
Born	(1948-05-19) 19 May 1948 (age 64)[1] Spanish Town, Saint Catherine, Jamaica
Origin
Genres	Pop, New Wave, reggae, rock, soul, R&B, electronic, house, dance, disco
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, actress, model
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1973–present
Labels	Island Records, Manhattan Records, Capitol Records, Wall of Sound, PIAS Recordings

Grace Jones (born May 19, 1948) is a Jamaican singer, actress and model.

Jones started out as a model and became a muse to Andy Warhol, who photographed her extensively.^[2][3] During that era she regularly went to the New York City nightclub Studio 54. Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous look with square-cut hair and angular, padded clothes. Many of her singles were hits on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play and Hot Dance Airplay charts, for example 1981 "Pull Up to the Bumper", which spent seven weeks at #2 on the U.S. dance chart.^[4] Jones was able to find mainstream success in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, scoring a number of Top 40 entries on the UK Singles Chart. Her most notable albums are Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing and Slave to the Rhythm, while her biggest hits (other than "Pull Up to the Bumper") are "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)", "Private Life", "Slave to the Rhythm" and "I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)".

Jones is also an actress. Her acting occasionally overshadowed her musical output in America; but not in Europe, where her profile as a recording artist was much higher. She appeared in some low-budget films in the 1970s and early 1980s. Her work as an actress in mainstream film began in the 1984 fantasy-action film Conan the Destroyer alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the 1985 James Bond movie A View to a Kill. In 1986 she played a vampire in Vamp, and both acted in and contributed a song to the 1992 film Boomerang with Eddie Murphy. In 2001, she appeared in Wolf Girl alongside Tim Curry.

Life and career[link]

Background and early career[link]

Grace Jones was born in 1948 in Spanish Town, Jamaica, the daughter of Marjorie and Robert W. Jones, who was a politician and Apostolic clergyman.^[5] Her parents took Grace and her brothers, Chris and Noel Jones (Bishop Noel Jones), and relocated to Syracuse, New York in 1965, where she studied theatre at Syracuse University.^[6] Before becoming a successful model in New York City and Paris, Jones studied theatre at Onondaga Community College. In the 1973 film Gordon's War, Jones played the role of Mary, a Harlem drug courier.

Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits and a large gay following.^[7] Her debut, disco-oriented album Portfolio was released in 1977 to a considerable success, and spawned hits "I Need a Man" and "La Vie en rose". Two next albums followed, Fame in 1978 and Muse in 1979, which generated more pop melodies set to a disco beat, such as "Do or Die" or "On Your Knees". Although popular in club market, her first three albums failed to break the mainstream sales charts. During that period, she also became a muse to Andy Warhol, who photographed her extensively.^[2][3] Jones also accompanied him to New York City nightclub Studio 54 on many occasions. The colourful artwork and design for Jones' three first albums and accompanying single releases were created by another of Warhol's longtime collaborators, Richard Bernstein, arguably best known for his many cover illustrations for Interview Magazine in the 1970s and early 1980s.^[8] In 1978, she appeared with the French model and singer Amanda Lear in the controversial six-episode Italian TV series Stryx.

Early 1980s: Compass Point Studios period[link]

At the beginning of the 1980s, Jones adapted the emerging New Wave music to create a different style for herself. Still with Island, and now working with producers Chris Blackwell, Alex Sadkin and the Compass Point All Stars, and recording at Blackwell's Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, she released the critically acclaimed album Warm Leatherette in 1980. This included re-imaginings of songs by The Pretenders ("Private Life"), Roxy Music ("Love Is the Drug"), Tom Petty ("Breakdown"), The Normal ("Warm Leatherette") and Smokey Robinson ("The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game"). The record met with even greater success than her previous disco albums and the song "Private Life" was her first to enter UK Singles Chart, and still remains one of her highest-charting singles in that country. Parallel to her musical shift was an equally dramatic visual makeover, created in partnership with stylist Jean-Paul Goude.^[9] Jones adopted a severe, androgynous look, with square-cut hair and angular, padded clothes. The cover photographs of Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing exemplified this new identity.

