Overview
A lush visual selection from the Chanel archive essential reading for fashionistas and design aficionados everywhere.
Chanels combination of tradition, originality, and style has always made it the most seductive of fashion labels. Here the House of Chanel opens its private archives, revealing a galaxy of brilliant designs created by Coco Chanel from 1920 onwards. Dazzling clothes, intricate accessories, beautiful models, and timeless design leave no doubt as to the lasting fame of her name and embody everything that has come to symbolize the magic of Chanel.
The book explores five central themes the suit, the camellia, jewelry, makeup and perfume, the little black dress and follows the threads from past to present to show how these key items have been rediscovered and reinvented by new designers. It includes many previously unpublished archive photographs and original drawings by Karl Lagerfeld, as well as glorious images from some of the greatest names in fashion photography. 139 illustrations, 83 in color.
LaChapelles images of the most famous faces on the planet, and marginalized figures like transsexual Amanda Lepore or the cast of his critically acclaimed social documentary Rize call into question our relationship with gender, glamour, and status. Using his trademark baroque excess, LaChapelle inverts the consumption he appears to celebrate, pointing instead to apocalyptic consequences for humanity itself. While referencing and acknowledging diverse sources such as the Renaissance, art history, cinema, The Bible, pornography, and the new globalized pop culture, LaChapelle has fashioned a deeply personal and epoch defining visual language that holds up a mirror to our times.
Author Information
Daniele Bott is a journalist specializing in fashion and beauty, who has written for Vogue and many other magazines. She is the author of Chanel Collections and Creations.