Chanel: An Intimate Life

Description

The controversial story of the fashion icon who starred in her tumultuous era Coco Chanel was many things to many people. Raised in emotional and financial poverty, she became one of the defining figures of the twentieth century. She was mistress to aristocrats, artists and spies. She broke rules of style and decorum, seducing both men and women, yet in her work expected the highest standards. She took a 'plaything' and turned it into a global industry which defined the modern woman. Filled with new insights and thrilling discoveries, Lisa Chaney's Chanel provides the most defining and provocative portrait yet.

Lisa Chaney has lectured and tutored in the history of art and literature, made TV and radio broadcasts on the history of culture, and reviewed and written for journals and newspapers, including The Sunday Times, the Spectator and the Guardian. She is the author of two previous biographies- Elizabeth David and Hide-and-Seek With Angels- The Life of J.M. Barrie.

Chaney's research is laudable, uncovering fresh details of Chanel's well-trodden rag trade to riches story * Evening Standard * Chaney ably explores the complexities and inner life of her subject * The Times Literary Supplement * Elegant, meticulously researched and packed with details * Prima * An unflinching examination of the historically inscrutable designer * Vogue * Chaney is adept at elucidating Chanel's paradoxical character. A nuanced account of a contradictory, complex, quite extraordinary life * The Times Higher Education Supplement *