"Chanel and Her World: Friends, Fashion, and Fame" by Edmonde Charles-Roux

Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel (1883-1971) is a fashion icon unlike any other, arguably the most influential designer of the 20th century, whose creations remain as popular today as when they were introduced a century ago.

She invented modern, chic clothing for women: she freed them from corsets, bobbed their hair, put them in simple bathing suits, and sent them out to get tanned in the sun. She introduced slacks, costume jewelry, the exquisitely comfortable and elegant knit suit, the "little black dress," and the now-ubiquitous quilted handbag. She made the first couture perfume―No. 5―which remains the most popular scent ever created.

And she knew and collaborated with the leading creative minds of her day: the likes of Picasso, Diaghilev, Stravinsky, Cocteau, Jean Renoir, and Visconti―as she matched their modernist innovations by liberating women from the prison of 19th-century fashion and introducing a whole new concept of style.

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