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Who really said it

Nothing is ugly as long as it is alive

Spoken by Coco Chanel 1883–1971 · French couturier, founder of the House of Chanel
Verified In copyright

Chanel said it, and there is a book to point at: her biographer Marcel Haedrich recorded the remark in Coco Chanel secrète (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1971) as “Rien n’est laid, du moment que c’est vivant.” The familiar English wording is Charles Lam Markmann’s translation, published in 1972 as Coco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets, where Quote Investigator verified it on paper ↗ at pages 253–54.

Last verified 25 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Verified quote & credit

“Nothing is ugly as long as it is alive” Coco Chanel, as recorded by Marcel Haedrich in Coco Chanel secrète (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1971), 307; English translation by Charles Lam Markmann, Coco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets (Boston: Little, Brown, 1972), 253–54. Verified via Quotle.info

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Marcel Haedrich’s estate and Éditions Robert Laffont (French original); Charles Lam Markmann and Little, Brown and Company (English translation)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Coco Chanel — French couturier, founder of the House of Chanel. Theme: "Nothing is ugly as long as it is alive". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Nothing is ugly as long as it is alive". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where the line comes from

Recorded in
Coco Chanel secrète
First published
Éditions Robert Laffont, Paris, 1971 — chapter 21, “Coco au travail,” section “Elle disait,” page 307
Translation
Charles Lam Markmann, Coco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets (Boston: Little, Brown, 1972), pages 253–54
Speaker
Coco Chanel, as quoted by her biographer Marcel Haedrich

Nothing is ugly as long as it is alive. Chapter 21 · “She Said”

In Haedrich’s book the sentence opens a short passage rather than standing alone: Chanel goes on to answer women who complain to her about having rather thick legs by asking whether those legs carry them, which is what she says matters. The French original of the line reads “Rien n’est laid, du moment que c’est vivant.” The full passage is transcribed in both languages by Quote Investigator ↗; it is quoted only in part here because the book remains in copyright.

First English edition, scanned
Borrow the 1972 Little, Brown translation at the Internet Archive
Quote Investigator: Nothing Is Ugly as Long as It Is Alive

How we checked

  • Quote Investigator ↗ traces the line to Marcel Haedrich, printing the French original from Coco Chanel secrète (1971), page 307, and the English from Markmann’s 1972 translation at pages 253–54 — marked verified with scans and verified on paper respectively — and concludes that Chanel deserves credit on her biographer’s testimony.
  • Wikiquote ↗ also lists the line among Chanel’s sourced quotes, attributing it to Haedrich’s Coco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets, though it dates that English title to 1971.
  • The Open Library edition record ↗ settles the chain independently of Quote Investigator: the translation was originally published Boston: Little, Brown, 1972, and is a translation of Coco Chanel secrète, Paris: Laffont, 1971.
  • The Internet Archive holds scans of both printings — the Little, Brown edition ↗ and a London Hale printing ↗ that names Charles Lam Markmann as translator. Pagination differs between them, so the 253–54 reference belongs to the Little, Brown text.
In copyright

Chanel spoke the words, but the fixed text is not hers to release: it exists as her biographer wrote it down. Coco Chanel secrète was published by Robert Laffont in 1971 and the English wording is Charles Lam Markmann’s 1972 translation for Little, Brown — both well after 1931, so both remain in copyright in the United States. Quote the sentence with attribution as short fair-use comment; do not reproduce the surrounding passage.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

What gets mangled

Unusually for a Coco Chanel quotation, the credit here is not the problem — no rival claimant has surfaced, and the specialists land on Chanel. What travels badly is the citation attached to it, and the context it gets torn out of.

Wikiquote and the aggregators downstream of it Mis-cited

Wikiquote ↗ cites the line to “Coco Chanel : Her Life, Her Secrets (1971)” — but that English title did not exist in 1971. The edition record ↗ is explicit: the translation was first published in Boston by Little, Brown in 1972, from Coco Chanel secrète, Paris: Laffont, 1971. The year belongs to the French book, the title to the English one.

