The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman
by Karen Karbo
List Price:
Our Price: $7.71
You Save: $12.24 (61%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.50 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Karen KarboIllustrator: Chesley McLaren
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-09-01
ISBN: 1599215233
Number of pages: 225
Publisher: skirt!
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9781599215235
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman
Book Review: a mini-biography, with great dish and helpful wisdom
Summary: 5 Stars
Coco Chanel couldn't be making a star turn in media at a better time.
Start with Anne Fontaine's film "Coco Before Chanel", coming to American theaters this fall after dazzling audiences in Europe. It's the right film about Chanel: the early years. And though the facts are as murky about pre-Chanel Chanel as about the fashion icon, the theme --- a woman born without advantages, making her way in the world --- is more universal.
But the better reason for women --- and the men who love them --- to pay attention to Chanel is because she was a cheerleader for self-sufficiency, in good times and bad. So skip over the fashion. Consider only the politics. I mean: ours.
Is this a great time to be a woman in America? I'm not so sure. More American women may now be going to college than men, but when they graduate, they're still looking at salaries as much as 30% lower than men get for the same work. The anti-choice movement, always noisy, has upped the volume --- and the violence. And it seems that a sizable number of American men won't be happy until all women are homebound mothers, wearing the equivalent of the burqa.
No writer has a better understanding of what it means to be Chanel and what it means to be a woman who admires Chanel than Karen Karbo, author of the short (240 pages) and addictive The Gospel According to Coco Chanel. Karbo is the granddaughter of Emilia Karbowski, known as "Luma of California" for the clothes she designed for the wives of movie moguls in the 1950s. Which is to say: Karen Karbo is real and unashamed of it: "I am the average consumer." She looks for Chanel jackets on eBay. And she writes as if she's having a conversation with a close friend over double-shot lattes.
Who is Chanel to Karbo?
Chain-smoker. Workaholic, though she could stay in bed all morning with a newspaper. Leo, with a Pisces moon. Born nobody. Fell in love once, but not again. Her bigger love: money. "Money was more than her security blanket. It was her ongoing victory lap." And restrained: "Even though Chanel insisted on having the best of everything, she didn't insist on having everything."
Are you hearing "Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves" in the background? You should be.
Karbo delivers a mini-biography, with perceptive and amusing commentary:
"She looked like the girl at school who conned you into breaking the rules with her, then let you take all the blame."
"Her childhood was the Belle Époque version of a country-and-western song. The only thing she lacked was a dead dog and a wasting disease."
"She compulsively lied about her past, and then lied about having lied, and then disavowed the lie about the lie."
Along the way, great trivia abounds. Yes, French women wore hats adorned with feathers --- but did you know that, in 1911, in France, 300 million birds were killed to provide those feathers?
And, because Karbo really is your new best friend, she even labels the punch line: "Cut to the chase, don't waste time doing stuff that seems essential to your life and business, just because other people do it."
Just so. The fashion is merely fascinating, a means to an end. The life lessons? For a woman trying to find a safe haven in America, this book delivers more wisdom --- and wit --- per page than Dr. Phil will dispense in a lifetime.
More The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Summary of The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman
Delving into the long, extraordinary life of renowned French fashion designer Coco Chanel, Karen Karbo has written a new kind of book, exploring Chanel's philosophy on a range of universal themes - from style to passion, from money and success to femininity and living life on your own terms.
For a live viewing of Chesley McLaren's illustrations you can visit The 4th Wall Gallery.
Click here for more info.
For a live viewing of Chesley McLaren's illustrations you can visit The 4th Wall Gallery.
Click here for more info.
Happiness Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Happiness Books
The Happiness Project One-Sentence Journal: A Five-Year Recordby Gretchen Rubin
Potter Style; Published: 2011-11-01; Diary; Book
Best price: $9.98
Price in other shops:
Just Love: Transforming Civic Virtueby Ann Mongoven
Indiana University Press; Published: 2009-07-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.38
Price in other shops:
How to Live Dangerously: Why We Should All Stop Worrying & Start Livingby Wrawick Cairns
Macmillan; Published: 2008-12-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $423.63
Happiness, Growth, and the Life Cycle (Iza Prize in Labor Economics)by Richard A. Easterlin, Holger Hinte, Klaus F. Zimmerman
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2011-01-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $28.00
Price in other shops:
Working Virtue: Virtue Ethics and Contemporary Moral ProblemsOxford University Press, USA; Published: 2009-09-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $30.01
Price in other shops:
Happiness: Classic and Contemporary Readings in PhilosophyOxford University Press, USA; Published: 2007-03-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.71
Price in other shops:
Happiness: The Science behind Your Smileby Daniel Nettle
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2006-09-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.74
Price in other shops:
Age Smart: Discovering the Fountain of Youth at Midlife and Beyondby Jeffrey Rosensweig, Betty Liu
FT Press; Published: 2006-05-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.14
Price in other shops:
The Best Year of Your Life: Dream It, Plan It, Live Itby Debbie Ford
HarperOne; Published: 2004-12-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.29
Price in other shops:
Choosing Happiness: Keys to a Joyful Lifeby Alexandra Stoddard
William Morrow; Published: 2002-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Chanel and Her Worldby Edmonde Charles-Roux
Vendome Press; Published: 2005-03-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.99
Price in other shops:
I Love Your Style: How to Define and Refine Your Personal Styleby Amanda Brooks
It Books; Published: 2009-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.35
Price in other shops:
Style A to Zoe: The Art of Fashion, Beauty, & Everything Glamourby Rachel Zoe, Rose Apodaca
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2008-09-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Lifeby Justine Picardie
It Books; Published: 2011-08-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.20
Price in other shops:
Chanel: Collections and Creationsby Daničle Bott
Thames & Hudson; Published: 2007-09-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $26.09
Price in other shops:
How to Hepburn: Lessons on Living from Kate the Greatby Karen Karbo
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2007-04-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.37
Price in other shops:
How to Be a Hepburn in a Hilton World: The Art of Living with Style, Class, and Graceby Jordan Christy
Center Street; Published: 2009-08-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.96
Price in other shops:
The Little Dictionary of Fashion: A Guide to Dress Sense for Every Womanby Christian Dior
Harry N. Abrams; Published: 2007-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.24
Price in other shops:
A Guide to Elegance: For Every Woman Who Wants to Be Well and Properly Dressed on All Occasionsby Genevieve Antoine Dariaux
William Morrow; Published: 2004-07-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
Parisian Chic: A Style Guide by Ines de la Fressangeby Ines de la Fressange, Sophie Gachet
Flammarion; Published: 2011-04-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.76
Price in other shops: