num_pages: 329
description: A novel of survival love loss triumphand the sisters who changed fashion foreverAntoinette and Gabrielle Coco Chanel know theyre destined for something better. Abandoned by their family years before theyve grown up under the guidance of pious nuns preparing them for simple lives as the wives of tradesmen or shopkeepers. At night their secret stash of romantic novels and magazine cutouts beneath the floorboards are all they have to keep their dreams of the future alive.The walls of the convent cant shield them forever and when theyre finally of age the Chanel sisters set out together with a fierce determination to prove themselves worthy to a society that has never accepted them. Their journey propels them out of poverty and to the stylish cafs of Moulins the dazzling performance halls of Vichyand to a small hat shop on the rue Cambon in Paris where a business takes hold and expands to the glamorous French resort towns. But when World War I breaks out their lives are irrevocably changed and the sisters must gather the courage to fashion their own places in the world even if apart from each other.
language: English
title: The Chanel Sisters
publisher: Graydon House