She is known from Truffaut's film as the woman who loved Jules and Jim. But Helen Hessel, born Grund, was not just a figure in the fantasies of others; she was an author in her own right. Born and raised in Berlin, she initially wanted to become a painter and became a student of Käthe Kollwitz. In 1912, she moved to Paris, where she met Franz Hessel, whom she married in 1914. She only began writing in the early 1920s, publishing aphorisms, Parisian feuilletons, and fashion articles. Between 1921 and 1938, she published numerous articles in German newspapers and magazines that provided a vivid picture of Parisian life, particularly from the world of fashion. Helen Hessel had her own understanding of the essence of fashion, which she described in detail in a lecture in 1934; she had a keen sense of the connection between contemporary trends and.