1981 saw the release of Nightclubbing, a rapid follow-up to Warm Leatherette. Jones chose a number of well-known hits to reinterpret, including Iggy Pop's and David Bowie's "Nightclubbing" and Ástor Piazzolla's "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)". The latter would become one of the Jones's most recognizable tunes and the self-penned, post-disco dance track "Pull Up to the Bumper" spent seven weeks at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, and became a Top 5 single on the U.S. R&B chart when released as a single in the fall of 1981.^[10] However, both Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing albums also included a few tracks co-written by Jones herself, such as "A Rolling Stone" and "Feel Up". In the UK, Nightclubbing claimed the number one slot on music magazine New Musical Express' Album of the Year listing.^[11] In 1981, Jones, appearing alongside noted psychotherapist Sonja Vetter, caused a controversy by slapping chat show host Russell Harty across the face live on air after he turned to interview other guests and she felt she was being ignored.^[12][13] This topped a 2006 BBC poll of the most-shocking British TV chat show moments.^[14]

In 1981 and 1982, Jones toured the UK, Continental Europe, Scandinavia and the USA with her One Man Show, a performance art/pop theatre presentation devised by Jean-Paul Goude and Jones herself, in which she performed tracks from the albums Portfolio, Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing dressed in elaborate costumes and masks – in the opening sequence as a gorilla – and alongside a series of Grace Jones lookalikes. A video version, filmed live in London and New York City and completed with some studio footage, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Long-Form Music Video next year.^[15] Her collaboration with Blackwell, Sadkin and the Compass Point All Stars continued with the dub reggae-influenced album Living My Life (1982), which featured the self-penned "My Jamaican Guy", sung in patois and a cover of "The Apple Stretching" by Melvin Van Peebles. In 1984, Jones' work as an actress in mainstream film began, with the role of Zula, the Amazon, in Conan the Destroyer alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and former NBA player Wilt Chamberlain. She next landed the role of May Day in the fourteenth James Bond movie A View to a Kill (1985).

Late 1980s and 1990s[link]

In the mid-1980s, she worked with Trevor Horn and Bruce Woolley for the conceptual musical collage Slave to the Rhythm, which was released in the fall of 1985. The well-received album consisted of several re-workings of the title track, which is arguably the most popular song ever delivered by Grace Jones. Although never charted in the Hot 100, the single did well on the R&B charts, dance charts, and in the UK, peaking at number 12.^[16] Slave to the Rhythm, together with Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing albums, is now recognised as one of Grace Jones' best works.^[17][18] In December, her first retrospective album was released. Island Life collected most of the singles from her 1977 debut up to recent 1985 hits. It included new versions of "Love Is the Drug", which charted again, as so did "Pull Up to the Bumper". Her next studio release, the first album after leaving the Island Records label, was Inside Story (1986), on which she worked with Nile Rodgers. It produced her last Billboard Hot 100 hit to date, "I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)", one of several songs she co-wrote with Bruce Woolley.^[19] She appeared in the 1986 vampire film Vamp where she played a queen vampire.

Her ninth studio album, Bulletproof Heart (1989), spawned the Number 1 U.S. Hot Dance Club Play hit "Love on Top of Love (Killer Kiss)", produced by C+C Music Factory's David Cole and Robert Clivillés. The second and the final single, "Amado Mio", was a cover version of the song used in 1946 film Gilda and originally performed by Rita Hayworth. Bulletproof Heart met with lukewarm reception. In 1992 Jones appeared in Eddie Murphy film Boomerang, for which she also contributed the song "7 Day Weekend" to its soundtrack, and released one more soundtrack single in 1993; "Evilmainya", recorded for the film Freddie as F.R.O.7. She recorded two albums during the 1990s, but they remain unreleased or unfinished thus far.^[20] In 1994, she was due to release an electro album titled Black Marilyn with artwork featuring the singer as Marilyn Monroe. "Sex Drive" was released as the first single, however, due to heavy disagreements with producers, the record was shelved. In June 1998, she was scheduled to release an album entitled Force of Nature, on which she worked with trip hop musician Tricky.^[21] The release of Force of Nature was cancelled due to a disagreement between them and only a white label 12" single featuring two dance mixes of "Hurricane (Cradle to the Grave)" was issued;^[22] a slowed-down version of this song became the title track of her comeback album released ten years later. Jones cut the song "Storm" in 1998 for the movie The Avengers. In 1999 she appeared in an episode of the Beastmaster television series as the Umpatra Warrior.

