Countless books and films have told all or some fraction of how Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel came to dominate and transform the fashion industry. Followers of fashion have been regaled with tales of her love affairs and how pillow talk helped to finance her design empire. Fans of bootstrap success stories have heard admiring snippets of how an orphaned young girl managed to combine her modest sewing skills with an eye for style to rise from peasant to cultural royalty.