Here is a distinctly unique and intimate look at the woman who transformed contemporary fashion. No stranger to photographing some of the world's most beloved icons—including Man Ray, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, and Elizabeth Taylor, among countless others—Douglas Kirkland fixed his lens on Coco Chanel for 21 days in 1962. Sent to Paris on assignment for LOOK magazine, Kirkland lived with Chanel for three weeks, catching both the public and the intimate moments of the icon's daily life. This collection of never-before-seen photographs is as staggeringly beautiful as it is impassioned, shedding new light on one of the great stories of the modern age. With a compelling foreword by literary giant Judith Thurman, who poignantly contextualizes the relationship between Kirkland and Chanel, this book is every bit as incomparable as Mademoiselle herself.
About the Authors:
Born in Toronto, Canada, Douglas Kirkland spent much of his career in New York City before moving to Los Angeles in the 1970s. Kirkland worked as an apprentice to Irving Penn and began his independent career at Look and Life magazines during the golden age of photojournalism in the 1960s and 1970s. Kirkland catapulted to fame when he first photographed Marilyn Monroe. He has also photographed behind the scenes on the sets of more than one hundred motion pictures, several legendary, and many of which are compiled in his book, Freeze Frame (2007). Named "Photographer of the Year" by the PhotoImaging, Manufacturers, and Distributing Association (PMIDA), he lives in Los Angeles with his wife and business partner, Francoise.
Judith Thurman writes primarily about fashion, its personages, trends, and history. She began contributing to The New Yorker in 1987, and became a staff writer in 2000. Her subjects included Elsa Schiaparelli and Cristobal Balenciaga, and she is the author of Isak Disnesen: The Life of a Storyteller, which won the 1983 National Book Award for Nonfiction, and Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette, winner of the Lost Angeles Times Book Award for Biography, and the Salon Book Award for books.
ISBN: 978-0-9801557-1-6 | 144 pages | 8 1/2 x 9 1/2" | hardcover | 118 b/w photos
