Justine Picardie's Reading List

"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."

"The Dior autobiography is very sober, which is true of the designer’s own personality. But it’s a fascinating insight into the New Look, one of the most important post-war movements in fashion. Chanel hated corseting, which she felt constricted women. Her whole aesthetic was against it. When she saw Christian Dior doing just that, with his wasp-waist dresses and sharply tailored suits, she came out of retirement to compete against him. She hated the Dior look but many women adored it. I’m a huge fan and wanted to hear about it from Dior’s point of view. His take on the fashion industry is very interesting, but there’s very little on his private life. I think it’s because the French invented couture. But there has always been that link between French and English designers. McQueen, Galliano, Phoebe Philo and Stella McCartney all headed up French houses. In fact, you can trace the links between Paris and London all the way back to Chanel. They pretend to despise each other but, when it comes to fashion, the two countries have quite a creative relationship."

"Yes. She was Italian but worked in Paris. You can really see a crossover with art in her designs. She worked with some of the great surrealists, including Salvador Dali. Several of her designs, like the lobster hat and the skeleton dress, are particularly artistic. Maybe it’s more fruitful to talk about Schiaparelli as part of the surrealist art movement than fashion. Like Dali, she had a good business sense and understood the power of marketing. I think the notion that you can draw up a clear distinction between art and fashion, where art is somehow entirely pure and commercial fashion is impure, is ridiculous. Is Damien Hirst a purer artist than Alexander McQueen? Speaking of McQueen, perhaps the conflict you see in his work would be less troubling if he had decided to work in another art form. Some of them could certainly be categorised as performance art."

"Beaton was a marvellous writer as well as a great photographer. His diaries provide wonderful insights into designers like Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. They have the same economy and deftness of touch as his fashion illustrations. He was very good at summing up what people were like at a particular moment. He talks about doing the designs for Coco , the Broadway musical based on Chanel’s life. Katharine Hepburn rather improbably played the title role. Beaton had a horrendous time with Hepburn and Chanel on that and he’s wonderfully descriptive about it. I also love the way he writes about Chanel in old age: she talked so much that he couldn’t get a word in. But she comes across as compelling and entirely herself. He describes her as absolutely determined and a force of nature."

"This book has wonderful photographs and is beautifully produced. Vreeland was a hugely influential fashion columnist and editor, working at Harper’s Bazaar and then American Vogue . She covered the great fashion era from the 30s to the 70s. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter She worked as a consultant for the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art after Vogue fired her in 1971. She put on some incredible exhibitions that really showed fashion as art – that theme again. The pictures in the book from the 1973 Balenciaga exhibition are amazing. The director of the Met at the time thought museums should show things in new ways and push boundaries. He recognised that Diana Vreeland had the same vision. She was very forward-thinking."