[5] This troupe of " personality" 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;[4] and the relatively unknown Arnaud, who first worked for Chanel when she was seventeen,[6] having just completed her baccalauréat in philosophy, and who was a "reincarnation of the lovely [Marthe] Davelli"[7] (the opera-singer friend of Chanel from her very earliest days as a designer).

[4] 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.

[8] Bettina Ballard, the influential editor of American Vogue, remained loyal to Chanel, however, and featured Arnaud in the March 1954 issue,[8] 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.

"[10] Ballard had bought the suit herself, which gave "an overwhelming impression of insouciant, youthful elegance",[9] and orders for the clothes that Arnaud had modelled soon started pouring in from the States.

"[7]It troubled Chanel that Arnaud had to return to her parents' house in Neuilly after a day's work and that she ate alone at a restaurant, so she offered the model a room in a hotel on rue Cambon, as well as meals with her alone or when she was entertaining friends.

[1] Nearly forty years later Karl Lagerfeld, who was appointed as artistic director of the fashion house in 1983, would instruct supermodel Linda Evangelista to copy the "legendary" Arnaud's poses when modelling during the 1992 Chanel spring collection at rue Cambon.

[2] Justine Picardie, however, claims that Chanel's relationship with Arnaud – as well as with the American model Suzy Parker – was "a curious mixture of mothering and mentoring, rather than anything truly sexual".

[23] Although by 1958 Arnaud had become the public face of Chanel,[1][2] she also worked for other fashion houses, including Balenciaga, Pierre Cardin, André Courrèges, Jean Dessès, Dior and Hermès.

Her closest association was with the recently launched house of Guy Laroche, for whom she appeared on the cover of Life magazine in a gold dress with white polka dots on 1 April 1957.