Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman

A modern look at the life of a legendary fashion icon—with practical life lessons for women of all ages



Delving into the long, extraordinary life of renowned French fashion designer Coco Chanel, Karen Karbo has written a new kind of self-help 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.

Born in 1883 in a poorhouse in southern France, Chanel grew up to be the woman who not only gave us the little black dress and boxy jackets, but also bestowed upon women a chic freedom that helped usher them into the modern era. Elegant, opinionated, and passionate, she was the only fashion icon among TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century.

The Gospel According to Coco Chanel is a captivating, offbeat look at style, celebrity, and self-invention—all held together with droll Chanel-style commentary and culled from an examination of Chanel's difficult childhood and triumphant adulthood, passionate love affairs, and eccentricities.

Warner Brothers set to release a major motion picture on this subject, Coco Before Chanel, in Fall 2009.

Karen Karbo is the author of three novels, all of which were named New York Times Notable Books; four nonfiction books—including How to Hepburn, which the Philadelphia Inquirer called “an exuberant celebration of a great original,” and The Stuff of Life, a People Magazine's Critic's Choice—and three books for young adults. Her essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Outside, Elle, Vogue, More, and salon.com.

Chesley McLaren, known as “The French Illustrator in New York” for her Francophile style, has also worked as a Fifth Avenue fashion designer. She is the author/illustrator of several books, and her work has appeared in Town & Country, Vogue, InStyle, and Elle.