Coco or the Little Black Dress

Annemarie van Haeringen has captured the life of Coco Chanel in striking images and a sleek and elegant story. This biographical picture book is a perfect blend of fact and fiction.

Children's books
Author
Annemarie van Haeringen

“In a black dress, you notice the woman who is wearing it, rather than the dress itself,” Coco says to her customers who aren’t even sure that black is a colour. The girl who grew up in an orphanage became the most famous fashion designer of the twentieth century. With her simple, stylish designs, Coco Chanel (1883–1971) liberated women from their tight corsets. In Coco of het kleine zwarte jurkje (Coco or the Little Black Dress), Annemarie van Haeringen’s vivid, dramatic illustrations have all of the impact of Chanel’s powerful designs.

This book was published as part of a series of art picture books by Leopold and the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. This successful series sets itself apart from other children’s books about art because of its fictional component, offering writers and illustrators the opportunity to com­bine their own skills with those of the artist they admire.

Annemarie van Haeringen
Three-time Gouden Penseel winner Annemarie van Haeringen (b. 1959) studied under Thé Tjong-Khing at art school, but she learned most about the profession of illustration from her fellow artist Max Velthuijs. Since her debut in 1985, her work has evolved from detailed watercolour and ink illustrations to whimsical line drawings featuring a bold use of colour and plenty of space on the paper. Picture books form the core of Van Haeringen’s oeuvre. She often writes them herself, as well as illustrating, as in her award-winning 'Beer is op Vlinder' (Bear Loves Butterfly) and 'Coco or the Little Black Dress'.
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