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Several years after leaving the orphanage, to which her father never returned for her, Gabrielle Chanel finds herself working in a provincial bar. She's both a seamstress for the performers and a ...

Spectacle, a love triangle, heritage settings, bravura acting, witty dialogue, a bittersweet finale: There's something for everyone in Anne Fontaine's "Coco Before Chanel." By Bernard Besserglik, The ...

Coco Before Chanel is the story of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, who began her life as a headstrong orphan, and through an extraordinary journey became the legendary couturier who embodied the modern woman ...

Gabriel Bonheur Chanel (Coco) was born in 1883. When her mother died Coco was only twelve years old. Her father abandons her and her siblings in the largest orphanage of the region, a convent in ...