In the tradition of Calvin Tomkin’s classic LIVING WELL IS THE BEST REVENGE, CHANEL’S RIVIERA brings to life the French Riviera through the eyes of the legendary queen of fashion.

This is the story of an era and a place, as much as it is of a woman. The Cote d’Azur in 1938 was a wildly glamorous world poised on the edge of destruction as the rumblings of war got louder. It was a world of incredible wealth, luxury and sexual promiscuity, of people with bold-face names like the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Somerset Maugham, Gloria Swanson, Joe Kennedy, Nabokov, Colette, and Winston Churchill himself. Then, in a matter of months, the Nazis swooped down and the party was over.

Coco Chanel is our entrée to this glittering dance. Born an orphan, her beauty and formidable intelligence drove men crazy, but it was her incredible talent, relentless work ethic and exquisite taste that made her an icon. Only the crème da la crème were invited to the elegant soirees at her magnificently appointed villa, La Pausa. She knew absolutely everyone and through her social and artistic connections, we learn about their scandalous affairs, listen to their brilliant gossip, and admire their inimitable style.

In the way that Laura Thompson used the Mitfords to capture 1930’s London society, de Courcy uses Chanel to make the Riviera and its denizens dazzle.