Miranda Blacky / 23 September 2024 / Categories: Books, Biography, Non-fiction

Coco Chanel a biography

By Axel Madsen

For the author it must have been hard to write a story with integrity and humour about someone who despite their genius was not so well liked. Even though she may have been loved, the author carves out a tale of spirit and hard work constantly undermined by social class and unfortunate luck.

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If you have seen the BBC Arena documentary Coco Chanel unbuttoned (I’ve seen it twice and I can highly recommend even if you are not fashion mad, it’s more a biopic on someone fascinating ) you have the framework of the book.

The most famous Chanel biography was her story, The allure of Chanel as told to her friend Paul Morand 1946 on a trip to visit her in St Moritz.

This follow up memoir / non fiction biography by Axel Madsen captures the real essence of tragedy and difficulty in Gabrielle Chanel’s early life and makes the reader more empathetic and understanding of the sometimes less than pleasant woman she became.

He doesn’t paint her in muted light and doesn’t dampen down the uglier side of her driven and determined nature. And as a fan of the clothes and the enduring entrepreneurship, single handedly building arguably the most recognisable brand in the world the book explores her relationships, her affairs with both men and rumoured women, Misia Cert who she had met in 1917 at the home of Actress Cecile Sorel right through to being thwarted by the Duke of Westminster and then joining him and his new bride on honeymoon. She also dressed the wife of her lover Igor Stravinsky.

The book is interspersed with some images I’d never seen, Gabrielle outside her first shop in Beauville with her sister and at the races in a man’s overcoat and simple hat, rebelling against the more dressy and flamboyant female attire of the Edwardian upper class.

For fans of the house and the woman I enjoyed this look with a fine tooth comb into the life of arguably the greatest fashion influencer ever.