I am not one to hype up a film till sickness ensues before it hits the big screen… If I haven’t seen it, I can’t really write about it, even if it is about Coco Chanel’s life. So I won’t talk to you about Coco Avant Chanel or about Audrey Tautou as Mademoiselle Chanel. At least not yet.


Given the impending release of Coco Avant Chanel, I thought it was a good time for a second viewing of Coco Chanel, a TV movie by Christian Duguay that came out last year, starring Barbora Bobulova as young Coco and Shirley MacLaine as the old Coco. The film keeps going back and forth between Coco’s “present” and her past, from her convent upbringing to her rise to fame. All this nicely punctuated by extremely tumultuous love affairs, glimpses into the gossipy Parisian society and great costumes by Stefano De Nardis and Pierre-Yves Gayraud.

Below are two of my favourite looks from the film, Coco in a white Peter Pan collar blouse wearing a black bow as a tie and Emilienne d’Alencon’s wonderful top hat/veil combination. There were many other scenes in the film that made my fashion bells ring, but these were definitely up there.


If you haven’t seen Coco Chanel, you should really try and get your hands on a copy as it is a good film, even if it was just made for TV. For those of you who grew up in France and were lucky enough to be familiar with les téléfilms de M6 l’après-midi, you will experience the same comforting feeling while watching Coco Chanel. Of course, the quality is way higher than your average Melissa Gilbert biopic, but the TV movie feel is still there… and oh boy it feels good.
Here’s a little Coco Chanel inspired look to start the day…