POSTED: 14 AUGUST 2010

Unravelling the mystery of Coco Chanel

Acclaimed author and journalist Justine Picardie has spent the past decade puzzling over the truth about Coco Chanel, attempting to peel away the accretions of romance and lies.

The story of Chanel begins with an abandoned child, as lost as a girl in a dark fairytale. Uncovering remarkable new details about Gabrielle Chanel’s early years in a convent orphanage, Picardie explores what lies beneath the glossy surface of a mythic fashion icon.

Throwing new light on her passionate and turbulent relationships, this beautifully constructed portrait gives a fresh and penetrating look at how Coco Chanel made herself into her own most powerful creation.

An authoritative account, based on personal observations and interviews with Chanel’s last surviving friends, employees and relatives, it also unravels her coded language and symbols, and traces the influence of her formative years on her legendary style.

Feared and revered by the rest of the fashion industry, Coco Chanel died in 1971 at the age of 87, but her legacy lives on.

Drawing upon her unprecedented access to the Chanel archive, Picardie brings Gabrielle Chanel out of hiding and uncovers the consequences of what she covered up, unpicking the seams between truth and myth in a story that reveals the true heart of fashion.

In this beautifully illustrated, impeccably written full-scale biography, we finally discover the history of the incredible woman who created the way we look today.

Justine Picardie is the former features director of Vogue and editor of the Observer magazine. She is currently a fashion columnist for London’s Sunday Telegraph. She also writes for several other newspapers and magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar and Red. She lives in London with her two sons.

PUBLISHING DETAILS

Justine Picardie, Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life (Published 1 September by HarperCollins | 352pp hardback | $45)

*Based on media release issued by Harper Collins.

Coco Chanel ... made herself into her own most powerful creation.