She revolutionized how women looked. She banned corsets, shortened skirts and scented the world with Chanel No.5. Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel was an icon. But how closely did her carefully moulded image match the truth? Born illegitimate and raised in an orphanage - not by the two aunts that she invented - Gabrielle Chanel fought constantly to escape the mundane. She rose from back-street milliner to become the head of a vast business empire, and socialised with Picasso, Stravinsky and Cocteau. Edmonde Charles-Roux also reveals one of Chanel's best-kept secrets - her love affair with a prodigal German spy. Chanel's legend did not fade with her death, and nor has the mark of sheer elegance that she left upon the world of fashion. This is the living woman behind the vibrant legend.

About the Author

Edmonde Charles-Roux served as a nurse and a Resistance worker in World War II, before beginning a career as a journalist writing for Elle and Paris Match. For twelve years she was Editor-in-Chief of the French edition of Vogue. She has written another biography, Don Juan of Austria, and two novels, Elle, Adrienne and To Forget Palermo, which won the Prix Goncourt. Nancy Amphoux is the translator of many major biographies, including those of Tolstoy, Turgenev and Pushkin.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements. Foreword. Origins 1792-1883. Gabrielle's youth 1884-1903. A False Start 1903-1905. The Keepers and the Kept 1906-1914. The Foundations of an Empire 1914-1919. The Slavic Period 1920-1925. A Victorian Illusion and its Aftermath 1925-1933. Of Divers Dances 1933-1940. The German Period 1940-1945. First Epilogue 1945-1952. Second Epilogue 1953-1971. Notes. Index.

Reviews

'This biography delves far into the past, unraveling the mysteries that Chanel herself worked to create it's a beautifully honest yet surprisingly unforgiving portrait of a woman often outshone by her own legend' Observer. 'A fascinating, intimate, merciless, but ultimately sympathetic portrait Even for those with only the slightest interest in fashion this is a beautifully written, highly entertaining biography' Guardian. 'Chanel's life was extraordinary, varied, full, perverse and like all good stories, full of dramatic reversals and successes' Margaret Drabble.