Delving into the long, extraordinary life of renowned French
fashion designer Coco Chanel, Karen Karbo has written a new kind of
book, exploring Chanel's philosophy on a range of universal
themes-from style to passion, from money and success to femininity
and living life on your own terms.
Born in 1883 in a poorhouse in southern France to unmarried
parents, Chanel was raised in a convent after her mother died when
she was six and her father abandoned her. The nuns taught her
to sew, and while working as a café singer in the early 1900s she
began designing hats for fun. Her lovers included a wealthy
English industrialist, who helped her set up her own millinery shop
and steered his society friends her way.
Chanel grew up to be the woman who not only gave us the little
black dress and boxy jackets, but also popularized pants for women
and easy, practical clothes that allowed women a chic freedom
they'd never known before. In her strong-headed, elegant,
opinionated, passionate, entirely French way, Coco Chanel helped
bring women into the modern era. She was the only fashion icon to
be named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential
People of the 20th Century.
The Gospel According to Coco Chanel is a captivating,
offbeat look at style, celebrity, and self-invention-all held
together with Karbo's droll Chanel-style commentary and culled from
an examination of Chanel's difficult childhood and triumphant
adulthood, passionate love affairs, career choices, habits,
eccentricities, and personal philosophies. Weaving Chanel's life
story into chapter themes that subtly convey life lessons, and with
Chesley McLaren's charming illustrations, it will leave the reader
utterly entranced with, and inspired by, Chanel's amazing
individuality, confidence, and determination.