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Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life

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Description

Filled with fresh new research, this updated edition of the definitive biography of Coco Chanel deepens our understanding of the history and legacy of the incredible woman who shaped modern fashion and created an empire of haute couture.Coco Chanel was an extraordinary inventor, conjuring up the little black dress, bobbed hair, trousers for women, contemporary chic, bestselling perfumes, and the most successful fashion brand of all time. But she also invented herself, fashioning the myth of her own life with the same dexterity as her couture; and what lies beneath her own glossy surface is darker, more mysterious, and far more intriguing.Uncovering remarkable new details about Gabrielle Chanel’s humble early years, Justine Picardie picks up the legend Chanel where it began—in orphanhood and poverty. Throwing new light on her passionate and, at times, dark relationships and providing profound insights into her connections with Cocteau, Diaghilev, Picasso, and Dali, this beautifully constructed portrait gives a fresh and penetrating look at what made Coco Chanel the strong-spirited and powerful presence she became. An authoritative account, based on personal observations and interviews with Chanel’s last surviving friends, employees, and relatives, the book also unravels her coded language and symbols and tracks the influence of her formative years on her legendary style.Feared and revered by the rest of the fashion industry, Coco Chanel died in 1971 at the age of 87, but her legacy lives on. This special new edition has been extensively revised and updated and offers a uniquely authoritative account of the world’s greatest designer. Read more

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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Classic Couture From an Independent Woman
Format: Hardcover
Coco Chanel concentrated on simplicity and practicality in the clothes she fashioned. She fashioned her own life, however, to be complicated, and she further complicated things by changing her stories (or perhaps her memories) of her past. Fashion columnist and novelist Justine Picardie has attempted to sort out Chanel's life in a satisfying biography, _Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life_ (It Books). Chanel displayed an unusual resilience, overcoming poverty and lack of parental guidance to revolutionize women's fashions, and perfume, and then retiring and starting up again as successfully as before. Picardie says that "... so much of Chanel remains enigmatic - the more you run after her, the more elusive her ghost becomes," and it is easy to see that with Chanel busy making her mark in fashion and making herself into a legend, keeping track of what's real and what's not is often impossible. Nonetheless, even if there are gaps we cannot completely close, Picardie's portrait with all of Chanel's contradictions nicely brings to life this unique artist, bon vivant, and brilliant businesswoman. Chanel was born in 1883, though of course she did not give this date in her own accounting of her origins. She was placed into a convent, and the austerity of convent life found its way into her clothing designs. She worked afterwards as a seamstress but also as a cabaret singer. Somehow she encountered a roué who set her up as a mistress, along with other lovers, and during these years she learned skills in observation and in such essentials as horse riding. Her lovers set her up in her own Paris hat shop in 1909, and there were soon more than hats. Chanel fancied loose trousers and collarless jackets; the clothes proclaimed that women ought to be comfortable and confident in walking, riding horses, or driving. When Chanel said, "Extravagant things didn't suit me," she meant that she thought such things didn't suit any woman. Her perfume, brought out in 1921, made her an international name brand, but she regretted the agreement she had made with the manufacturer, and tried to use the anti-Jewish laws of the German occupation to claim the company for herself; she not only failed but she tarnished her reputation. She also took a Nazi lover, but got no punishment after the war. She had closed down her business when war was declared, saying, "This is not the time for fashion." She stayed out of clothing fashions, though she had a secure income from her international perfume sales. She was aghast when designers such as Christian Dior came out with extravagant fashions after the war, and disgusted with the reintroduction of corsets. She was seventy years old when she launched a comeback in 1954. The French press, perhaps because of her war record, sneered at her new line, which was a variation on the practical, attractive, and simple designs that she had done before. In the United States, however, the clothes were celebrated in an issue of _Life_ magazine: "Her styles hark back to her best of the Thirties." She became copied even in France, and said of Yves Saint-Laurent that he "... has excellent taste. The more he copies me, the better taste he displays." The Chanel look has never really gone out of fashion. There was a Broadway musical about Chanel, and plenty of biographies and memoirs about her, and a couple of recent films, so interest in her extraordinary life has never subsided. Picardie's book packs many anecdotes, and lots of Chanel's own words (often funny or acid, and of course, often misleading) into a full biography. There are on these glossy pages plenty of pictures of Chanel at work, or at play on yachts or on the estates of those even richer than she, and pictures of the fashions that made her famous. Chanel succeeded with her outfits by maintaining creativity while keeping to essentials; Picardie has done just the same in a beautifully produced book. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2010 by Rob Hardy
    • It was impressive and comprehensive
Coco Chanel made it a goal in life to create mystery and drama around her past. She would tell one person one age and then tell another something else. What Picardie has achieved is a comprehensive and in-depth gathering of the different tidbits of Chanel's life and brought it together in a spectacular biography. She will include several different versions of an event so the reader will have a fully-rounded idea of what happened. My only con to this biography is that sometimes it goes in-depth about other people in Chanel's life to the point of being dull. We want to read about Chanel, not anyone else. Overall, great read, almost like a novel, and if you're a fan of Chanel you're sure to enjoy. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2013 by Doris Caitak
    • La petite mademoiselle who started a revolution
In this elegant book Justine Picardie writes about the life and character of Coco Chanel. Chanel liberated women from the constrains of the corset and introduced more practical women's clothing (boyish sportswear, suits, and unisex pants) in the early twentieth century. However, it was the Little Black Dress that was her most groundbreaking fashion statement when it first made an appearance in 1926. As a Russian, I was surprised by the amount of Russians in Chanel's life, including the nephew of the last Tsar, the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov. They were lovers for several years. It was the Grand Duke who introduced her to the former perfumer to the Tsars and former Russian subject called Ernest Beaux (a truly remarkable German-French-Russian character) who fled from Russia to France after the Revolution. He created the famous scent of Chanel #5 in 1921. I learned that there are some speculations that Chanel was a German spy or perhaps a double agent during WWII working for the British. She knew Winston Churchill personally and was a lover of the Duke of Westminster. Chanel was a driven woman, who at first used fashion to make her way onto the Parisian high society, or even to attract the aristocratic men. But nothing functions as a means unless we engage in it as an end. The book would have benefited from the overview of fashion industry and the role of the House of Chanel in it. What are the main driving forces, who are the main competitors? The book is smartly divided into small portions; each chapter is short and logical. The illustrations are luscious. This is a well-researched study - the author seems to have dipped into every possible source, from the records of Paris police to the Churchill archives. I recommend it. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2014 by Igor Biryukov
    • worth reading
Format: Kindle
Very interesting book. I learned a lot about a designer I have admired. Having known nothing previously about her personal life, I found it to be a detailed, well-researched, and well-written bio.
Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2016 by Eve
    • an exaustive and marvelous portrait of one of the most fascinating characters of the xxth century.
coco chanel was a revolutionary woman. she turn upside down womens fashion industry, made it part of the modern market and helped shape the "modern woman". She also was a very controversal person with her own moral standards. Justine Picardie's work it's an exahustive study about this marvelous woman, very well written, very amable and extremly interesting!!! I recomend this book not only as a way of learning more about coco but to have a new light about xxth centurie history. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2013 by constanza
    • Intriguing but Watchout for unneeded Detours!
Format: Kindle
Definitely an informative and interesting read particularly for fashion and history enthusiasts. Well-rounded views, well researched and yet could do without some of the sidetracks. Insightful look into the incredible life of "the Fashion Icon". Surprising to find out how many influential individuals of the 20th century this "Tiny Giant" knew and impacted! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2014 by emmapeel07

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