Summary
The leather-bound fishing records of the Reay Forest Estate, a vast expanse of 100,000 acres of heathered hillsides near Cape Wrath record that this year marks the 85th anniversary of Coco Chanel's successful stitch-up of His Royal Highness the Salmon, king of fish.
The petite French designer, so it turns out, was an accomplished angler, as nimble at knotting a fly as stitching a lace trim to a rising hemline. For in the summer of 1925, she was reeled up towards Lochmore, the country home of the 2nd Duke of Westminster, the richest man who ever went by the name "Bendor". (While Coco, christened Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, adopted her nickname from one of the two songs she sang in a music hall as a young woman: Qui qu'a vu Coco?, a ditty about a girl who has lost her dog, the duke's monicker came courtesy of his grandfather's Derby-winning stallion. Is it any wonder they took against the animal kingdom with both rod and gun?)See the full content of this document
Extract
Coco Can Get Us All Hooked Again
According to Justine Picardie's new biography of Mademoiselle Chanel, the date on which she first plucked a salmon from her lover the duke's pool was 27 May, 1925, when a 9lb fish was generously liberated from his watery prison. Four days later she haule...
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