Coco and the Little Black Dress by Annemarie Van Haeringen (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Coco and the Little Black Dress by Annemarie Van Haeringen Elizabeth Bush Van Haeringen, Annemarie Coco and the Little Black Dress; tr. from the Dutch; written and illus. by Annemarie Van Haeringen. NorthSouth, 2015 [32p] ISBN 978-0-7358-4239-7 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 3-5 The story starts in an orphanage, with little girls in the hallway all in a row. This is decidedly not Madeline; these girls are scrubbing floors, and Coco Chanel, whose famous surname never appears in the text, “was very tired, and she was always hungry.” But the girls in this orphanage learned to embroider beautifully, and when Coco grew up, she had the skills to become a seamstress and rub shoulders with the wealthy. Soon she was turning out women’s riding jodhpurs and trim boater hats in an age of frou frou and feathers (“The dignified ladies, glorious in their full skirts and tightly laced corsets, watched jealously. . . . ‘We want that too! Away with corsets!’”) Having dispensed with the stays, it was time to dispense with color as well, and Coco made her signature contribution to fashion with “The Little Black Dress—the magic little dress that shows how beautiful a woman is.” Omitting the “Chanel” is a coyly effective device whereby young fashion cognoscenti can boast their superior knowledge of the iconic perfume bottle on the cover and anticipate the introduction of the LBD. And for those in the dark, it casts Coco Chanel’s story as a sort of fairy tale, in which the orphan girl makes her mark on the world. Van Haeringen’s line and watercolor pictures sport the dashed-off air of a fabulous idea captured in a quick sketch, and her humorous take on pudgy matrons bulging in their corsets and ultimately casting them off in a gleeful dance of freedom is delightful. Readers won’t get a complete and accurate picture of Chanel’s complicated life here, but those who appreciate the miracle of the LBD will applaud at the final spread, where black-clad women of all ages and body types proudly strut their stuff. Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois