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Title: Chanel. Her life up close

Author: Lisa Chaney

Genre: Biography

Rating (1 to 6): 5

Today we're going to talk about a book as intriguing as the person it's about. I present to you "Chanel- her life up close" by Lisa Chaney. A biography that shows Coco Chanel in a defiant and daring way, unadulterated, before the glamour. Gabrielle Chanel grew up in emotional and financial poverty, but thanks to her own intellect and flair, she became one of the most interesting and significant figures of the 20th century. The mistress of aristocrats, artists, intellectuals, and a German spy in World War II, she broke many rules of propriety, seducing men and women and demonstrating the highest class of professionalism. In spite of it all, Chanel left behind a story, a vivid mark in fashion and in life. Lisa Chaney researched Gabrielle Chanel for three years to present what is between the hard black covers of this book to show us objectivity, truth and honesty, in a world that would be hard to understand.

"She became the muse, patron, collaborator and lover of a number of remarkable men, including some of the most celebrated artists known today. These include Picasso, Cocteau, Stravinsky, Visconti, Dalí and Diaghilev."

I can hardly be impressed by a biography. For me they are written distorting the personality, I have a hard time finding what among what I read is true and what is not. "Chanel- her life from afar" is quite descriptive, I hope it's scrappy, at least I feel it is. When you read it's like the tape goes back years and you're there. You see little Gabrielle, you see the horror, the misery, but also the road she has traveled, the peaks she has climbed. You are a direct actor in this "narrative". Maybe that's what's different, it reads like a narrative, a long story.

We all know who Coco Chanel is. We've heard about the little black dress, the pearls, the plaid skirt and jacket suit, the Chanel perfume number 5. But few of us know who she really is. Who Gabrielle is. What it has cost her to get to the top, what she has been through and what the price is. Chanel's father was an international marketer. Her mother died when she was 12 and she was sent to a convent where she dreamed of being a stage performer. Ashamed of her past, she befriended high-ranking Nazis during the French occupation in World War II. Chanel rewrote much of her own story when she told it in later years. She was not just a fashion icon, with a scandalous life and countless adventures. She is history. Good or bad, to some, it doesn't matter. A recognizable personality with depths of emotion beneath the surface. Reading, one explains many things, understands more. Everything has several points of view. It's nice to read this book and see a different Chanel. I guarantee you will enjoy it. When the author focuses on Chanel herself, as the reader expects in a biography, it seems that Chaney is writing a sort of hagiography. By writing something a bit negative, she is somehow justifying Chanel's choice. And she is almost completely uncritical of the most controversial parts of her life, ignoring or only vaguely mentioning things like her drug addiction and early abortion. As for Chanel's well-known affair with a Nazi officer during, of, and even after World War II and eventual collaboration, Cheney only skims the surface, suggesting that Chanel didn't know the depths of his position despite all the obvious evidence pointing to its importance. Either Chanel was an incredibly smart and intelligent woman, as was presented before this case, or she was the most naive and, frankly, unobservant woman ever.

Lisa Chaney says of her: "I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in fashion, history and their intersection. Gabriel's great gift lay in her relentless attention to the texture of the moment. If fashion can be said to illuminate or articulate, then this was Gabriel. Acting as a barometer, she gave her world what it wanted just before it recognized the need for it. Her work was always one step ahead because she intuitively understood her time better than most people around her.".