Europe had formed a fragile peace, and women were embracing the style of the woman who had given them the right to comfort.

Coco, who had just lost the love of her life, suppresses her sorrow in Venice with Missia and Josemarie Assert.

Once upon a time, there was Missia, the friend from Russia, faithful and formidable, a whimsical muse, friendly flatterer, inspiration to Proust, celebrated pianist and model for Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, Bonnard, and Vuillard.

Missia inspires Mademoiselle to fall in love with Italy and the Ballets Russes and introduces her to her friends Cocteau, Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Ravel, and Picasso.

Once upon a time, a couturier was beloved by artists.

She designs costumes for the theatrical presentations of Doulin and Cocteau, finances the Rite of Spring, houses Stravinsky and his family, helps Cocteau during his rehabilitation and discreetly arranges the burial of Diaghilev in Venice.

Once upon a time, there was a prosperous Russian, the Grand Duke Dmitri, refugee from the Great Bolshevik Revolution, a lover with a melancholy gaze.

She's eight years older than he.

Dmitri infuses her collections with influences from the steppes of Russia, inspiring embroidery, furs, and Byzantine jewels.

Thanks to him, Mademoiselle meets Ernest Beau, perfumer to the tsars, who creates in 1921 the ultimate perfume.

Number five.

Once upon a time, there was a gentleman with an English elegance, a luxury beyond aristocracy, the Duke of Westminster, the richest man in England.

Gabrielle is inspired by his tweed jackets and his knit sweaters, by the vest of his valets, by the berets of his sailors.

They fall in love.

Westminster invites her to his houses and on board his yachts, sends a private train to collect her and showers her with flowers and jewels.

Their love soon wanes.

She'd never become a duchess.

Once upon a time, Black assumed the throne.

At the opera before the motley kaleidoscope of Gaudi gowns, Gabrielle Chanel declares her distaste for the era, these women, I'm bloody well going to dress them in black.

Formerly reserved for house servants or for mourning, black becomes the ultimate color and the key to her success.

The little black dress is born.

Once upon a time, there were costume jewels, which Gabrielle Chanel loved to mix with precious stones.

She reproaches the women of the world for wearing their fortunes around their necks, saying, what counts is not the carats, but the illusion.

Once upon a time, a triumph.

The whole world wants to wear Chanel, including Hollywood, but Gabrielle quickly moves beyond the caprices of the silver screen and returns to France, establishing herself at the Ritz.

Once upon a time in 1936, a company's founder is faced with 4,000 workers on strike during the spring of the Popular Front.

They dare to defy her.

Mademoiselle, by nature so unyielding, gives in.

Once upon a time, the Second World War was announced.

At 55 years, at the height of her glory, Gabrielle Chanel closes the Atelier on the Rue Cambon.

Convinced that this is no longer the time for fashion, she withdraws to Switzerland.

But as one who liked to say, I want to be part of what happens, Mademoiselle was far from having said her last word.