Coco Chanel's Real Name: Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel

Quick answer: The designer was known professionally as Coco Chanel. Britannica and a Guardian archive caption both give the name Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel. Britannica places the birth on August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France, and the death on January 10, 1971, in Paris.

Real name and early life

Britannica says she was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, that her surname was misspelled as Chasnel on her birth certificate, and that she was born on August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France. The same page says she later learned to sew at a convent-run orphanage in Aubazine after her mother died in 1895. A Guardian archive caption independently identifies her as Chanel (Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel), 1883-1971.

Career highlights

Britannica says that, with financial help from Arthur ("Boy") Capel, she opened Chanel Modes, a millinery shop at 21 rue Cambon in Paris, in 1910, and became known for simple jersey designs. The same page says she introduced the so-called "little black dress" in 1926 and was also known for the perfume Chanel No. 5. A 2024 BBC Culture article independently describes her 1910s jersey clothes, the little black dress, and Chanel No. 5.

World War II reporting

Britannica says she closed her couture house in 1939, remained at the Ritz Hotel in Paris after it became Nazi headquarters in 1940, and began a relationship during the occupation with Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage, described there as a German diplomat and an Abwehr spy. The BBC article independently describes a long affair with von Dincklage, called there a Nazi agent, and states that she collaborated with the Nazis, while also quoting historian Justine Picardie as saying it is too easy to say she was a Nazi, and noting that she may also have helped the French Resistance. Both accounts describe a 1943 Madrid trip tied to a German intelligence plan that Britannica calls Operation Modellhut ("Model Hat") and the BBC calls Operation Modelhut, and both associate her with the code name Westminster. Both also report that she tried, unsuccessfully, to use Nazi Aryanization laws to take control of her perfume business from her Jewish partners, the Wertheimers in Britannica's account.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Coco Chanel or Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel are looking for the same designer, including the later work on Chanel No. 5 most often associated with her name. Search traffic often uses Coco Chanel.