Karen Karbo is the author of three novels (all New York Times “Notable Books”), two non-fiction titles and the Minerva Clark mystery series for middle grade readers, as well as a prolific journalist whose work you’ve probably read in The New York Times or magazines like Elle, Vogue, More and Self.
I was thrilled to talk to her about her latest book, The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons From the World’s Most Elegant Woman, and see if she learned as much from it as I have!
I’m excited that your book is out and the movie Coco Before Chanel, is coming out at the same time. Is this some kind of anniversary for Chanel or is the timing just a coincidence?
Complete coincidence! Coco is just in the air for some reason. And there’s apparently an author in the U.K. – Justine Picardie — who’s coming out with a full biography soon, too. It’s funny because I didn’t know about any of this. I got to Chanel from complete circuitous modes.
What made you decide to write about her?
Well, there were two threads. One is that I come from designers. My dad was an industrial designer [who designed the hood ornament you still see on the Lincoln Continental] and my grandmother was a dress designer in Los Angeles in the ‘50’s who made clothes for movie moguls’ wives. I grew up literally sitting underneath her cutting table, which was in her living room. I thought she was the wildest woman going. Coco Chanel was sort of always near, and when I wrote How to Hepburn, I came across the fact that Katharine Hepburn portrayed Coco Chanel on Broadway in the musical Coco.
Really? What weird casting!
That was the general consensus! It sort of reinvigorated the idea of Coco Chanel in my mind, though. I was looking to do another book, and when I began reading about her, I felt her life story was so extraordinary, it just really needed some attention.
Why did you decide to write it in the format you did? You make her story very personal for women — something we can really relate to and learn from. The clothes almost become secondary, which is quite a feat in a book about Coco Chanel.
Thank you. That was my intention. I’m very interested in why people become icons because obviously we’re the ones who make them icons. What is it about them and the way they live that keeps our attention for decades? That’s the way I approached this book. You know, here’s this woman who led this incredibly fascinating life and was creative and dynamic and romantic and she had tragedy and she was difficult and she forged her own way – and what is it about all of that that applies to us? (Pause) It is all about us. It is all about us in these modern times!
It’s interesting because the book is categorized as “Self-help” rather than “Biography.”
We went round and round on that. One of my students suggested I call the book a “riffography” which I thought was pretty good because it’s sort of a biography for the self-absorbed age. I didn’t have that term at my disposal when I was asked!
What was the most surprising thing you learned about Coco?
She was so very self-determined and so clear about who she was, except when it came to romance, to men. She had a million wonderful, fabulous, intriguing lovers but to the end of her days — and perhaps this is because she was French and had to worship at the altar of amour — she always said that all her loneliness would have been cured if she had married and had children.
After reading your book, it’s hard to believe that marriage would have made her happy, especially when she admits, “When it came time to choose between men and my dresses, I always chose my dresses.”
Exactly. If she had been someone else, that may have been true. But, no, she couldn’t even have dogs; how could she have been a mother? It was so interesting that she never seemed to know that about herself.
Coco seemed to be, from a very young age, the kind of woman most of us become after 50 – ready to do things on our own terms, not caring what other people think.
You know, most of us have to go through several stages of our life to get to that place. She knew, early on, that she couldn’t afford not to keep her eye on the ball.
You say, in the book, that’s one of the biggest life lessons from her – to just cut to the chase and not waste time on things that are irrelevant to your goals.
I recognize behavior from the writer’s life where you start working on something and you have to clean your desk first and dither a little here and there and make sure you’re well-rested and by the time you start working, the deadline’s there and you just get down to business. I think Coco lived in a state of just getting down to business, and it would probably be better for all of us if we did the same!
So what was the biggest life lesson you learned for yourself that you incorporate in your own life?
That’s a really good question. I think the most important thing I learned is that life needs to be lived from the inside out, and not from the outside in. It may have been easier for Coco to do this, since she lived in the time before television, but perhaps that makes the lesson even more important now. There’s that new book coming out about how “the older women get, the sadder they get” — well, of course, because we’re told hundreds of times a day, from a very young age, that youth-and-beauty is the only feminine currency honored. How different women might feel if they lived from the inside out.
That’s very empowering and was a hugely revolutionary idea at the time.
Coco’s big philosophy was that you’re only beautiful if you feel good inside, and her work was impeccably constructed and stitched so it truly was as perfect and gorgeous on the inside as it was on the outside. Her idea was that women would feel so good inside one of her pieces – they could raise their arms, move comfortably, not worry about fabric ripping — that they couldn’t help but walk through the world as a beautiful and confident woman.
Unfortunately, that still seems like a revolutionary idea!
I feel like in so many ways, it’s 1952 again, only with Brazilian bikini waxes. And nobody on the planet can be comfortable in jeans with such a low rise. I wish Coco could return from the grave to say, “You still haven’t learned!” She was inspired to make a comeback after WW II when Christian Dior came up with all those ridiculous clothes that took 20 yards of fabric and featured corsets and big skirts. She said, “I can’t believe I have to say the same things I did before: you need to be comfortable, you need to be able to move.”
What do you want women to take away from this book?
While the book is certainly a celebration of Chanel’s tremendous chic, and the power and beauty of her clothes, I want the average woman — someone like me, who loves fashion but doesn’t worship it, who has found her own style but is not a fashionista — to be able to relate to Chanel’s courage and self-sufficiency. Coco was far from perfect, but she did live life completely on her own terms.
One last question. I’ve been envyingly following your progress on the Chanel-inspired-jacket you’re making. How’s it coming, and did you ever find out if the fabric you’re using is really from a Chanel line?
The sleeves are killing me! I’m using a piece of fabric from France and I think realistically it’s probably not from a Chanel line but it might have been. Because Coco would have lied and made up the answer she wanted — and this jacket is inspired by her — I’m going to go out on a limb and just say, “Yes, it’s from Chanel.”
This post originally appeared on my former blog, StyleSubstanceSoul.
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