- Hardcover: 354 pages
- Publisher: Rizzoli Intl Pubns; illustrated edition edition (October 1981)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 086565011X
- ISBN-13: 978-0865650114
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
If style never goes out of fashion, then a biography of Coco Chanel shouldn't either. First published 25 years ago and out of print for the last decade, Charles-Roux's book was originally all black and white, but large color photos and illustrations have been added for this reissue, and the layout has been redesigned as well. (The text remains the same.) As a former editor-in-chief of French Vogue for 12 years and a longtime friend of Chanel, Charles-Roux collected a lot of photos of the fashion icon and of those allowed into her inner circle. She shares many of them in this massive biography, which follows Chanel's journey from her birth on August 20, 1883, to her days as a shop girl in Moulins to her triumph in, and transformation of, the fashion world. The book also provides insight into how Chanel's style developed and how its evolution was related to her defiance of the social conventions of her time; Coco was a great friend of the Cubists and she shared many of their avante-garde tastes. Charles-Roux's analysis may occasionally have more style than substance, but this balance would hardly have bothered Chanel, for whom style was always everything. And with a Chanel exhibition coming up at the Metropolitan Museum in May, 2005, it seems unlikely that this book will every be out of print for so long again.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel (1883–1971) is a fashion icon unlike any other. She invented modern clothing for women: at the height of the Belle Époque, she stripped women of their corsets and feathers, bobbed their hair, put them in bathing suits, and sent them out to get tanned in the sun. She introduced slacks, costume jewelry, and the exquisitely comfortable suit. She made the first couture perfume—No. 5—which remains the most popular scent ever created. In this beautiful volume, the glorious life of the incomparable Coco Chanel shines again through hundreds of illustrations and the lively prose of Edmonde Charles-Roux, her official biographer and close friend. Chanel knew and collaborated with the likes of Picasso, Diaghilev, Stravinsky, Cocteau, Jean Renoir, and Visconti—even as she matched their modernist innovations by liberating women from the prison of 19th-century fashion and introducing a whole new concept of elegance. The staggering collection of photographs amassed by the author over decades of friendship with Chanel sheds new light on one of the great stories of the modern age.
“A model pictorial biography.” ~ New York Times
“This Chanel biography is as elegantly turned out as its subject.” ~ The Washington Post
“This lavish photo tome brings depth to Chanel’s sleek façade while revealing the fascinating woman behind it.” ~ W
“Edmonde Charles-Roux (is) one of (Chanel’s) best biographers.” ~ The New Yorker
“There have been many books about Chanel, but this is the great classic.” ~ Art of the Times
“This beautiful volume contains hundreds of photographs and lively prose by its author, Edmonde Charles-Roux.” ~ American Salon
“Provides insight into the development of her sense of style and underscores the timelessness of her vision.” ~ Veranda
“This Chanel biography is as elegantly turned out as its subject.” ~ The Washington Post
“This lavish photo tome brings depth to Chanel’s sleek façade while revealing the fascinating woman behind it.” ~ W
“Edmonde Charles-Roux (is) one of (Chanel’s) best biographers.” ~ The New Yorker
“There have been many books about Chanel, but this is the great classic.” ~ Art of the Times
“This beautiful volume contains hundreds of photographs and lively prose by its author, Edmonde Charles-Roux.” ~ American Salon
“Provides insight into the development of her sense of style and underscores the timelessness of her vision.” ~ Veranda
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4.3 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)
44 of 46 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A designer of authentic beauty, May 25 2006
By Mary Jo Magar - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Chanel and Her World: Friends, Fashion, and Fame (Hardcover)
This is a substantial book in both size and pictorial content.As an ideal complement to the Metropolitan Museum's Chanel exhibit last spring (2005), this book actually exceeds - and outlasts - the exhibit itself.
More than just an intelligent, fascinating woman, Chanel was a fascinating opportunist in the way that she manipulated and transformed the trends of her times (and many men of her times), turning them to her advantage. She was as much a businesswoman and social and cultural politician as a fashion designer, and to see her in this book's big, beautiful photographs, modeling her own creations, is an inspiration to any woman who disbelieves that humble beginnings and a less than conventionally perfect countenance can lead to high achievement.
The best photograph of all - the photograph that tells all - graces the book's cover: one look at that face of intelligence, intensity, self-composure, and elegance, and one knows what the book is all about (philosophically as well as biographically) even before opening it.
The classic Chanel endures as a legend and lesson in the achievement of authentic beauty, i.e., defined by compelling creation rather than passive, taken-for-granted standards of acceptance.
38 of 43 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Please bring this book back!, July 7 2000
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Chanel and Her World (Hardcover)
*Chanel and Her World* is a great document of a great woman! I've never seen another Chanel book with so many pictures, and that's what it's all about when it comes to one of the century's most important style-makers. It's a CRIME that it's out of print, because I MUST OWN IT.
26 of 29 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Big Beautiful World of Chanel, April 18 2005
By Linda Painchaud-Steinman "PARK EDGE BOOKS" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Chanel and Her World: Friends, Fashion, and Fame (Hardcover)
Visually pleasing and well-written, here is a book that would surely please Mademoiselle Chanel if she were still with us.Fans of Chanel and "Fashionistas" alike will undoubtedly be delighted with this big, beautiful book and its vast number of Chanel photos, which document Coco's personal world of fashion.
Linda Painchaud-Steinman, Park Edge Books
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