Marie-Hélène Françoise Arnaud (24 September 1934 – 6 October 1986) was a French model and élèactress. Working as a house model for the French fashion house Chanel, she was the "face of Chanel" in the 1950s; she also developed a second career as an actress.
Life
Arnaud was born on 24 September 1934 in Montmorency in the northern suburbs of Paris. During her time as a model and actress she had high-profile relationships with actor Robert Hossein and film producer Sam Spiegel, and was linked with French politician Georges Pompidou and writer and politician André Malraux. She was found dead in her bath on 6 October 1986 in Paris, France, with the cause of death unknown, and was buried in Monchy-Humières, near Estrées-Saint-Denis.
Modelling
Chanel
The French designer Coco Chanel launched her first post-war collection at her rue Cambon showroom in Paris on 5 February 1954. For the show she approached Marie-Hélène de Rothschild to ask her friends whether they would appear on the catwalk; Chanel had decided to use "personalities", women "with bosoms and hips – with a real shape – they must have elegance", rather than the sylphlike and anonymous models she had use pre-war whose function was to bring attention to the clothes rather than themselves, following Chanel's precept that just as a watch told the time, a model should "tell the dress".
This troupe of models included Marie-Eugênia "Mimi" Ouro Preto, later wife of the novelist Count Guy d'Arcangues; Claude de Leusse, later a journalist and novelist; Princess Odile de Cröy, who would subsequently become social secretary to French President Georges Pompidou; and the relatively unknown Arnaud, who first worked for Chanel when she was seventeen, having just completed her baccalauréat in philosophy, and who was a "reincarnation of the lovely [Marthe] Davelli" (the opera-singer friend of Chanel from her very earliest days as a designer). This group worked during the 1950s as "brand ambassadors" for Chanel, and in exchange for their formidable range of contacts within Paris, were allowed to keep – and thereby promote – the latest fashions that they modelled, hence the name they were given, les blousons Chanel.
The 1954 comeback collection received a "venomous" reception from the French press, not only because Chanel had yet to regain her reputation following her controversial wartime activities but because the clothes were seen as essentially conservative and offering little new. Bettina Ballard, the influential editor of American Vogue, remained loyal to Chanel, however, and featured Arnaud in the March 1954 issue, photographed by Henry Clarke, wearing three outfits: a red dress with a V-neck, paired with ropes of pearls; a tiered seersucker evening gown; and, to cap it all and in response to both public – and Ballard's – demand, a piece of timeless Chanel – a navy jersey mid-calf suit. Arnaud wore this outfit, "with its slightly padded, square shouldered cardigan jacket, two patch pockets and sleeves that unbuttoned back to reveal crisp white cuffs", above "a white muslin blouse with a perky collar and bow [that] stayed perfectly in place with small tabs that buttoned onto the waistline of an easy A-line skirt." Ballard had bought the suit herself, which gave "an overwhelming impression of insouciant, youthful elegance", and orders for the clothes that Arnaud had modelled soon started pouring in from the States.
Chanel became very close to les blousons Chanel, none more so than to the "incomparable" Arnaud, who was "almost like her shadow", her "fetish model", her "alter ego ... whom she almost considered her equal", "her muse and dream model" and "her favourite". Chanel said, referring to Arnaud's early work as a cover girl and the shabby way in which she had been treated by magazines: