Coco Chanel working in her Paris atelier in 1962. Click to see the full image.
Photograph by Douglas Kirkland

Douglas Kirkland’s best photograph: Coco Chanel at work in Paris, 1962

‘In the three weeks I was there, I never saw Chanel without her hat on – and she smoked constantly’

Interview by Karin Andreasson

Thu 8 Jan 2015

I

n August 1962, the American picture magazine Look sent me to Paris to shoot Coco Chanel after it emerged that Jackie Kennedy had been wearing her dresses and suits in the White House. Americans had heard of the perfume Chanel No 5, but until then they had no idea Chanel was also a fashion label.