Chanel's Russian Friends: Love, Passion and Jealousy That Changed Fashion and Art of the 20th Century

The secret to the success of Paris milliner Coco Chanel lay not only in her talent and innovative ideas, but also in the influential Russian émigrés she met. Her close friend Misia Sert introduced her to famous Russian personalities such as Sergey Diaghilev, Igor Stravinsky, Leonid Myasin, Sergei Lifar, the Grand Duke Dmitry Romanov and Princess Maria Pavlovna— as well as to Pablo Picasso and his Russian wife Olga Khokhlova.

The novel “Chanel’s Russian Friends” is based on real facts and on records from Coco Chanel’s friend Paul Morand, which were not published during her lifetime. The author, Elena Celestine, conveys in the novel the details of Chanel’s introductions and collaboration with Russian émigrés, immersing the reader in the atmosphere of 1920s Paris—the era of new art, creativity, jealousy, and financial difficulties.