Coco Avant Chanel

FASHION fans may or may not be delighted to hear the biopic ‘Coco Avant Chanel’ will be released on DVD next week (23rd November.) For you non bi-lingual types ‘avant’ simply translates to ‘before.’ Thus the film depicts Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel’s life before she became Frances’ most legendary designer.

Gorgeous Audrey Tautou stars as Coco a wilful, manipulative, increasingly confident woman, who uses her bisexuality to further her independence.

Usually now when discussing a DVD release the writer (me) would go on to describe the film, point out its merits and its weaknesses; well I’m not going to do that. If anyone out there read the reviews of this film during its release you’ll know then that the critics didn’t take too kindly to it. Instead I’m going to explain from a fashion lover’s point of view; just why this film was so visually beautiful in terms of watching Chanel grow and flourish but why I still left feeling disappointed because we never got to see any of the clothes she strived her whole life to achieve.

Nonetheless the subtly shot influences on her career were apparent everywhere in the film.
For example the black and white nuns outfits at the orphanage where she and her sister were left by their father, depicted as the motivation behind the monochrome themes synonymous with the House of Chanel. The now iconic, stripy Breton shirts inspired by a trip to the seaside with her lover Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel (Alessandro Nivola) and the riding jackets and pants she stole from her live in companion Étienne Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde) her part time lover and full time custodian who had picked her up from a bar only to have her turn up on his doorstep a few months later. She lived with him in his chateau learnt rich society games of horse riding, fancy dinners, and hat making, whilst suffering the indignities of having to eat with the servants as she was too poor to liaise with high society.



That said Coco was revolutionary and an anarchist. She wanted women to be free from the restraints of corsets, stripped bare from the typical abundance of frills and feathers. Dressed "comme le garcon" she was an unusual sight. In the film she is portrayed as both sweet and innocent and moody and sullen (spending a great deal of time hiding in corners at society parties chain smoking and making scathing comments about the other women’s’ big hats and frou-frou dresses,) implying she was a mix of contradictions. For example she lived from her lovers' fortunes, one of them also financed her and her business, but on the other hand she hated being a kept woman and all she wanted to do was to work - which was revolutionary and strange thinking in those days.

However, the film fails to reveal anything fundamental about the importance of Chanel or her times. For one thing, the movie almost totally ignores World War I, which had to have affected everyone involved. For another, director Anne Fontaine decided to focus on Chanel’s love life which, while somewhat entertaining, isn’t that interesting for a film depicting fashion. Ultimately the reason I left disappointed.