Chanel: Her Life, Her World, and the Woman Behind the Legend She Herself Created - Hardcover

Charles-Roux, Edmonde

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394476131 ISBN 13: 9780394476131

Publisher: Random House Inc, 1975

Synopsis

Distinguishes between the actual and projected lives and personalities of the world-famous, revolutionary couturiere, chronicling her illegitimate birth, her love affairs, her rise in the world of fashion, and her remarkable comeback at age seventy-one

About this title

Review

'Chanel's life was extraordinary, varied, full, perverse and like all good stories, full of dramatic reversals and successes' Margaret Drabble. (Margaret Drabble)

'A fascinating, intimate, merciless, but ultimately sympathetic portrait... Even for those with only the slightest interest in fashion this is a beautifully written, highly entertaining biography' Guardian. (Guardian)

'This biography delves far into the past, unraveling the mysteries that Chanel herself worked to create...it's a beautifully honest yet surprisingly unforgiving portrait of a woman often outshone by her own legend' Observer. (Observer)

From the Back Cover

She revolutionised the way women looked. She persuaded them to throw away their corsets, shorten their skirts, bob their hair, and scent their world with Chanel No. 5. Shrewd and secretive, intelligent and independent, Gabrielle `Coco' Chanel was to become an icon. But how closely did her carefully moulded image match the truth?
Born in a poorhouse, raised in an orphanage - not by the two aunts that she herself invented - she fought from a young age to escape obscurity. Developing a love of luxury and a sense of fashion as a wealthy man's mistress, she rose from back-street milliner to become the head of a vast business empire, where she socialised with Picasso, Stravinsky and Jean Cocteau. Charles-Roux also reveals one of Chanel's best kept secrets - her love affair with a wartime spy.
Chanel's legend did not fade with her death, and nor has the mark of sheer elegance that she left upon the world of fashion. This is an unmatchable portrait of the living woman behind the vibrant legend.

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House Inc
• Publication date: 1975
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0394476131
• ISBN 13: 9780394476131
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1