Marcel Haedrich Recorder, not author

The sentence comes to us through two hands that are not Chanel’s: her biographer wrote it down in a section headed “Elle disait” — she said — and Charles Lam Markmann turned it into English. There is no letter, manuscript or recording in Chanel’s own hand behind the exact nine words, only Haedrich’s testimony ↗, which is what Quote Investigator rests the credit on.

Quote cards and caption writers Stripped

Presented alone it reads as a soft line about beauty in general. In the book it is the opening of a pointed exchange in which Chanel answers women picking at their own thick legs by asking whether the legs carry them — a remark about bodies that work, not about aesthetics (Quote Investigator ↗).

The attribution holds: Quote Investigator concludes that Chanel deserves credit ↗ on her biographer’s testimony. Cite it as Haedrich, Coco Chanel secrète (1971) — and note that the English you are quoting is Markmann’s, 1972.

Context

Why she said it

Chanel’s whole design programme was an argument about bodies that work. She took jersey out of underwear and put it into couture, dropped the corseting and the stiffening, and cut clothes you could climb stairs in — the point being freedom of movement for women who had somewhere to be (Wikipedia ↗). The remark belongs to that programme. It is not a compliment paid to beauty; it is a refusal to rank bodies at all.

In Haedrich’s book the line is not a standalone slogan either. It opens a short exchange in which Chanel answers women who complain to her about their thick legs by asking whether those legs carry them — the whole thrust being that a body that does its job is not a flawed ornament (Quote Investigator ↗).

Rien n’est laid, du moment que c’est vivant.

How the sentence travelled into English

The French original appeared in 1971 in Coco Chanel secrète, in chapter 21 (“Coco au travail”), in a section headed “Elle disait” — “She said” — which is exactly what it is: a gathering of remarks Haedrich had from her, not a manuscript she wrote.

The English wording most people know dates from the following year. Markmann’s translation was published in Boston by Little, Brown in 1972, with the passage in the corresponding “She Said” section of chapter 21. Quote Investigator also documents a May 1972 Vogue feature under Haedrich’s byline that carried the quotation and pushed it into wider circulation, and a 1977 entry in Elaine Partnow’s The Quotable Woman: 1800–1975 that cites Haedrich’s book by name.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Creativity Wisdom

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: Nothing Is Ugly as Long as It Is Alivequoteinvestigator.com

The full investigation: the French original, the 1972 English pagination verified on paper, and the conclusion that Chanel deserves credit.
Coco Chanel — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Lists the line among Chanel's sourced quotes, credited to Haedrich's book — though it puts a 1971 date on the English title.
Coco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets (Little, Brown, 1972)archive.org

Internet Archive scan of the Little, Brown English edition that Quote Investigator checked on paper.
Edition record for the English translationopenlibrary.org

Catalogue note confirming the translation was first published Boston: Little, Brown, 1972, from Coco Chanel secrète, Paris: Laffont, 1971.
Coco Chanelen.wikipedia.org

Biography: 1883–1971, jersey, the little black dress, Chanel No. 5, and the 1954 comeback.
Marcel Haedrichfr.wikipedia.org

The biographer: he ran Marie Claire's editorial side after the magazine's 1954 relaunch and wrote Coco Chanel secrète in 1971.

The speaker

About Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel

1883–1971 · French couturier, founder of the House of Chanel

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was born in Saumur in 1883 and died in Paris in January 1971. She built the House of Chanel on clothes that let a body move — jersey promoted from underwear to couture, corseting and stiffening thrown out, real pockets, necklines you could breathe in — alongside the little black dress and Chanel No. 5. After roughly fifteen years away from fashion she reopened her house in 1954, and the collections of that comeback are the ones that fixed the Chanel look for good.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Source

Haedrich, Marcel. Coco Chanel secrète. Paris: Éditions Robert Laffont, 1971, 307. Translated by Charles Lam Markmann as Coco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets. Boston: Little, Brown, 1972, 253–54.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Nothing is ugly as long as it is alive’?” Last verified 25 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/nothing-is-ugly-as-long-as-it-is-alive/

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