Justine Picardie Libros

A collection of essays, letters, and personal recollections in which Ruth Picardie records her feelings in the year before she died of breast cancer.

Coco Chanel (1883–1971) stands as a captivating figure and a pivotal force in fashion history, yet her life is shrouded in myths and half-truths. Justine Picardie delves into the reality behind the legend, narrating Chanel’s story with the flair and clarity that Coco herself would admire. The biography explores Chanel’s private life and the iconic elements of her fashion empire, including the tweed jacket, little black dress, N° 5 perfume, pearls, and camellia. It reveals that Chanel’s distinctive style stemmed from her rigorous elegance, self-belief, and unconventional approach. Picardie had access to Chanel’s archives and was the first to examine previously undiscovered private collections in the UK and France, enriching her narrative with unique insights. The book, featuring designs and illustrations by Karl Lagerfeld, serves as the definitive biography of the elusive Coco Chanel. Justine Picardie, born in 1961, is a respected journalist and author, previously serving as features editor of British Vogue and editor of the Observer magazine. She contributes to various publications, including the Sunday Telegraph and Harper’s Bazaar, and has authored several books, including If the Spirit Moves You, Wish I May, and Daphne.

Alternate cover available here.Honor Harris is only 18 when she first meets Richard Grenvile, proud, reckless—and utterly captivating. But following a riding accident, Honor must reconcile herself to a life alone. As Richard rises through the ranks of the army, marries and makes enemies, Honor remains true to him, and finally discovers the secret of Menabilly.

Miss Dior is a story of freedom and fascism, beauty and betrayal, roses and repression, and how the polished surface of fashion conceals hidden depths. 'A gripping story.' ANTONIA FRASER'Extraordinary .

Sleek. Chic. Notoriously guarded. Welcome to the secret world of Gabrielle Chanel. The story of Chanel begins with an abandoned child, as lost as a girl in a dark fairy tale. Unveiling remarkable new details about Gabrielle Chanel’s early years in a convent orphanage and her flight into unconventional adulthood, Justine Picardie explores what lies beneath the glossy surface of a mythic fashion icon. Throwing new light on her passionate and turbulent relationships, this beautifully constructed portrait gives a fresh and penetrating look at how Coco Chanel made herself into her own most powerful creation. An authoritative account, based on personal observations and interviews with Chanel’s last surviving friends, employees and relatives, it also unravels her coded language and symbols, and traces the influence of her formative years on her legendary style. Feared and revered by the rest of the fashion industry, Coco Chanel died in 1971 at the age of eighty-seven, but her legacy lives on. Drawing on unprecedented research, Justine Picardie brings her fascinating, enigmatic subject out of hiding and uncovers the consequences of what Chanel covered up, unpicking the seams between truth and myth in a story that reveals the true heart of fashion.

The narrative explores the profound emotional journey of Justine Picardie following her sister's death from breast cancer. It delves into her struggle to connect with her sister's spirit and the ways she copes with the profound silence left in her absence. The bond between the sisters is depicted as an enduring conversation, highlighting themes of love, loss, and the search for meaning in the aftermath of tragedy. The book reflects on how grief transforms relationships and the enduring impact of a deep familial connection.

It is 1957. As Daphne du Maurier wanders alone through her remote mansion on the Cornish coast, she is haunted by thoughts of her failing marriage and the legendary heroine of her most famous novel, Rebecca, who now seems close at hand. Seeking distraction, she becomes fascinated by Branwell, the reprobate brother of the Bronte sisters, and begins a correspondence with the enigmatic scholar Alex Symington in which truth and fiction combine. Meanwhile, in present day London, a lonely young woman struggles with her thesis on du Maurier and the Brontes and finds herself retreating from her distant husband into a fifty-year-old literary mystery .

Witty, playful, and effortlessly chic, Inge Morath: On Style reveals the vital forms of fashion and self-expression that blossomed into existence in England, France, and the United States in the postwar decades. The book follows the photojournalist Inge Morath (1923-2002) through intimate sessions with Ingrid Bergman and Audrey Hepburn; scenes of window-shopping on Fifth Avenue; American girls discovering Paris; the frenetic splendor of society balls; and working women--from actresses to seamstresses to writers--everywhere taking their place in the world. The photographs in On Style focus on an extraordinary period of Morath's creativity, from the early 1950s to mid- 1960s, with a coda of work from later years. Here are the fundamental humanism, joy, and unerring eye for life's brilliant theatricality that characterized her work and made her one of the most celebrated photographers of her time.

Revoluční módní návrhářka nahradila korzety z velrybích kostí námořnickými halenkami a volnými kalhotami a okázalé večerní róby vyměnila za malé černé šaty s jedinou šňůrkou perel. Zkrátka oblečením, v němž ženy mohly žít, dýchat a cítit se pohodlně. Obávaná i uctívaná svými současníky zemřela v roce 1971, ale její odkaz žije dál jako trvalá globální značka. Britská spisovatelka Justine Picardie strávila deset let pátráním po skutečné Coco Chanel, skryté pod slupkou legendární módní ikony. Ve své knize odhaluje skutečnost zbavenou nánosů romantiky a mýtů. Seznamuje nás s detaily traumatického dětství, útěku do nekonvenční dospělosti, odhaluje bolestnou minulost, lásky a ztráty, honbu za slávou a bohatstvím a to, jak se Chanel proměnila ve svůj největší výtvor. Biografie doprovázená více než šedesáti dobovými fotografiemi se umístila mezi finalisty Galaxy National Book Awards 2010.

Příběh výjimečného života Catherine Dior (1917-2008), jež byla múzou svého bratra Christiana i statečnou členkou francouzského odboje. Britská spisovatelka Justine Picardie se vydává po stopách mladší sestry jednoho z nejvlivnějších světových módních návrhářů, která ho inspirovala k slavnému parfému a ovlivnila jeho pojetí ženskosti a krásy. Dva roky po druhé světové válce se Paříž vzpamatovávala z německé okupace a toužila žít znovu naplno. Christian Dior byl tím, kdo jí na poli módy vdechl nové sebevědomí, když představil svou první kolekci známou pod pojmem New Look. Styl vytříbeného luxusu, ženskosti a elegance znamenal revoluci v dámském odívání a z Paříže opět udělal centrum světové módy. Ve stejné době jako New Look vznikl také Diorův první a dodnes legendární parfém Miss Dior pojmenovaný na počest jeho mladší sestry Catherine. Ženy, jež riskovala život v odboji proti nacistům a přežila mučení, koncentrační tábor i pochod smrti. Té, která bratra v mnohém inspirovala a opatrovala jeho odkaz až do své smrti. Ale zatímco se Christian Dior stal jedním z nejznámějších Francouzů na světě, Catherine zůstává v jeho stínu. Kniha Justine Picardie je cestou k nápravě: pečlivě rekonstruuje Catherinin životní příběh a současně zkoumá odkaz něžného bratra, který nedokázal zapomenout na sestřino utrpení, byť její rány halil do květinového hedvábí a vůně lásky. Text doprovází velké množství vzácných dobových fotografií a ilustrací.