Using newly discovered documents, Lisa Chaney's controversial biography of Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel places the designer in her proper context, highlighting her far-reaching connections with modernism and its artists. Coco Chanel was many things to many people. Raised in emotional and financial poverty, she became one of the defining figures of the twentieth century. She was mistress to aristocrats, artists and spies. She broke rules of style and decorum, seducing both men and women, yet in her work expected the highest standards. She took a 'plaything' and turned it into a global industry which defined the modern woman. Filled with new insights and thrilling discoveries, Lisa Chaney's "Chanel: An Intimate Life" provides the most defining and provocative portrait yet. An unflinching examination of the historically inscrutable designer. -- Vogue Chaney's research is laudable, uncovering fresh details of Chanel's well-trodden rag trade to riches story. -- Evening Standard Chaney is adept at elucidating Chanel's paradoxical character. A nuanced account of a contradictory, complex, quite extraordinary life. -- The Times Higher Education Supplement