Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History

Mademoiselle:  Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda K. Garelick           Audiobook: 16 hours, 30 minutes     Hardback Book:  608 pages           

I had no idea all of the things Gabrielle “Coco”  Chanel lived through.    Her life is life a mystery novel that is full of twists and suspense.   Mademoiselle was never married but had many lovers over her life even into old age.   You Go, Coco!  One of her lovers was a high ranking officer in the German military during WWII.    She has been accused of being a spy during that time, a double-agent, even.   Now, given the time frame and the fact that she often entertained Winston Churchill at one of her chateaus, hmmmm.    The fact that while accused of treason to France, she walked away with no charges while pretending to have a friend write to Sir Winston as far as the Germans knew because the other lady knew him better, to which Churchill replied with a scathing letter disavowing knowledge of either but Coco never lost face in her country so seems like there may well have been some espionage happening but she never admitted to it.    Mademoiselle looked for love and marriage preferably to royalty but because of her lowly beginnings (she grew up in poverty and was given away to a convent at an early age – growing up there till she was old enough to leave) she was never considered seriously as a candidate for a royal marriage but she kept trying.    Gabrielle learned how to use her assets to her advantage with men early on and it is said that she and her sister were cocottes (prostitutes) in their youth in order to get money to live on and obtain jewelry and clothes.    Which also interestingly enough has to do with her obtaining the nickname Coco (short for cocotte) said to have been dubbed by one of her lovers and she thought it cute and kept it.   Coco learned how to sew from the nuns at the convent and used this to her advantage in life starting out as a seamstress when she needed to find work.   She quickly rose to the notice of the clients coming in and seeing her in her own creations asked her to design outfits for them on the side.   As word got out of the original work of the seamstress her name got around and she realized why should she work for a pennies as someone else got huge benefits from her work when she could borrow money from her most recent married lover and finance her own couture shop.   She did and her legend began.    The reader will learn many fascinating details about Chanel’s life.    The author has done extensive research and come up with an excellent tale of a many faceted woman.    Chanel did not like to talk about her personal life and though many wanted to do a biography on her she refused (possibly due to some of the more risqué years).    She could be a witch at times to her employees then turn incredibly generous and give them thousands of dollars worth of couture clothing.    It is mentioned that she was bi-sexual and there are so many revealing things brought out in this history of her victories – she thrilled to prove people wrong and soar above their expectations of her – and also her downfalls – losing her rights to her perfume copyright left with only 10% of the profits from her signature Chanel #5.     This is a captivating read.    Chanel was a true chameleon.   You could never peg her for being one way or the other – she seemed to charm everyone she met and inspired awe beyond her dying day.    I really enjoyed this read.