There may be a recession but the last place on earth you’d notice it is at Chanel. “We make a lot of money,” said Mr. Lagerfeld, squinting behind his dark glasses, as if this fact were as plain as the Eiffel Tower. He is sometimes in a mood to talk about Coco Chanel, whose life and capacity for survival never seem to bore him, and last night was such a time. He recently published (with Steidl) a book of photographs by Douglas Kirkland called Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel Summer 62.
In his text, he observes how Kirkland’s pictures in the house and on the Rue Cambon remove “from her image all its evils and the bitchy side popular imagination has attached to her persona.” The summer of 62 was, in a way, he wrote, “her last summer as the queen of fashion. Jeans and miniskirts were on their way to invade the world. Hating them and letting people know publicly how much she loathed the fashions to come she put herself instantly in the position of the has-been oracle of style and fashion.” He says 40,000 copies of the book have been sold.