Coco Chanel

October 1, 2011
In this ambitious, engrossing biography, Chaney (Hide-and-Seek with Angels: A Life of J.M. Barrie, 2006, etc.) delves into the life and times of one of the 20th century's most controversial fashion icons. The author probes beneath the cool exterior of Coco Chanel (1883–1971), the woman who, for all the money, status and power she attained, would always "remain self-conscious about her background," and whose personal torment over a tragic past would later manifest as an addiction to morphine. Chaney chronicles Chanel's early life in France, from her birth into a family of "impoverished, nomadic market-traders" and difficult adolescence at a convent orphanage to her years as a struggling apprentice seamstress. Hard-working and ambitious, Chanel understood that men were critical to her advancement and took young scions of wealthy families as her lovers. One such individual, Arthur Capel, not only became the love of her life, but also the man who helped Chanel establish the "little business" that, by the end of World War I, was well on its way to becoming a fashion empire. In the 1920s, Chanel catapulted to the center of cultural and artistic life in Paris, a place she occupied almost continuously until her death. Beautiful, provocative and possessed of a "mordant wit," she became linked to celebrated artists such as Stravinsky, Picasso and Dalí; members of the Russian nobility; other women; and, during World War II, a German soldier with Nazi ties. Chaney's engagement with her subject is evident throughout, and her exhaustive research into Chanel's life--especially its darker, more enigmatic corners--and the cultural history she so profoundly impacted make the book as fascinating as it is informative.

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October 1, 2011

British author Chaney (Hide-and-Seek with Angels: A Life of J.M. Barrie) serves up an excellent complement to Hal Vaughan's hyped Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War. Relying on newly released love letters, private diaries, and reminiscences Chanel shared with writer Paul Morand before her death, Chaney eschews politics to highlight the Chanel aesthetic--the philosophy of art, fashion, and creativity at the heart of her iconic brand. Chanel's life unfolds in detail--her impoverished youth, relationships with artists, writers, and musicians in Paris, self-serving love affairs, business partnerships, and scandalous at the time behaviors (bisexuality and drug use among them). Using Chanel's own words wherever possible, Chaney reveals the woman behind the icon--her vulnerability, loneliness, and disappointment at remaining childless. Most important here is Chaney's insight into Chanel's role in creating the modern, independent woman, who prized both beauty and functionality. Open about the difficulty of unraveling the various myths surrounding Chanel, Chaney concludes with a look at what became of the brand after her death. VERDICT While Vaughan's work focuses on Chanel's alleged pro-Nazi liaisons during and after World War II, Chaney details the totality of Chanel's life. Recommended for general readers interested in biography, fashion, and modern womanhood.--Marie M. Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2011
So much of fashion is artifice and illusion, its allure dependent upon the power to convince and the willingness to believe. So it was with one of its most iconic and rebellious designers. An enigma wrapped in a riddle, Coco Chanel, as portrayed by biographer Chaney (Hide-and-Seek with Angels: A Life of J.M. Barrie, 2006), was insecure yet daring, innovative yet conservative, independent yet needy. Profoundly influenced by her impoverished, peripatetic childhood, Chanel exhibited a cutthroat sense of self-preservation that carried her from the depths of seedy caf's to the heights of caf' society. Her professional ambition to rise from a mere shopkeeper's assistant to become the unrivaled arbiter of style and elegance was equally matched by a hedonistic personal drive that delivered her to the beds of some of the twentieth century's most celebrated and controversial political and artistic figures, from Igor Stravinsky to the Duke of Westminster. Deeply researched, Chaney's enthralling biography unearths previously unavailable sources to reveal the elementally conflicted yet unequivocally gifted woman whose name will always be synonymous with sophistication and originality.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)