CHANEL SURFING
Author of The Gospel According to Chanel, Karen Karbo may still be hunting for that vintage Chanel jacket that studiously eludes her, but her marvellous and insightful book on the iconoclast Mademoiselle Chanel is definitely worth more than a read.
Not only because it traces the rise and fall of Chanel from her orphanage days, but also because, she details her life with such humour and cutting wit, that it makes you almost fall in love with her effortless style of writing. Chanel, not only gave the world the tweed suit, quilted bag, camellias, No.5 and that rope of pearls, but also an insight into real fashion, minus all the fuss. That’s why Karen so lovingly thanks her for the timeless little black dress, dropped waists and real pockets. And I don’t think Karbo likes Karl Lagerfeld her successor so much as she says, “Lagerfeld’s Chanel is the Chanel essence pressed through the sieve of his own haut-Eurotrash sensibility.”
Though it is surprisingly to see an American writer’s great study of Chanel’s life, her falling in love with Boy Capel, Balsan to even a Nazi Spatz and her final lonely death after she had resurrected her career and proved to everybody that nobody can beat Chanel in her understanding of what women really want. The book also explores Chanel’s fleeting friendships, her inability to be a friend to anyone, her competition Paul Poiret, Elsa Schiaparelli and how she used her ‘charms” to rise from an orphan girl to creating one of the biggest fashion houses in Paris, despite her tomboyish femininity.
Lies and deception (Karbo calls her Mademoiselle Misinformation) was part of Chanel’s nature as Karen explains, and she often used to make up facts about her childhood, despite her father (Albert, a “schemer”) abandoning her after her mother’s death.
Chanel had this remarkable ability to take help from her lovers, so in 1914, Boy Capel (the only true love of Chanel’s life, an English polo playing businessman, who died after a heart attack and who’s wrist watch was Chanel’s most prized possession) opened a boutique for her, Chanel Modes. But lovers were many, then came Paul Iribe, (her friend Misia), her making pots of money, buying herself a Rolls Royce and declaring her driver a “mechanic” were all part of Chanel’s quirky personality.
Karbo traces Chanel’s idiosyncrasies beautifully and even says how she called the mini skirt “dirty”, but after Chanel’s move to Switzerland, and the war, it was only in February 1953 when she returned to Paris and her collection was quickly dismissed by the French press.
Chanel turned it around for herself and was soon dressing Elizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich, Grace Kelly and Rita Hayworth. In the end what touches your heart is Chanel’s lonely end when Karbo writes, “She laid upon the bed in her suit, in her blouse and pearls…..and said, “This is what it is like to die.”’ This was the woman who had said, “Women have always been the strong ones in the world. The men are always seeking from women a little pillow to put their heads down on.”
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