Chanel: A Woman of Her Own [Paperback]

Axel Madsen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1422366340 | ISBN-13: 978-1422366349 | Publication Date: August 31, 2007

Alex Madsen brings to life Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, the queen of fashion who revolutionized women's styles forever.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When it was suggested to the elderly Gabrielle Chanel (1883-1971) that she see a psychiatrist, she replied, "I, who never told the truth to my priest?" In this full-length, very readable biography of Coco, as the legendary French designer was called, Madsen does a commendable job of ferreting out the seeming truth of a woman apparently as deft at fabricating her life as she was with a needle and thread. The biographer of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir is at his best here when synthesizing his subject from known facts and suppositions, beginning with Chanel's penniless start as an orphan to her death at age 88 in a hotel room, alone--except for a maid--a millionaire designer of inventive clothing for women, from the famed "little black dress" to sportswear. With great stamina, Madsen chronicles Chanel's meteoric rise and the succession of celebrated friends and lovers she met along the way: Winston Churchill and Igor Stravinsky, to name two, fell under her spell. And if the designer's life was extravagant, the genius of her style lay, as Madsen tells it, in simplicity and a regard for function. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Madsen takes the reader on a fantastic journey through the incredible and bittersweet life of Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel, the woman who forever changed the world of modern fashion with the creation of the simple, elegant black dress, costume jewelry, and her own special perfume. Intertwining Chanel's business ventures, wealth, glamour, and influences, the biography is filled with fascinating and emotional stories of personal triumph, success and tragedy, social intrigue, and sexual escapades with nobility, artists, and politicians. The text, broken down into four parts, focuses on her life from her birth and childhood years to her early business success, her decline following the demoralizing events of World War II, and her amazing comeback at the age of 70 to the haute couture world she helped create. Recommended.
- Stephen Allan Patrick, East Tennessee State Univ., Johnson City
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 388 pages
• Publisher: Diane Pub Co (August 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1422366340
• ISBN-13: 978-1422366349
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

88 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chanel Bio is everything it should be., September 21, 2006

By 

Regis Fox (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chanel: A Woman of her Own (Paperback)

I found it strange that some readers gave negative or highly critical reviews of this biography. Someone even commented on the difficulty in reading the French names! It's a little late to change Chanel's nationality and thank God! This biography is successful on a number of levels but primarily two: it recounts the fascinating life, in great detail, of the late Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel and it puts her professional contribution to the world in context. On a personal level, her life-story reads as a Dickens novel. Her's is a truly "rags-to-riches" story. Chanel was a woman who created a life and a legend against the odds. She was one of those rare and stunning creatures rising from practically nothing to become a household name. Her family was destitute. Her father abandoned her at an orphanage. Her attempts in music and theatre came to nothing. Her sewing skills were atrocious! Only after a young gentleman named Balsan recognized her talent through her unconventional beauty did her true potential begin to emerge. Chanel knew all of the greatest people of her age: Stravinsky, Cocteau, Dali, Misia Sert, and the Duke of Westminster, among others. Many of these people she knew intimately. How tragic that even after these acquaintances and global successes as a designer, Chanel never really found success in love. Professionally, the impact of her designs are still with us today and influencing generations of new designers and artists. From a perspective of fashion, Chanel almost single-handedly pulled the 19th century world into the modern age by pulling women out of corsets and sliding them into pants. The "little black dress" and classic Chanel suit are not only articles of clothing, they are timeless works of art. Madsen has succeeded in writing a biography that does not fall short as other books on Chanel have in the past. His biography begins BEFORE her birth and continues on AFTER her death. He explores her roots and discusses the ongoing impact of her life, while filling in all the opulent details in between. If you want to know who Chanel was and why she is still so important today, pick up this book. Now if they would only do a feature film treatment!

47 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating book, full of details and historically correct., June 27, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chanel: A Woman of her Own (Paperback)

This book was extremely interesting to read. Considering Chanel's habbit of often lying about her past, many biographers had given up on trying to tell her story. That's probably why the book lacks reasoning behind certain facts of her life, although the author did the best he could to provide his own viewpoint about some of the unenswered questions. The book is wonderful and it leaves the reader with plenty of room to use his/her own imagination to reveal some of the mysteries behind Chanel's great genious.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Portrait of an Icon, December 30, 2008

By 

Lovely Reader (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chanel: A Woman of her Own (Paperback)

As an enthusiastic admirer of Coco Chanel's style and of the fashions she created, I was excited to read this book. I was surprised to find out that Chanel was an immensely complex and interesting person, even aside from her creative life. She came from very humble beginnings, lived through two world wars, survived tragedies, heartbreaks, and scandals, and through it all, she worked hard to realize her dreams of success. She is someone whom even non-fashionistas can admire. She was tenacious and clever, and her innate sense of style came through in everything she did.

This book features wonderful photographs of Chanel, a handy index, and even a guide to the author's sources. For anyone who is even remotely interested in fashion, this book is a god-send. For everyone else, this book tells the story of a courageous and complicated woman who fought for her success and did things her own way. This was one of the best books I read in 2007, and I will definitely re-read it in 2008!