Recent career[link]

In 2000, Jones cut "The Perfect Crime"(to the show Crime Perfeito), an up-tempo song for Danish TV written by the composer duo Floppy M. aka Jacob Duus & Kåre Jacobsen. Also in 2000, Jones collaborated with rapper Lil' Kim, appearing on the song "Revolution" from her album The Notorious K.I.M..^[23] A year later, she appeared alongside Tim Curry in Wolf Girl (also known as Blood Moon), as a transvestite circus performer named Christoph/Christine. On 28 May 2002, she performed onstage in Modena, Italy with Italian opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti during his annual Pavarotti and Friends concert to support the UN refugee agency's programs for Angolan refugees in Zambia.^[24] Together they performed the aria "Pourquoi me réveiller?" from Jules Massenet's opera Werther. In November 2004, Jones sang her hit "Slave to the Rhythm" at a tribute concert for record producer Trevor Horn at London's Wembley Arena.^[25][26] In April 2005 Jones raised a controversy, when she was accused of verbally abusing a Eurostar train manager in a quarrel over a ticket upgrade, and she either was escorted off the train or left of her own accord, later saying that she had been mistreated.^[27] In February 2006, Jones was the celebrity runway model for Diesel's show in New York.

Grace Jones at Roskilde Festival 2009.

Producer Ivor Guest confirmed that he and Jones had completed recording her new album in 2007. Other participants on the album included the original Compass Point All Stars line-up, including Sly and Robbie, Mikey Chung and Wally Badarou, joined by Brian Eno, Bruce Woolley, Tricky and Tony Allen. The Hurricane album (initially to be titled Corporate Cannibal^[28]) was released on 27 October 2008, on Wall of Sound/PIAS Records, meeting with positive reviews.^[29][30][28] "Corporate Cannibal" became the album's lead single, with its music video directed by Nick Hooker.^[31] Jones embarked on a concert tour at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009, and appeared at Secret Garden Party and Latitude Festival to promote the new album. The video for the second single, "Williams' Blood", used live footage from the Hurricane Tour. Grace Jones also collaborated with the avant-garde poet Brigitte Fontaine on a duet named "Soufi" from Fontaine's album Prohibition released in autumn 2009, and produced by Ivor Guest. On 26 April 2010 Grace Jones performed at Royal Albert Hall, receiving rave reviews.^[32] A One Man Show was released on DVD, as Grace Jones – Live in Concert, in 2010 with 3 bonus videoclips ("Slave to the Rhythm", "Love Is the Drug" and "Crush"). "Love You to Life" was the third commercial single off Hurricane. In 2011 Jones again collaborated with Brigitte Fontaine on two tracks from Fontaine's 2011 release entitled L'un n'empêche pas l'autre and performed at the opening ceremony of the 61st FIFA Congress.^[33] Autumn 2011 saw the release of the "dub" version of Hurricane.

