Lisa Chaney, author of Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life, dug up some serious dirt on the legendary designer — one assumes after rolling her over in her grave. In the bio, which comes out in November, Chaney claims Coco was a bisexual drug user who had an affair with a married Salvador Dalí.

Chaney allegedly waded through the Swiss Federal Archives to prove that Chanel also had an affair with a Nazi spy. In an email to WWD, the author’s publicist states, “Whether Chanel was aware of this is unknown, but after that war she lived in neutral Switzerland for a while, to avoid any proceedings against her.”

Quel scandale! Though I can’t wait til they inevitably make a movie out of this book. Standing alongside Audrey Tatou‘s Coco Before Chanel will be Lindsay Lohan‘s Coco After Rehab.  [WWD]

Jerry Hall always looked like Jerry Hall – that incredible head of hair, that flawless complexion, cheekbones from which the world hangs – but it wasn’t until she took LSD that she even considered modelling as a viable path:

‘ “A boy gave me a quarter of a tab. I didn’t know what it was!” she says. “I actually had never taken drugs and was very nervous. And I never did take drugs [afterward] ever, ever. But I locked myself in the bathroom and spent the whole night staring in the mirror, going, ‘Oh, my God.’” She runs her fingers over the contours of her face. “All of a sudden, I thought, Wow!” ‘

Similar story, I once took shrooms and realized that I could taste colors. Red tastes like pennies.

Jerry, along with her sister Terry, ended up in Paris, where they roomed with a young Grace Jones. Jerry and Grace would put on cabaret shows for their friends, which I’m hoping involved a “Who’s On First”-type skit performed with Jerry straddling Grace, who would be on all fours wearing nothing but a saddle and a strap-on horse tail.

Sisters reunited, and it feels so good, c.1985

Hall met Dalí at a club that she and Grace would frequent. He asked her to come to Spain to film her wearing only a white veil. She turned down the famous artist’s request because she had promised her dear old mother she wouldn’t pose nude. They just don’t make ‘em like that anymore. Unless you count her pillowy-lipped daughter with Mick Jagger, Georgia May.

Which I don’t.

Jerry, however, is very proud that Georgia May and Lizzy have followed in her long, graceful strides and shares this anecdote:

“I gave them all these films to watch. Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, and Mae West. Actually, they both shot with Karl Lagerfeld, and he was saying to them, ‘Okay, be Bette Davis in The Letter.’ And they knew what to do! He said, ‘Oh, my God. I never work with girls who know what I’m talking about! Your mother trained you so well.’ So funny!”

Jerry Hall sounds like the best mother ever. Meanwhile, Karl Lagerfeld could tell me to be Bette Davis in anything and I’d be ready at the drop of a hat.

Read more about Jerry Hall’s  life, loves and locks in Harper’s Bazaar.

Photos: Harper’s Bazaar

Robert Pattinson lands the cover of the April edition of GQ mag, and I have to say that the images speak for themselves. Inside, he talks about his rumored girlfriend and his latest role as Salvador Dali in Little Ashes.
LINKAGE: Just Jared

Leo Burnett

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'Persistence of Time' Dali

Leo Burnett

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'The Temptation Of Saint Anthony' Dali

So…not only is Dali being used as inspiration to advertise cars, but he is also having a stab at investment companies. Under the tagline “Don’t be lost in the weird world of investment”, Brazilian agency Leo Burnett used two of Dali’s most well know paintings as reference in adds for a investment company.

via Wicked Halo

Volkswagen has yet again won the cool vehicle contest. The company’s latest promotion, done by German agency DDB, looks to the Surrealist art movement for the new Polo Blue Motion. Magritte and Dali’s work has inspired the ad campaign that bears the slogan “Absurdly low consumption.” It’s not often a car ad really grabs my attention like fashion ads do. Congrats, Volkswagen, for turning my head.

Thanks again Wicked Halo

The photo pictured above actually stirred up quite a bit of controversy, critics crying that the shot in the editorial wasn’t “original.” The original image was actually, shot by Philippe Halsman, a 20th century photographer and Salvador Dali inspired surrealist. Well original idea or not, I love this fashion inspired interpretation! Isn’t this what re-creation is all about? 

Thanks Wicked Halo!

…It can if its in a Spring 2009 collection!

We’ve all heard the cliche defense of the fashion-obsessed saying, “Fashion is a form of art!” The usual response is always soaked thoroughly with sarcasm and followed with a turn of the back. But upon reviewing the latest in trends from top designers, and some from those who have yet to burst out on the runway scene, it seems that today designers may be drawing their inspiration from, well…art!

Take a look at the footage from Martin Margiela’s Spring 2009 collection. The faceless models are reminiscent of Salvador Dali’s Mirage painting, in which the human figures are also, faceless. The extreme and exaggerated silhouettes of the jackets are comparable to the angles found in Dali’s Premonition of Civil War. The Surrealist movement in art no doubt played a role in the development of Margiela’s collection. It was that same avant-garde attitude and intriguing yet aesthetic awkwardess that catapulted artists like Salvador Dali and Max Ernst to the walls of MoMA in New York, and is now walking the runways of the world.

Need more? Okay… Remember the Spring 09 of Gaspard Yurkievich in Paris? The use of color in his line was most memorable to me. It was a perfect blend of greys and whites with splashes of color. The same color scheme is reflected in Charles Demuth’s My Egypt. Even the way the lights and camera flashes hit the prism-like shapes of the shoes was reminiscent in the cubist-influenced Demuth.

Designers need not look farther for ideas to inspire and enlighten them than a Modern Art Museum, or at the very least, a library/internet. Do you want an art-inspired look without having to wait for the sample sale? New and upcoming designer Jon Wye can hook you up with his Andy Warhol (pioneered the pop-art movement and cultivated fashion icons like Edie Sedgwick) tribute, in the form of a silkscreen tee shirt ($36, jonwye.com). Now breathe in that fresh new trend smell….and relax!

WRITTEN BY ARIEL (cultindie member)