The Allure of Chanel
by Paul Morand
Buy on AmazonThe Allure of Chanel are the memoirs of the French fashion designer Coco Chanel, told to her friend Paul Morand. The book was written in the winter of 1946 and is based on a series of conversations held at a hotel in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where Chanel had invited Morand to write her memoirs. The conversations took place during the evenings and each night Morand stayed up to write notes. The notes were published in French in 1976 and in English in 2008, translated by Euan Cameron. A second English edition was published in 2012, expanded with original drawings by Karl Lagerfeld.
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"They were both in exile just after World War Two, having had rather too much contact with the Germans during the Paris occupation. Morand had known Chanel since the 20s. He inhabited the same cultural milieu, which included Picasso , Stravinsky, Diaghilev and Cocteau. Morand had a number of conversations with her in St Moritz in the winter of 1946. He made notes but didn’t transcribe them until after her death in 1971. Yes. She was a great storyteller – not that all the stories that appear in the book are true. There’s a description of her and an aunt, whom she claims brought her up. She was, in fact, raised by nuns in an orphanage. I think these fictions are as interesting as the truth. They show how she wanted to reinvent herself and find a narrative that was bearable to live with. The great loves of her life were both English. She had intriguing links with the English aristocracy and Winston Churchill. She was one of five children, a fact she covered up, like so much else in her conversations with Morand. His book remains a wonderfully compelling account of her stories."
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