Coco Chanel

"Each image makes you feel as though you are right there, experiencing this privileged world!"- Eat Love Savor Douglas Kirkland, one of Look and LIFE magazine's most noted photographers, spent three weeks with fashion icon Coco Chanel in 1962. First published in 2008 to coincide with the 125th anniversary of Chanel's birth, and now in its fourth printing, Coco Chanel: Three Weeks 1962 (Glitterati), offers a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a fashion icon. Photo District News, April 1, 2015 Like many photography books on fashion designers + their creative process, Kirkland's take on Chanel + her overwhelming presence in fashion history, is beautifully captured in this book with several pictures of her in her atelier with models, admirers + press + the occasional candid shot taken outdoors, all while wearing her white hat which she never took off. Yet the brilliance in these photos also lies in how a lot of them could easily pass for modern day editorials, even with all the Sixties hairdos seen throughout. -- Yvette de las Nueces April 1, 2015 French designer Coco Chanel created a contemporary silhouette for the modern woman with the creation of famed fashion house, Chanel. Photographer Douglas Kirkland, who shot behind-the-scenes photos for films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sound of Music, captured the fashion icon for 21 days in 1962. Coco Chanel: Three Weeks/1962 from Glitterati Incorporated is Kirkland's chronicle of his Paris assignment for Look Magazine, during which he wound up living with Chanel for three weeks. The photos reveal an intimate side to the designer's very public life. -- Alison Nastasi, Flavorwire Kirkland had been with Look magazine a little over a year when he got the assignment to photograph Chanel. Despite their age difference - she was 79 and he was 27 - they found common ground that allowed Kirkland amazing access to photograph her both on the job and off. Palm Springs Life A new book of Coco Chanel pictures - taken over just three weeks in 1962 by photographer Douglas Kirkland - shows a new side to the formidable and brilliant 'Mademoiselle'. Kirkland, who spent 21 days with Chanel in her apartment in the Ritz, at the studio preparing for a catwalk show, and on a weekend trip to Versailles, revealed that he built a friendly relationship with the designer - but never saw her remove her signature hat. 05/06/2015 The book serves as an affectionate photo album starring the 79-year old fashion pioneer as she tirelessly works at her atelier and commands the streets of Paris...the photos are so intimate that we feel like flies on those hallowed workroom walls, watching intently as Chanel and her team go about their day-to-day activities. -- Stacey Appel 04/16/2015 "Coco" Chanel broke all of the rules in fashion when she began designing in France. Suddenly, gone were the corset and feathers. She wanted women to be comfortable as well as chic, bringing slacks, bathing suits, and her most treasured fragrance ever, Chanel #5 into being. My own Mother who could never afford a classic Chanel suit, sought out the most luxurious wool fabric and the perfect trim, painstakingly making a spring suit for herself, down to the minutest of details. -- Karena Albert May 25, 2015 Chanel's genius was for simplicity. To achieve simplicity, you have to trust your instincts. That is what Chanel sawand trustedin Douglas Kirkland. 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 past and modern age. -- Peter Nitsch GetAddictedTo.com, June 9, 2015 This is a wonderful book for several reasons. First, Coco Chanel was probably the most important figure in women's fashion. She created a perfume (Chanel, No.5) that still remains the most popular scent ever. Then, Mr. Kirkland created beautiful images of her that reveal her persona. Was she the dainty, impeccably dressed, business tycoon ruling her fashion empire with great skill, the designer who pinned and worked a sleeve with the ever-present cigarette hanging from her mouth, or was she the lady who watched the reactions to her fashion presentations from a secluded stairwell always wearing her hat and ever-present string of pearls. As the book of images unfolds, more of the woman is unveiled. One could only wish to have been there. -- Noella Ballenger Apogee Photo Magazine Though we know Chanel best when she was at her height, Coco Chanel: Three Weeks/1962 by Douglas Kirkland (Glitterati Incorporated) provides a new look at the designer when she had returned to the public eye in the last decade of her life. -- Miss Rosen Crave Online, July 3, 2015 Coco Chanel: Three Weeks/1962 by Douglas Kirkland is a distinctly unique and intimate look at the woman who transformed contemporary fashion...Kirkland fixed his lens on Coco Chanel for twenty-one days in 1962. -- Sara Rosen AI-AP Design Arts Daily, September 2, 2015