Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History

A soup-to-nuts bio of Gabrielle Chanel, known through the globe as "Coco," from her hard-scrabble childhood and youth through her death in her apartment at the Ritz, with an afterward on the subsequent fortunes of Maison Chanel.Coco was a genius, both in design and in marketing. She created THE look of women's clothes which, despite the insertion of hip-hop, the Sixties, and grunge, has persisted in the everyday world. It wasn't just the wealthy who wore her patterns, but -- through knockoffs and ready-to-wear -- the middle class and even working class. Unlike most high-fashion courturiers, she not only didn't worry about knock-offs, she took a weird satisfaction in them. Our notions of fashion elegance derive largely from her. Garelick argues, furthermore, that her greatest creation was her image as a feminine ideal. Her clothes worked best for her own body type -- slim, boyish. In effect, women became Coco clones.Despite her accomplishments, Chanel was more than a little screwed up. Her origins in poverty made her realize that money, to a large extent, eased one's entrance into the beau monde -- although only to a certain extent. She couldn't marry into that world. She depended on its patronage and protection. People tend to react in two ways toward early poverty. The first is a lifelong empathy toward the poor. The second is a lifelong despising and fear, as if the touch of a laborer turns you back into one. She hid or reinvented her history and cut off almost of her family, mainly out of a sense of shame.As she went along, Chanel became increasingly reactionary, leading to active collaboration with the Nazis during the Occupation. She tried to remove her Jewish partners in the perfume business (they had fled to New York) under the racist laws against Jewish ownership, unsuccessfully, believe it or not. The perfumes were her largest source of income. When it was clear the Germans were losing, she switched to where the power lay and denounced at least one of her former friends. Garelick offers a fine discussion not only of the history, still officially sanitized by Maison Chanel, but of the links between fashion and fascism (all those sexy SS uniforms). This part of the book interested me the most.Much of this book makes use of new information, some uncovered by the author herself. Chanel substituted fairy tales for the harsh truth. She even lied for no real reason. Just coming up with a coherent narrative counts as a major achievement, but the book provides so much more and reads beautifully, besides.

chapter ten, "the pulse of history," is a perfectly brilliant analysis of the fascist aesthetic & marketing agenda, cleverly compared to chanel's. this chapter by itself deserves 5 stars and is highly recommended to students of history. the sloppy quality of the rest of the book makes one wonder if it was simply written as an excuse to get this one wonderful chapter published. who would otherwise choose to write about chanel the woman?, who was a genius designer & marketer but a nasty & tiresome piece of work.the author is sympathetic to her, however, and if you like this sort of Bio Lite with plenty of nice pictures, this book is for you. but do not examine it too closely. like too many american writers of history, the author practices the sneaky trick of presenting a wholly speculative theory without a whit of evidence, gamely admitting it is speculative at the outset, then tossing it in continuously thru'out the book so that the reader is gradually lulled into taking it as fact. prime examples of this are coco's "possible" abortion in youth, her nephew's "likely" being her son, and her "lesbianism" (sic). smaller sins of this nature also abound, and too much goes unsourced. this is not a book for an academically minded reader who expects historical scholarship to be rigorous, or for people of organized intellect generally.also you should know that the paperback edition sheds pages the moment you turn them. the whole binding had detached a couple chapters in.altogether not worth the price, but chapter ten is great, and i have reluctantly given an extra star for that reason.

Though extensive and seemingly exhaustive in its details and depth of research, almost half of the 600 pages is devoted to hammering it into our heads the fact that Coco Chanel was a fascist Nazi sympathizer. Garelick attempts to subtly separate Coco Chanel the fascist woman from Chanel the powerhouse fashion brand of today, so as not to offend the current owners nor damage their profits in any way.The author easily glosses over the fact that Coco had to gain the favor of the Nazis in order to rescue her nephew (or most likely son), who was dying in Nazi captivity and whom she loved dearly. The author quickly glosses over the fact that the Wertheimers royally screwed Coco by setting up their own, separate Chanel corporation in America during the war, and profited enormously from perfume sales, all the while sharing none of it with the woman herself.The first thing Garelick does is insinuate that the interlocking C logo is a fascist symbol much like the swastika, and how Coco's own fascist tendencies enabled her fashion brand to dominate. There are a good twenty pages or so where the author lectures the reader on fascism and the evils of the German Nazis. It is repetitive, completely unnecessary, and only serves Garelick's purpose in imprinting a very negative image of Coco in the readers' minds. Many of those who were wealthy or had much to lose during the war were Nazi sympathizers, including the British royal family and almost everyone in the upper echelons of European society, but the particularly harsh focus of the author on Coco, as well as Garelick's own personal insinuations (which she weaves in many paragraphs stealthily) on Coco’s thoughts or motives, are just plain annoying.The real motive of this biography is to shame, denigrate, and disparage Coco Chanel the woman, while simultaneously praising and building respect for the house of Chanel under the Wertheimer ownership. I do not recommend this book, and feel that it portrays a very strong woman who overcame incredible tragedies and obstacles in a purposefully negative light. It is not an unbiased, objective biography.

