September heralds the end of summer and the beginning of the school year. For fashion audiences, this September is a celebration of the enduring legacy and fascination with Coco Chanel, the Frenchwoman. clothes designer, and referee of style and grace. Sony Pictures Classics Debuts Coco before Chanel (Coco before Chanel) starring Audrey Tautou on September 25, 2009. Karen Karbo’s The Gospel According to Coco Chanel just came out of Skirt Publishing. But true to the spirit of its theme, Coco Chanel Three Weeks 1962 by Douglas Kirkland of Glitterati Publishing, is a magnificent coffee table book that has style and substance.
Douglas Kirkland writes in his introduction, “It’s about who she was, who I was, and how it affected my life.” At 27, Kirkland, a photojournalist assigned to Look Magazine, met Chanel, who was 79 at the time, and recounted three weeks of her life in 1962.
Through a series of black and white photographs that are so luscious, mannered and completely Chanel-the thing is, Kirkland opens readers’ eyes to behind the scenes of the runway and rare personal moments.
Kirkland writes about this brief period in Paris from a personal perspective, reflecting on his conversations with the revered Mademoiselle Chanel. There are many parallels between these two disparate souls. They both came from humble origins, Kirkland from a small town in Canada and Chanel who grew up in an orphanage 200 miles from Paris.
Both artists pay attention to detail and eliminate the superfluous resulting in extraordinary beauty and simplicity. Chanel’s goal was to design clothes that would show the figure of a woman taking into account that women move, get in and out of cars, get on and off chairs, etc. For Chanel it was imperative that form and function were inherent in her designs.
Kirkland writes of his disciplined approach to his photography: “Is the exposure and focus correct? Am I at the best angle and in the right place?” As with Chanel’s dedication to recognizing the desire and needs of her clientele, Kirkland believes in listening and being “sensitive” to her subject while looking through her viewfinder in search of the “perfect” frame. Both designer and photographer honor the heart of their work with a shared and determined goal: a love for their subject and a desire to create absolute beauty.
In six short pages of text written 50 years after the meeting, Kirkland reflects on 1962 and packages his paragraphs with an intense amount of biographical information about Chanel. He writes about his interest in horse racing and gossip. Remember lunch at your apartment at The Ritz and a visit to Versailles. And then the reader turns the page to begin the photo essay with Chanel, dressed in a distinctive style, walking towards her Paris atelier.
Judith Thurman, literary critic of The New Yorker magazine and biographer of Colette and Isak Dinesen, has written an elegant foreword, worthy of the designer and photographer. His words capture the essence of Chanel and Kirkland and the intersection of their worlds. “… His art is tender. He maintains faith in an ideal of beauty, which they refuse to fetishize.”
Coco Chanel’s wise words have been repeated over the decades, many of them still being true today. Just before leaving home, Chanel advised one to take off the last thing they were wearing, as it is usually unnecessary.Coco Chanel Three Weeks 1962 it boils down to its very essence, yet offers a sublime and profound look at the work and lives of two extraordinary artists.
About Douglas Kirkland
Douglas Kirkland has been named “Photographer of the Year” (PMDA) and “Mentor of the Year” (Photofusion). He was a photojournalist for Look Y Life Magazines that capture seductive women like Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich on film. Kirkland, a Los Angeles, California resident, is married to Françoise, to whom the book is dedicated.
Coco Chanel Three Weeks 1962
Douglas kirkland
Published by Glitterati Inc.
ISBN # 978-0-9801557-1-6