Getting Dressed: Anne de Courcy
Anne de Courcy wears Chanel – and now she’s written her biography
Anne de Courcy specialises in writing about the lives and times of the British upper classes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
I read her last book, The Husband Hunters, and became completely gripped about how, at the turn of the last century, no fewer than 454 American women married titled Europeans – 100 of them British aristocrats – swapping their wealth for social status.
De Courcy’s new book, out in June, is Chanel’s Riviera: the Côte d’azur in Peace and War. It tells the story of the 14 years from 1930 when Coco Chanel held court with her lovers and friends in La Pausa, her villa in St. Tropez. As de Courcy says, ‘The most famous piece of coastline in the world joined forces with the most famous dress designer.’
De Courcy never intended to be a writer at all. Her first ambition was to be an aeronautical designer. But, after a short time studying this, she had second thoughts and went, like most of her contemporaries at that time, to secretarial school instead.
She soon married but, after only two years, her husband, a pilot in the RAF, was killed in a plane crash. De Courcy, a widow at only 23, went to Malta to work as a mother’s help while she pondered what to do with the rest of her life.
‘I was talking to friends about possible options and one of them said, “Any fool can write” – and that was a true lightbulb moment as I suddenly realised that I had always known I would write.’ After various stints on magazines she was recruited by the London Evening News. De Courcy remarried and gave up work to have a family. When her husband became ill and died, she had to go back to work. She wrote her first book, on kitchens, because she knew that the home editor of the Evening News was leaving and thought the book would help get her the job. It did. When the Evening News closed, de Courcy went to the Daily Mail for 11 years. ‘Everyone said it would be like jumping into a pool of piranhas, but I loved it – and I learned so many important things about writing there.’ In the meantime, de Courcy had begun to produce more books. At first, these were giving advice: The English in Love is a guide to finding a lover/husband in publishing, in television, in politics or on the ski slopes (‘Having an affair with the ski lift man is very infra dig’). When she wrote 1939: The Last Season in 1989, she found herself seduced by some of the characters (particularly Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry, who became the subject of her next book) and her fascination for the rich and the powerful has remained unabated. She left the Mail to write full-time a decade ago. De Courcy’s society women subjects are nearly always either beautiful or superbly dressed, and she herself has always been good at clothes. ‘I grew up being told all the time that I was plain – so I thought “anything to distract attention from my face” and concentrated on trying to dress
well. I think it is very important to try to look good. It is a form of civility for other people.’
She buys very little, and then only good clothes in natural fabrics. ‘I am very picky and I like style, not fashion. I have to see something I really like – and I look after my clothes.’
In our picture, she is wearing a red jacket from Sandro. ‘It’s versatile. I can wear it with jeans, to give a talk or go out to dinner.’
De Courcy prefers not to advertise her precise age but gives this advice to fellow oldies: ‘Stay slim, stand up straight and spend all you can afford on your hair.’ She herself goes to Smith & Gardner.
She walks about two miles a day and eats mostly fruit and vegetables – ‘I don’t want to cook elaborate meals on my own.’
She likes Bobbi Brown make-up and has a facial regularly once a month at Linda Meredith.
De Courcy’s real passion is jewellery. She collects 20th-century costume pieces, especially from the 1930s and 1940s. ‘I wear it the ENTIRE TIME, even for swimming,’ she laughs, and twice a year she hosts a vintage costume jewellery sale by William Wain at her home in London. The next one will be in December – write to me at The Oldie if interested.