Academy Award winning actress Shirley MacLaine stars as Coco Chanel in this critically acclaimed film that charts the rise of one of the most influential designers of the 20th century. From her humble childhood and early days as a young dressmaker's assistant, to her passionate love affair with a dashing Englishman and ultimate success as a pioneering fashion icon, Coco Chanel is the story of a glamorous woman who was hard to love and harder to ignore. Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominated, Coco Chanel is a must-see film for every lover of fashion and romance.

The story of Chanel begins with an abandoned child, as lost as a girl in a dark fairytale.Unveiling remarkable new details about Gabrielle Chanel's early years in a convent orphanage, and her flight into unconventional adulthood, Justine 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 he unprecedented access to the Chanel archive,Justine 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.

MADEMOISELLE IS AT HOME

GABRIELLE

IN THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS

COCO

COURTESANS AND CAMELLIAS

THE DOUBLE C

THE LITTLE BLACK DRESS

MlSlA AND THE MUSE

NUMBER FIVE

THE RUSSIANS

THE DUKE OF WESTMINSTER

RIVIERA CHIC

THE WOMAN IN WHITE

THE PROMISED LAND

DIAMONDS AS BIG

THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY

THE COMEBACK

CELEBRITY CHANEL

SCISSORS

LA GRANDE MADEMOISELLE

PICTURE CREDITS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS