A Girl Should Be Two Things: Who And What She Wants

A Pioneer In Fashion And Feminist Thinking, Coco Chanel Was Ahead Of Her Time In Every Sense. Her Clothes May Have Changed The Way Women Looked At Themselves, But It Was Her Rulebreaking Spirit That Laid Down A Model For The Liberation Of Women To Come. In Paris, Actress Phoebe Tonkin Walks A Day In Her Footsteps.

- Genevra Leek

If the lacquered Coromandel screens lining the walls of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s impeccably preserved apartment at Paris’ most famous rue Cambon address could talk, they’d probably be speechless at the sight of Phoebe Tonkin stretched out on the suede couch that dominates the main reception room.

With her dark hair, arched eyebrows and wide, defined mouth, her appearance is nothing short of awe-inspiring – much like Coco herself. Half a century, or near enough, has passed since the famous designer graced the space, but her spirit hangs in the air, as do the fading notes of her iconic Chanel N°5 scent. Not a speck of dust has been left to settle on the personal belongings that still sit on the work desk, or the leather-bound books on philosophy and art that line the shelves, but it’s as if the whole room has taken a deep breath and shed a layer with the arrival of Tonkin. 

“Walking up her famous mirrored staircase was such a magical and exciting moment,” says Tonkin. It’s the first time the actress has been inside the inner sanctum of Chanel, the apartment Coco famously used by day to work as well as entertain artists and royalty, aristocrats and movie stars (retiring to the Ritzby night). The pinch-me moment marks a high point in Tonkin’s five-year friendship with the house, first forged after attending a Chanel Little Black Jacket event in Sydney in 2012 amid her rise to fame in The Vampire Diaries and the spin-off-series The Originals.

“I somehow expected something quite simple and bare from the woman who famously said: ‘Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and remove one accessory.’ A champion for simplicity. But instead I was met with an incredibly vivid, eclectic room, which while still very chic, presented Mademoiselle Chanel as an incredibly well-read, well-travelled woman.”