New biography claims Coco Chanel was a spy for Nazis

Representative for designer doubts book's allegations

NEW YORK - A new book about the life of Coco Chanel published in the United States on Tuesday aims to strengthen claims the French designer collaborated with the Nazis during World War II as a spy code-named "Westminster".

The book, Sleeping With The Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War, by Paris-based US journalist Hal Vaughan, claims that not only was the designer the lover of a German officer, Hans Gunther von Dincklage, which has been well-documented, but they were spies who went on missions to Madrid and Berlin.