All That Glitters…
The French editor-in-chief of Marie Claire observed after a conversation with Chanel, “Chanel’s anti-Semitism was not only verbal but passionate and often embarrassing.”. This series seeks to shed some light on the oft swept under the rug truth of fascism in fashion, from Coco to Hugo and most recently Kanye West. An examination of values, the cult of personality, and the unquestioning idolatry of status symbols.
All That Glitters is… Gone (Documentary Trailer)
N° Nein #1 - SOLD
N° Nein #2
“Anti-Semitic, homophobic, social climbing, opportunistic; Chanel actively collaborated with the Germans during the Nazi occupation of Paris.”
Poking holes in every symbol that needs a bit of light to shine through, iconoclastic satire is Weinberg’s modus operandi. The gemstone in “No Nein #5” (see below) is actually a symbol of the light of truth peeking through after we pierce the veil of the mystique around Coco Chanel. J.J. first came upon the reality of Chanel’s anti-Semitism and seeming disdain for homosexual men in reading Hal Vaughan’s book “Sleeping with the Enemy - Coco' Chanel’s Secret War”. Chanel was given the Abwehr spy number F-7124 along with the code-name: Westminster. Joseph Goebbels selected a “secret attache” by the name of Baron Hans Gunther von Dincklage to the German Embassy in Pari and Von Dincklage was Chanel’s lover throughout the war.
N° Nein
The N° Nein bottles within this series are a purposeful irreverent parody of Chanel N° 5, with the homophone of the number 9 and its German translation being perfectly aligned with the criticism the work represents. The rendering of each bottle also carries the revised CC/SS logo Weinberg designed as a marker of the brand’s tainted history and a quote from someone within the Nazi party or with sympathies for the 3rd Reich. Only serendipity serves up the irony that the messaging is how the brand’s marketing mirrors propaganda.
N° Nein #5
“The queers want to be women—but they are lousy women.”
“Chanel’s clever opportunism sought to use the Nazis’ Aryanization of property (Nuremberg) laws to wrest control of her perfume empire away from the Jewish Wertheimer brothers.”
N° Nein #3
N° Nein #4
“Homosexuals are they not always hanging around women? Continually strangling them with flattery. I have seen young women ruined by these awful queers.”