Penguin Books Australia

By the end of the First World War, Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel had revolutionised women's dress. But dress was the most visible aspect of more profound changes she helped to bring about. During the course of her extraordinary and unconventional journey - from abject poverty to a new kind of glamour - Chanel would help forge the very idea of modern woman.

Unearthing an astonishing life, this remarkable biography shows how the most influential designer of her century became synonymous with a rebellious and progressive style. Her numerous liaisons, whose most poignant details have eluded all previous biographers, were the stuff of legend. Witty, strange, mesmerizing, Chanel became muse, patron or mistress to some of the century's most celebrated artists, including Stravinsky, Picasso and Dali.

Drawing on newly discovered love-letters, police records, and interviews, Lisa Chaney reveals the truth about Chanel's drug habit and lesbian affairs.She also answers definitively the long-running question about Chanel's German lover: was he a spy for the Nazis?

Highlighting the designer's far-reaching connections with modernism and its artists, this book explores the origins, the creative power, and the secret suffering of this exceptional and often misread woman. Movingly, it paints a deeper and darker picture of Chanel than any so far.