The Rise and Fall of Chanel...

“it wasn’t the handbag that committed war crimes” the funniest way to start the art vs artist conversation

I appreciate your video but it’s important to stress that Coco Chanel was legitimately a Nazi sympathizer and not dismiss her as simply “ wanting to be on the winning side” (which is also truly abhorrent anyway) In a time when big fashion houses were standing up to the Nazi occupation; Coco was silent and from all accounts aiding and abetting the Nazi regime.

I tend to read things incorrectly and I literally thought this said "the rise and fall of my channel" and I was like bish whatchu mean fall SHE IS ONLY RISING🌟👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 but also that would be so meta

I’d love to hear a deep dive about some of these mega beauty brands like L’Oréal and Estée Lauder. How they started and how they became the huge conglomerates today

I know this isn’t so focused on the beauty side of the brand, but I’m surprised there was no mention of the advent calendar they put out in December. Over $800 and they had 4 days of stickers. To be fair, the items were listed so you could see what you’d be getting prior to purchasing, but the sheer audacity to even put a product like that out and then wonder why people were calling them out is wild to me.

In regards to the question of supporting brands with problematic histories. I am a Historian and German, so maybe I can give some perspective. In Germany you come across a lot of brands who have heavily profitted from the N*zis in the 30s/40s, especially bc many Jewish company where seized and transfered to non-jewish people. For the most part these companies where not given back to their original owners after WWII bc they either had died, emigrated etc. Thus we have a lot of companies who have made huge profits over the last decade due to N*zi politics. There are companies that deal with their history by acknowledging it, donating to Jewish projects, trying to find the descendants of the original owners. But there are also companiew who try to hide their involvement as much as they can. I personally would rather support the first kind of company than the latter.

Something that’s really interesting to me is how the fact that Chanel was a nazi spy is enough for people to boycott the brand (which I support), yet nobody blinks an eye towards the exploitation of garment workers that make their clothes? We talk a lot of shit about fast fashion brands and their crimes towards their workers and the enviroment, but designer brands do just as much damage if not more, since they have the prestige fast fashion brands don’t.

I studied fashion history while I was in fashion school. You were so spot on with this video :) just a few things: 1. It’s highly important to mention that Coco was responsable for the iconic “LBD” (the little black dress) than marked a huge milestone in 20s fashion and 2. Karl Lagerfeld didn’t take over as artistic director immediately after Coco. There was a small gap between 1971 and 1983 where various other designers led the brand from haute to ready to wear.

i was just going off about how chanel was not the icon we thought she was lmaoooo

I want to mention that Karl Lagerfeld himself also had a fair share of controversies. He made fatphobic and other controversial statements that I'm pretty sure you'll find out. I think we should look at his work, but without ignoring the things he did wrong.

Sadly, Karl Lagerfeld wasn't that good of a person either.From encouraging eating disorders, over being classist like a sport, to dealing with criticism like a textbook narcissist, this man had a whole buffet of horrible traits to choose from.But still, he carried Chanel and the creativity of the brand died with him.

The creative genius behind No.5 was actually Ernest Beaux, who before he went to Chanel created a nearly identical perfume, Rallet No.1, nearly a decade earlier in Russia. Coco Chanel sure did lots of shady things. She was the one popularising the tan.

Outside of the “art vs artist” debate… why would anyone at this point was something monogrammed with her name all over it when the name represents her. And her beliefs. It’s not just the ceo of a company you carry her name around. That name has to mean something.

Chanel today is owned by a Jewish family (who have been involved since the 20s - that history is also super fascinating) which I think is the ultimate irony to our girl Coco

As someone who has pretty much zero interest in high end fashion, I still LOVE these videos. This is like modern history class, topics that would never be taught in a general history class but they are genuinely interesting and these topics still hold influence over modern pop culture. These long form videos are so well done, I’m fully engaged in the content from the beginning to the end.

In middle school, my aunt bought these fake diamond Chanel earrings for me for 50 cents in Vietnam and I felt so cool when my classmates asked me if they were real. 😂

Just like top designers charge real high prices from street wear they still get their ideas from street kids and charge such high prices when their designs really aren't their own. History repeats itself.

Really surprised you didn't talk about the 2021 Advent Calendar they released for $825 that was basically stickers and a single sample sized perfume bottle. People were fuming, literally. Just insanity that a brand with that much stock in its customer base would fumble so badly and so unapologetically. It was really a wakeup call about how little they actually cared about being seen as ripping their customers off. Excellent video as always. Thank you so much for doing this deep dive. I really enjoyed it.

Okay now I’m HYPED for this. You put so much hard work and thought into these videos and it does not go unnoticed. Ily queen.

I've watched some luxury channels. For the record, a lot of luxury brands have increased their prices during this pandemic. Most of the channels I've watched commented that Chanel is in this weird spot. Their classic flaps have become popular in social media and this boosted their sales. However it also made people think that everyone owns a Chanel classic flap which costed them the feeling of exclusivity with the brand. They definitely won't send bags to influencers since they want to keep that feeling of exclusivity and their price increases helps them to keep that. However, some consumers have been wary of their quality so they started comparing the value for money of a Chanel Flap with an Hermes Birkin.