As chic as she is discreet in her Chanel suits, the former lawyer who, in 1982, notably drafted the contract for Karl Lagerfeld with whom she loved to talk literature and gossip, has just disappeared.
Sunday, November 24, the Chanel house confirmed the disappearance of Éliane Heilbronn, 99 years old, the mother of Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, owners of the famous house on rue Cambon: “ Chanel is extremely sad to confirm the death of Madame Eliane Heilbronn. The funeral will take place in family privacy. ».
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Death of Karl Lagerfeld: the life and secrets of the emblematic couturier of French fashion
Éliane Heilbronn was born in 1925 to Denise and Louis-Raymond Fischer, himself a rebellious son of a family of Alsatian Jews, an architect close to Adolph Loos and the Bauhaus and a member of the French Resistance. In 1947, this intelligent and feminist young woman married Jacques Wertheimer, only son of Pierre Wertheimer, owner with his brother Paul of Chanel perfumes (and from 1954 of the fashion house). In 1952, the couple divorced, Éliane remarried lawyer Didier Heilbronn, and resumed law studies in the United States where she specialized in contract law, distribution law and intellectual property law. In 1978, she founded the Salans Hertzfeld and Heilbronn firm in Paris, which actively advised Alain Wertheimer, now head of the Chanel group.
It was she who wrote Karl Lagerfeld’s famous contract in 1982 when he was hired as creative director of Chanel by Alain Wertheimer who, according to the designer, offered him the position in these words: “Do what you want, but if it doesn’t work, I’m selling!” To which he would have replied: “Write in the contract: “Do what you want”! » Elegant while dressed in Chanel, Éliane Heilbronn was also close to the German designer whose great culture and taste for gossip about all of Paris she shared.
Her disappearance comes at a time when the house founded by Gabrielle Chanel is going through a complex period of succession both from the point of view of governance and creation since the departure of Virginie Viard last June, the artistic direction of fashion and haute couture is vacant.
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