These pictures show the most influential fashion designer of all time at work- with a fag in the mouth that makes her look more like Dot Cotton from EastEnders. Tyrannical businesswoman, gifted designer, insufferable companion, selfish loner, workaholic, grande dame de toutes grandes dames, Coco Chanel had an epic life - and she could never give up the Gauloises.
Douglas Kirkland, perhaps best known for the charm and intimacy of his on-set portraits of film stars, photographed Coco in 1962, at an intriguing point in her life when she was still trying to live down her reputation as a Nazi collaborator. In France and elsewhere her work was selling, and she remained the darling of the French fashion press, but she had long had an uneasy relationship with the public.
Coco Chanel: The Weeks/1962, by Douglas Kirkland Exhibition at Westwood Gallery