Paris 1920. When Coco Chanel meets Igor Stravinsky, the exiled composer accepts the wealthy designer's offer to bring his family to summer at her villa. Soon she and her guest embark upon an affair which is complicated by their rigid devotion to their work, and Stravinsky's commitment to his family. The two lovers must consider the depth of their feelings, and whether, with the autumn drawing in, theirs is a relationship that can survive.
Coco Chanel and Composer Igor Stravinsky. Their love affair inspired their art. Their art defined an era. In 1913, at the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, the young couturiere Coco Chanel witnesses the birth of a musical revolution- one that, like her designs, rips down the artifice of the old regime and ushers in something profoundly modern. Seven years later, she invites Stravinsky and his family, now exiled from their Russian homeland, for a summer at her villa, and the powerful charge between them ignites into a deep love affair. As Stravinsky enjoys a new burst of creativity and Chanel brings forth her own revolutionary creation-the perfume Chanel No. 5-their love threatens to overtake work, family and life.
In Chanel: An Intimate Life, acclaimed biographer Lisa Chaney tells the controversial story of the fashion icon who starred in her tumultuous era Coco Chanel was many things to many people. Raised in emotional and financial poverty, she became one of the defining figures of the twentieth century. She was mistress to aristocrats, artists and spies. She broke rules of style and decorum, seducing both men and women, yet in her work expected the highest standards. She took a 'plaything' and turned it into a global industry which defined the modern woman. Filled with new insights and thrilling discoveries, Lisa Chaney's Chanel provides the most defining and provocative portrait yet. 'Chaney's research is laudable, uncovering fresh details of Chanel's well-trodden rag trade to riches story' Evening Standard 'An unflinching examination of the historically inscrutable designer' Vogue Lisa Chaney has lectured and tutored in the history of art and literature, made TV and radio broadcasts on the history of culture, and reviewed and written for journals and newspapers, including The SundayTimes, the Spectator and the Guardian. She is the author of two previous biographies: Elizabeth David and Hide-and-Seek With Angels: The Life of J.M. Barrie.
A biography of the French fashion icon that unveils the private life behind the public image. Coco Chanel lived her own life as a romantic heroine. Fueled by nineteenth-century literature, she built an image for herself which was partly myth and partly factual. She was the fashion designer everyone admired, the businesswoman whose fortune was impossible to track. She was also a performer, a lover of many high-profile intellectuals, and, as believed by many, a Nazi spy. This biography explores her life from her troubled and poverty-stricken past to the opening of her first hat shop to the creation of her iconic Little Black Dress and Chanel No. 5 perfume. It explores her passions and secrets; the drama behind the scenes of her empire; and the real woman behind the brand name and pop culture image.
This explosive narrative reveals for the first time the shocking hidden years of Coco Chanel’s life: her collaboration with the Nazis in Paris, her affair with a master spy, and her work for the German military intelligence service and Himmler’s SS. Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was the high priestess of couture who created the look of the modern woman. By the 1920s she had amassed a fortune and went on to create an empire. But her life from 1941 to 1954 has long been shrouded in rumor and mystery, never clarified by Chanel or her many biographers. Hal Vaughan exposes the truth of her wartime collaboration and her long affair with the playboy Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage—who ran a spy ring and reported directly to Goebbels. Vaughan pieces together how Chanel became a Nazi agent, how she escaped arrest after the war and joined her lover in exile in Switzerland, and how—despite suspicions about her past—she was able to return to Paris at age seventy and rebuild the iconic House of Chanel.
Far from worrying about the onset of war, in the spring of 1938 the burning question on the French Riviera was whether one should curtsey to the Duchess of Windsor. Few of those who had settled there thought much about what was going on in the rest of Europe. It was a golden, glamorous life, far removed from politics or conflict. Featuring a sparkling cast of artists, writers and historical figures including Winston Churchill, Daisy Fellowes, Salvador Dalí, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Eileen Gray and Edith Wharton, with the enigmatic Coco Chanel at its heart, CHANEL'S RIVIERA is a captivating account of a period that saw some of the deepest extremes of luxury and terror in the whole of the twentieth century. From Chanel's first summer at her Roquebrune villa La Pausa (in the later years with her German lover) amid the glamour of the pre-war parties and casinos in Antibes, Nice and Cannes to the horrors of evacuation and the displacement of thousands of families during the Second World War, CHANEL'S RIVIERA explores the fascinating world of the Cote d'Azur elite in the 1930s and 1940s. Enriched with much original research, it is social history that brings the experiences of both rich and poor, protected and persecuted, to vivid life.
No single designer has had as tremendous a hold on style in the twentieth century as Coco Chanel. In this sumptuous, profusely illustrated book, Janet Wallach shows readers Chanel style in all its glory--from the fabulous fashions she created to the glamorous life she led. Like a character in a fairy tale, Coco Chanel rose from being an ordinary seamstress to reigning as the queen of fashion. Chanel was stunningly independent, beautifully feminine, and irresistibly desirable to men; most important, she was never afraid to be herself. A pioneer in an industry dominated by men, she turned her style into the revolutionary chic that set her fashions apart. Borrowing copiously from the wardrobes of her illustrious lovers (among them the Duke of Westminter and Grand Duke Dimitri of Russia), Chanel took trousers, tweeds, riding clothes, cuff links, and even neckties, and cleverly transformed them into elegant women's wear. With an understanding that only a female designer could have, she eased women's formerly confining way of dressing, adapting the freedom of men's clothing without sacrificing sensuality and femininity. Since then, women who seek the look of authority and supreme taste have embraced Chanel. Fans of her couture will devour all the delectable stories behind such Chanel trademarks as fabulous fake pearls, minimalist hats, comfortable and beautifully structured suits, and legendary perfumes, and will marvel at the 150 astonishing photographs and illustrations. A delightful feast of pictures and words as stylish and elegant as the designer herself, "Chanel Style celebrates the woman, the look, and the legend.
Full of the romantic glamour of 1940s Paris and Hollywood, this novel tells the heart-wrenching story of the secret affair between the iconic Casablanca star and the famous photographer. -- Cover.
Chronicles the life and career of the French fashion designer, along with a discussion of the influences that inspired her and photographs of her clothes.
Filled with fresh new research and never-before-seen photos, 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. Adding fresh new insights and discoveries, it comes complete with a compelling array of previously unseen images from the Chanel archives.
