Description

The beginnings of Chanel's fashion brand lie in theFrench seaside resorts. In 1912, Coco-then stillGabrielle-Chanel opened her first boutique in Deauville;shops in Biarritz, Monte Carlo and Cannes soon followed.There, her simple, sporty designs met with acosmopolitan clientele who carried her fashion back tothe capital, Paris. In the 1920s, the Chanel brand thusexperienced its first heyday, driven by the artistic andsocial upheaval of those years, the Roaring Twenties.This lavishly illustrated catalogue documents in drawingsand photographs the extraordinary productivity ofthe designer who maintained friendships with artistssuch as Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso and others. In the1920s, Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes were performingon the Riviera. The book reveals the Slavic influencein Chanel's creations, highlighting a network of correspondenceswith female artists close to Diaghilev's circle,such as Natalia Goncharova and Sonia Delaunay.The book also features La Pausa, Gabrielle Chanel'sdream villa built in 1929 near Monaco.

GABRIELLE CHANEL erased all traces of her childhood. The only known fact is that she was born in Saumur (France) on August 19, 1883. In 1910, she opened a hat store in Paris, which was followed by boutiques in Deauville, Biarritz, Cannes and Monte-Carlo. Her line of jersey sportswear for women revolutionized fashion and liberated the female body.