Exploring the life of a groundbreaking fashion icon, this narrative delves into the complexities and controversies surrounding her influence on modern style. It highlights her innovative designs, personal struggles, and the societal changes she navigated, revealing how she challenged conventions and redefined femininity in the 20th century. Through her journey, the book examines the intersection of fashion, identity, and empowerment, making it a compelling read for those interested in the impact of culture on personal expression.
A provocative and revealing account of Chanel that explores her dalliances with bisexuality, drugs and an affair with a Nazi spy. 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. 'An unflinching examination of the historically inscrutable designer.' Vogue 'Chaney is adept at elucidating Chanel's paradoxical character. A nuanced account of a contradictory, complex, quite extraordinary life.' The Times Higher Education Supplement 'Chaney ably explores the complexities and inner life of her subjec.t' The Times Literary Supplement
"The controversial story of Chanel, the twentieth century's foremost fashion icon. Revolutionizing women's dress, Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel was the twentieth century's most influential designer. Her extraordinary and unconventional journey-from abject poverty to a new kind of glamour- helped forge the idea of modern woman. Unearthing an astonishing life, this remarkable biography shows how, more than any previous designer, Chanel became synonymous with a rebellious and progressive style. Her numerous liaisons, whose poignant and tragic details have eluded all previous biographers, were the very stuff of legend. Witty and mesmerizing, she became muse, patron, or mistress to the century's most celebrated artists, including Picasso, Dali, and Stravinsky. Drawing on newly discovered love letters and other records, Chaney's controversial book reveals the truth about Chanel's drug habit and lesbian affairs. And the question about Chanel's German lover during World War II (was he a spy for the Nazis?) is definitively answered. While uniquely highlighting the designer's far-reaching influence on the modern arts, Chaney's fascinating biography paints a deeper and darker picture of Coco Chanel than any so far. Movingly, it explores the origins, the creative power, and the secret suffering of this exceptional and often misread woman."--Publisher's website.
