Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life [Hardcover]

Justine Picardie (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 21, 2010

In Coco Chanel, Justine Picardie peels away the layers of romance and myth surrounding the legend of Coco Chanel, revealing the true history of the incredible woman who shaped modern fashion and created an empire of haute couture. Picardie's unprecedented research illuminates Chanel’s path from little-known seamstress to the aristocracy of style in this stunning look at the fashion icon, illustrated with more than sixty color and black-and-white images.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Gripping... In the deftest prose, Picardie plots one of the most extraordinary lives of the 20th Century. The book is lavishly illustrated, too, with images of iconic outfits and intimate photos from Chanel's private albums.' Mail on Sunday 'Fascinating. Chanel was a tragic figure of almost Shakespearean aspect - hugely successful, fiercely strong-willed, yet fatally flawed and eventually filled with regret.' Sunday Times 'The French fashion icon finds a shrewd and sympathetic interpreter in Justine Picardie... this handsome volume cleverly blends the life and afterlife of the enigma who became a brand.' The Independent 'Justine Picardie's vividly told account of Coco Chanel's life has all the elements of a novel: the mystery, the sense of loss, the quest for fame and fortune, the distinguished lovers... in the style of Chanel herself.' Daily Mail '[An] elegant book...The Chanel uncovered by Picardie is a storyteller [who] spun her own myth... Coco has, in these pages, come out of hiding.' The Telegraph 'A detailed and captivating read' Red Magazine 'A brilliant biography' Grazia 'Picardie sheds new light on the intensely private designer... Impressive' Stylist Magazine 'The darker facets [of Chanel] are subtly and carefully revealed by Justine Picardie.' Wall Street Journal 'Justine Picardie sheds new light on the darker truths behind the glossy myth... Guaranteed to be the most well-read accessory at London Fashion Week.' Daily Express 'Justine Picardie's thoughtful and beautifully illustrated Life ... illuminates the iconoclast who might justifiably be said to have invented the twentieth-century woman.' Times Literary Supplement --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Sleek. Chic. Notoriously guarded. Welcome to the secret world of Gabrielle Chanel.

The story of Chanel begins with an abandoned child, as lost as a girl in a dark fairy tale. Unveiling remarkable new details about Gabrielle Chanel's early years in a convent orphanage, and her flight into unconventional adulthood, Justine Picardie explores what lies beneath the glossy surface of a mythic fashion icon.

Throwing new light on her passionate and turbulent relationships, this beautifully constructed portrait gives a fresh and penetrating look at how Coco Chanel made herself into her own most powerful creation. An authoritative account, based on personal observations and interviews with Chanel's last surviving friends, employees, and relatives, it also unravels her coded language and symbols, and traces 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 eighty-seven. But her legacy lives on. Justine Picardie brings Gabrielle Chanel out of hiding and uncovers the consequences of what Chanel covered up, unpicking the seams between truth and myth in a story that reveals the true heart of fashion.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: It Books; First Edition edition (September 21, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061963852
• ISBN-13: 978-0061963858
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #425,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Justine Picardie is the author of four books, including her critically acclaimed memoir If the Spirit Moves You and her most recent novel, Daphne. The former features director of British Vogue and editor of the Observer magazine, she is currently a fashion columnist for the Sunday Telegraph, and also writes for several other newspapers and magazines, including Harper's Bazaar and the Times of London. She lives in London with her two sons.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed March 14, 2011

By snazzy2008

Format:Hardcover

I appreciated the photos and Chanel's quotes in this book. If there had been neither, I would have become extremely bored. Nothing grabbed me. The majority of the book is based off of information Chanel told Claude Delay. If I wanted to know about her conversations with Claude Delay then I would have read "Chanel Solitaire" by Claude Delay. Chanel's life was so mysterious and guarded it is nearly impossible to derive facts or truth. She hid the truth and was not an open book. so at the end of the book, I knew almost less about her than when I began reading the book. But one fact you can never take away is that she was one fierce woman: business and fashion wise.

36 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Couture From an Independent Woman November 21, 2010

By R. Hardy HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

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. Read more ›

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Book January 11, 2011

By TinaTinaTina

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

There are a ton of books out there on CoCo Chanel, this one stays clear of weaving in their personal opinions and tells the great story of her life, unbiasly and with great detail. The pictures are wonderful, many of which I had never seen. The book itself is also very lovely and looks great on the shelf.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars C'est Formidable! August 22, 2011

By Laura Ponter

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Ms Picardie's research and writing style is the best biography of Mademoiselle to date! Well balanced and brings to play even more of the Mata Hari Couturier's activities during WWII. This is an in depth book. Picardie understands the complexity of Chanel's character and the tenacious and driven capability of one woman to succeed. Well written, well researched and the author beautifully unfolds Chanel's life to the reader. Every year we host an annual Coco Chanel Birthday Party to celebrate Mademoiselle's accomplishments that she gave to women. All attendees invited are women of courage. This book was very much a part of the event this year. New secrets about Chanel's WWii life were revealed and further inspiration for feminine courage emboldened the audience with individual confidence. --Laura Ponter, Concierge Jeweler

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars `Legend is the consecration of fame.' July 17, 2011

By J. Cameron-Smith TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

The name Coco Chanel is synonymous with style. But what of the woman behind the name: what do we know about the woman who designed simple yet sophisticated clothes, practical but elegant bags and shoes, and presented Chanel No 5 perfume to the world?

There is little simple about Coco Chanel. She was born Gabrielle Chanel on 19 August 1883 - a date that she later changed by hand in her passport. Gabrielle Chanel was born in a poorhouse; her parents were unmarried and, according to Chanel, her mother Jeanne died of tuberculosis when Chanel was aged six. Justine Picardie suggests that Jeanne died of `poverty, pregnancy and pneumonia' when Chanel was aged 11. According to Chanel, her father left her in the care of two unmarried aunts when he actually placed her in a convent orphanage in the village of Aubazine, where she was raised by nuns.

When World War One began in 1914, Chanel moved from Paris to Deauville, and built up a business. Chanel's personal life was also interesting and unconventional. She had a succession of glamorous lovers but it seems likely that the real love of her life was Arthur `Boy' Capel who died in a car accident in 1919.

I picked up this book knowing very little about Coco Chanel and wanting to read a little more about the woman who had such an influence on style during the 20th century. It's an interesting read, beautifully illustrated and informative without being exhaustive. It intrigued me to read that Coco Chanel's favourite novel was `Wuthering Heights', and that the austerity of the convent was a major influence on her design. By all accounts, Coco Chanel (19 August 1883 - 10 January 1971) lived a remarkable life.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith