Chanel.

Rating:
Summary: Coco Chanel at her Best
Review: A simple, yet elegant remembrance of the twentieth century's most influential fashion designer. The 1930's photographs of Chanel are classic, and her resurgance in the late 1950's and early 1960's was nothing less than spectcular. The concise text is filled with archival photographs depicting memorable Chanel styles and designs. Karl Lagerfeld has contributed his own interpretation of timeless Chanel fashions with illustrations that truly set this book apart.

Rating:
Summary: Coco Chanel at her Best
Review: A simple, yet elegant remembrance of the twentieth century's most influential fashion designer. The 1930's photographs of Chanel are classic, and her resurgance in the late 1950's and early 1960's was nothing less than spectcular. The concise text is filled with archival photographs depicting memorable Chanel styles and designs. Karl Lagerfeld has contributed his own interpretation of timeless Chanel fashions with illustrations that truly set this book apart.

Rating:
Summary: A true fashionista's keepsake in need of more material
Review: I for one was thrilled when I found this three volume set on the bookseller's shelf despite being on the very thin side. There are clean reprints of some of the most iconic images of Coco Chanel and well chosen advertising images of the recent last thirty or so years. These of course include photos of the achingly beautiful spokesmodels Carole Bouquet, Catherine Deneuve and Anna Mouglalis for Chanel's various products. I am happy to have bought the set but I really wish there had been far more pictorial material. I am certain Chanel's archives are far more plentiful and the books left me wanting much more. I have not been able to find an adequate Chanel book that is still in print but this set will do for a start since it was bought at a discounted price. The written material is simply succinct and perhaps that's best. Fashion shouldn't be overanalyzed anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Strictly a Picture Book
Review: Skip the text in this little book. Instead, read the jacket notes. There is no new information about Mademoiselle Chanel and the already well-known history of her life is so obtusely written the text seems like an outline of a romance novel.
This is a book to own only for the archival photographs and the "select chronology" of Coco's fashion house that still thrives--some 25 years after her death. Snapshots of some of the male influences in her life finally put faces to names. However, a photograph of her best friend, Madame Misia Sert, is noticeably missing and should have also been included.
Interspersed with the photographs are whimsical montage illustrations by Karl Lagerfeld, the current design director of Chanel. There are also a few photographs from modern advertising campaigns epmphasizing, even more, that this is not a must-read

Rating:
Summary: Definitely a keeper
Review: To a die hard Chanel fan, this may seem a rudimentary account of Gabrielle Chanel's accomplishments. However, there is no discounting the concise yet impactful way the information is presented to the reader. Baudot is not afraid to acknowledge the evolution of the CHANEL name to the entity known today,the most viable independent fashion house of this century. She discreetly recognizes Karl Lagerfeld for breathing new life into Gabrielle Chanel's classic designs.The magnificent photos and drawings are reflective of this progression and provide the reader with a visual timeline.As with the entire "Universe of Fashion" series, this book is definitely a keeper. These books make a great addition to any fashionphile's library.