Rhonda K. Garelick's biography entitled ' Mademoiselle Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History' is a highly enjoyable and informative read, which has been well researched by the author. Chanel was clearly conscious of her childhood as an orphan, even more conscious of her years as a courtesan to the industrialist, Etienne Balsan, in which she might be regarded by some as a common prostitute, or more kindly as his 2nd mistress. Either way, Chanel was never Balsan's first-choice, which was in fact the rather beautiful and accomplished courtesan, Emilienne d'Alencon. Through Balsan, Chanel met the Englishman Arthur 'Boy' Capel, who became not only her lover but gave her the chance of a lifetime, since he would be her initial financial backer, enabling her to open a millinery shop at what is now the famous address, 21 rue Cambon, Paris. The Chanel empire has its foundations in the relationship with Capel. Capel was to die tragically in a motoring accident and there seems little doubt that this had a profound and fundamental effect on Chanel throughout the rest of her life. Subsequently, Chanel would become the mistress of the second Duke of Westminster, known by many of his closest friends as 'Bendor', who at the time was most probably the wealthiest man in the world. However, one factor stands out in these various sexual relationships, which is that at no time did any of her male lovers seriously consider marrying her and that came down simply to background. The orphanage and courtesan labels never left her until much later in life and even then were still self-compromised by her behaviour during the period of German occupation of Paris from 1940 until 1944. It is neither the place or intention to spoil the read by delving too deeply into the biographical detail. Suffice to say that Chanel was guilty of being pro-Nazi, did have a Nazi lover throughout the occupation and was highly anti-Semitic. Then we come to the story behind the world-famous perfume, Chanel No. 5; that too is fascinating and although her ownership of the perfume only lasted from 1920/21 to 1924 and was the result of her friendship with a cousin to Czar Nicholas II and the Romanovs perfumer, Ernest Beaux, it would eventually make her one of the richest, most well-known and influential couturier's in the world. In fact, in the long run, Chanel was to achieve her aim to become rich, powerful and above all, respected and accepted by society, however, she was never patriotic towards her country of birth. Don't sell yourself short, do read Rhonda K. Garelick's book, its a fascinating and highly enjoyable biography of a couturier and her signature perfume that are both cultural icons. If you want to do some additional research reading, then you may also find Justine Picardie's 'Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life with sketches by Karl Lagerfeld'; Hal Vaughan's 'Sleeping with the Enemy' and Tilar J. Mazzeo's 'The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World's Most Famous Perfume' of interest. Garelick's biography of Coco Chanel is a great read and comes highly recommended.

A present for a discerning female.

I really enjoyed reading this book (on Kindle) and learned a great deal not only about Chanel's life, but also about the turbulent political--and cultural and social--times she lived in. One big surprise was to learn that although she was a couturier, she was a fan of what--back then--was fast fashion. She realized that not everyone could afford her clothes, but loved seeing her vision extended in this way.Reading her story made me view my own fashion habits in a different light, not having realized that many of them can be traced back to her early influences on women in Europe and North America (and probably all over the world).Learning the story of Chanel No. 5 was also interesting and it has inspired me to seek out a test bottle to re-appreciate it now knowing the story behind how it came to be.Great book, but I would have loved more pictures.

Very interesting insight on Coco, fashion and history. What makes it special (vs other fashion icon related biographies I’ve read) is that it seem thoroughly studied and it’s beautifully written. Highly recommend it.

This book is a compelling account of Chanel's life, the development of Maison Chanel business and the surrounding history. I found interesting the description of the motivation behind fascist and nazi movements as well as Chanel view of women fashion and style.