Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel's innovative fashion ideas-jersey knit fabrics, easy-to-wear garments based on men's sportswear, showy costume jewelry, and the little black dress-challenged the world of fashion head on. This lavishly illustrated book focuses on Chanel the couturiere and her immense influence on the way women choose to look in the modern world. Using previously unpublished material, the fashion icon is examined in depth-her career, her style, her workroom, her customers, and her rivals.

Chanel's revolutionary style is examined in vivid detail, from her emergence in the early twentieth century through her glorious "comeback period" of the fifties and sixites to her legacy as the inspiration behind the exciting contemporary creations of the House of Chanel. As exciting as a front row seat at a couture show, Chanel: The Couturiere at Work is a compelling look at the empire of one of the indisputable geniuses of twentieth-century fashion.