Coco Chanel

Das Papier ist gut und das Buch sieht elegant und erstklassig aus. Das ist nicht nur geeignet für ein Geschenk, als auch gut für selbst zu lesen.

This is one of the latest biographies of Coco Chanel. The author is well informed and passionate about the famous designer. One of the best things for me about this book is the pictures and the illustrations, some of them by the hand of Karl Lagerfeld himself.

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.

One of the best biographies of Chanel, providing more facts instead of dramatizing the events which occurred in her life. It also contains lots of pictures which illustrate the different stages of her life.

A very interesting insight of her life. Enjoyable read.