Mademoiselle Coco

I have the book Mademoiselle Coco Chanel Summer 62 on loan from the library at the moment. It is the coolest book ever. When I saw it on a new releases display at the bookshop I thought... ooh, I've got to order that from the library. Et voila, four months later I am reading it. Don't tell me I can't do delayed gratification. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again – I love the library.

This book is all black-and-white photos, where a young American photographer follows Coco around during the creation of her summer 1962 fashion collection.

In the early pages Coco Chanel is photographed walking to work through the streets of Paris, paparazzi style. She looks like she could wear the same clothing today, her hair, makeup, pearls are all classic and modern at the same time. It’s only the people around her that give the time away as 1962.

My Great-Aunt, who nursed Coco Chanel at the American Hospital in Paris in the late 1960s was recently giving me her review of the latest Chanel movie to come out – Coco and Igor. She was not impressed. She said the entire movie was of longing looks and silence. Apparently this wasn’t exactly what Coco was like in real life. ‘She never shut up!’ my Great-Aunt said. ‘Coco Chanel was forever talking, very fast, and always in French’.

Looks like who wrote this movie didn’t do their homework (or preferred to be arty rather than factual). She also told me there was a lot of explicit nudity in the movie, taken from all angles - side, top... I said to her ‘did you look away?’ ‘Oh, I looked alright!’ she replied. Most of the time I forget she is 76.