Coco Chanel

SLEEK. CHIC. NOTORIOUSLY GUARDED. WELCOME TO THE SECRET WORLD OF COCO CHANEL.

Justine Picardie’s definitive biography explores the dark mysteries hidden beneath the shimmering surface of a fabled fashion icon. Unveiling remarkable details about Coco Chanel’s traumatic childhood and her flight into unconventional adulthood, this beautifully constructed portrait reveals her passionate and painful past, her turbulent loves and losses, her quest for fame and fortune, and how she transformed herself into her own most powerful creation.

Feared and revered by her contemporaries, Chanel died in 1971, but her legacy lives on as an enduring global brand. Drawing on interviews with her last surviving friends and relatives, and unprecedented archival research, Justine Picardie brings Chanel out of hiding, unpicking the seams between reality and myth, and telling a timeless story that uncovers the true art and heart of fashion.

This special new edition has been extensively revised and updated, and offers a uniquely authoritative account of the greatest designer in the world. Adding fresh insights and discoveries, it comes complete with a compelling array of previously unseen images from the Chanel archives.

"Fascinating. . . . Intriguing reading. . . . In researching this book, Justine Picardie has shown as much doggedness in uncovering her subject's life as Chanel did in disguising it." -- Edwina Ings-Chambers, Sunday Times

"I thought there was nothing more to say about Coco Chanel, but Picardie's recent book does a great job of depicting a difficult and compelling 20th-century icon." -- Kate Betts, The Week

"Gripping. . . . In the deftest prose, Picardie lots 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

"Picardie reveals a fascinating insight into the woman who created the Little Black Dress and who freed women from the constraint of corsets. . . . By using the archives of the House of Chanel, of course, but also those of the Duke of Westminster and Winston Churchill, Picardie has managed to create a truly three-dimensional portrait of an enormously complex woman." -- Claire Black, The Scotsman

"Elegant." -- ARTnews

"Captivating. . . . Wonderful photos and illustrations." -- ARTnews

"Picardie's biography on Chanel is not only stunningly presented--it features photos, pictures and fashion drawings by Karl Lagerfeld on almost every page--but brilliantly written." -- ARTnews

JUSTINE PICARDIE is the author of four books, including her critically acclaimed memoir, If The Spirit Moves You. The former features director of British Vogue, and contributor to the Sunday Telegraph and Red magazine, she is now Editor in Chief for Harper's Bazaar.She lives in London with her two sons.

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