Style, image and voice[link]

Grace Jones live in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In the late 1970s, Jones adapted the emerging New Wave music style and adopted a severe, androgynous look, with square-cut hair and angular, padded clothes, created in partnership with stylist Jean-Paul Goude.^[9] She would also exemplify the so-called "flat top" hairstyle in many of her concerts in the 1970s, which would become popular among black men in the 1980s. Her first album cover to feature this hairstyle was 1980's Warm Leatherette. Her strong visual presence was an advantage for her music videos and concert tours. In her concert performances, she adopted various personas and wore outlandish costumes, particularly during her years with Goude. One such performance was at the Paradise Garage in 1985, for which she collaborated with visual artist Keith Haring for her costume. Haring painted her body in tribal patterns and fitted her with wire armour.^[34] The muralist also painted her body for the video to "I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)" and the 1986 vampire film Vamp. Grace Jones's striking appearance, height (5'10½" or 1.79 m), and manner influenced the cross-dressing movement of the 1980s. To this day, she is known for her unique look at least as much as she is for her music^[12] and has been an inspiration for numerous other artists, including Annie Lennox,^[35] Lady Gaga and Rihanna.^[36][37]

Jones is a contralto. Although her image became equally as notable as her voice, she is a highly stylised vocalist. She sings in two modes: in her monotone speak-sing as in songs such as "Private Life", "Walking in the Rain" and "The Apple Stretching" and in an almost-soprano mode in songs such as "La Vie en rose" and "Slave to the Rhythm". Her voice spans two and a half octaves.^[20][36]

Personal life[link]

At the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, Grace Jones had a relationship with Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren^[38] and with French graphic designer Jean-Paul Goude, with whom she has a son, Paulo, who is a member of the band Trybez, and through whom Grace has a granddaughter.^[36] Jones has been married twice; her first husband was producer Chris Stanley whom she married in 1989. She married second husband, bodyguard Atila Altaunbay in 1996.^[39] The couple later divorced.^[40] Her current boyfriend is music producer Ivor Guest.^[41]

Jones has been a subject of circulating stories about her alleged bisexuality,^[42] which she herself has never confirmed nor denied. She is believed to have slept with a model Janice Dickinson, while dating actor Dolph Lundgren, to whom she was engaged.^[43][39] In a 1985 interview for an Australian show Day by Day Jones stated: "I find women attractive. If I didn't, I wouldn't find myself attractive". Then, asked if that makes her bisexual, replied: "That doesn't make me anything".^[44]

Discography[link]

• Portfolio (1977)
• Fame (1978)
• Muse (1979)
• Warm Leatherette (1980)
• Nightclubbing (1981)
• Living My Life (1982)
• Slave to the Rhythm (1985)
• Inside Story (1986)
• Bulletproof Heart (1989)
• Hurricane (2008)

Filmography[link]

Movies[link]

• 1973: Gordon's War
• 1976: Let's Make a Dirty Movie
• 1976: Colt 38 Special Squad
• 1979: Army of Lovers or Revolution of the Perverts (documentary)
• 1981: Deadly Vengeance
• 1984: Made in France (documentary)
• 1984: Conan the Destroyer
• 1985: A View to a Kill
• 1986: Vamp
• 1987: Straight to Hell
• 1987: Siesta
• 1990: Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (documentary)
• 1992: Boomerang
• 1995: Cyber Bandits
• 1998: McCinsey's Island
• 1999: Palmer's Pick Up
• 2006: No Place Like Home
• 2008: Falco – verdammt, wir leben noch!
• 2008: Chelsea on the Rocks

Television work[link]

• 1978: Stryx
• 1982: A One Man Show
• 1988: Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special
• 1999: Beastmaster
• 2001: Wolf Girl
• 2001: Shaka Zulu: The Citadel

Awards and nominations[link]

Jones is a three-time Saturn Award nominee, a Grammy nominee, an MTV Video Music Awards nominee, a Razzie Award nominee and a Q Awards winner. She has also ranked 82nd on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll.^[45]

Grammy Awards

• 1983: Best Long Form Music Video for her A One Man Show (Nomination)

MTV Video Music Award

• 1986: Best Female Video for "Slave to the Rhythm" (Nomination)

Q Music Award

• 2008: Q Idol (Winner)

Razzie Awards

• 1987: Worst Supporting Actress for Siesta (Nomination)

Saturn Awards

• 1985: Best Supporting Actress for Conan the Destroyer (Nomination)
• 1986: Best Supporting Actress for A View to a Kill (Nomination)
• 1987: Best Supporting Actress for Vamp (Nomination)

References[link]