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The definitive portrait of Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel, the original influencer whose iconic designs – the little black dress, the jersey separates, the costume pearls, the tweed suit and Chanel No 5 perfume – remain symbols of luxury, style, sexuality and power in the 21st century.

Coco was the designer who started a revolution inspired by her own trailblazing and radical appetite for independence. She liberated women from heavy, corseted clothes, giving them freedom to work, move and celebrate themselves. In a male-dominated world, she was rewarded with unrivalled wealth, recognition and celebrity, counting everyone from Winston Churchill to Cecil Beaton as friends.

But despite her triumph, Coco remained an enigma. Until her death in 1971 at the age of 87, she veiled the truth of her poor childhood growing up in an orphanage, her early years as a kept mistress and her sense of being a perpetual outsider.

She indulged in complex affairs with men, including - allegedly - the married composer Stravinsky, a grand duke who had fled revolutionary Russia and the wealthy Duke of Westminster, who left her for a younger woman. A wartime romance with a German agent led to accusations of Nazi collaboration and Coco’s exile from France for nearly a decade.

This compelling documentary weaves together the truth of the woman and her work in the closest we have to her own words, based on a series of intimate interviews with her biographer Paul Morand, and voiced by La Boum and Braveheart actress Sophie Marceau. With exquisite animation and unprecedented access to the House of Chanel archives, never before has a film managed to get to the heart of her enduring legacy like this one.

Using beautifully shot and exclusive interviews with long-time assistant Lilou Marquand, Coco's muse of the 60s Jackie Rogers, current Chanel muse Caroline de Maigret, hip-hop stylist Misa Hylton, supermodel Jerry Hall and daughter Georgia, Coco is revealed by women who knew her and continue to live and wear her vision.

This is the culturally defining exploration of a legend whose work reflects the story of the 20th century. As Coco explained: 'I’m not a heroine, but I have chosen the person I wanted to be.'