chanel: 67 posts

The Mul farm in Grasse has been growing roses and jasmine for Chanel for generations, and these precious essences are used in No 5 parfum. ELLE takes a look at the fields and interviews Chanel in-house perfumer, Christopher Sheldrake. Did you know that jasmine and strawberries share many similar components?

You can watch the video over at ELLE’s exclusive look at the creation of No 5. Sheldrake narrates the video.

Chanel claims that each 30ml bottle of No 5 parfum contains 1,000 jasmine flowers and 12 roses from Grasse. Since 1 kg of jasmine absolute and rose oil require 6 000 0000 jasmine blossoms and 1 600 000 rose blossoms, respectively, you can work out for yourself how much essence No 5 contains. On the other hand, what makes No 5 special is not just the rare materials, but their balance and harmony. Since the flower fields in Grasse have been steadily disappearing, the Mul farm is especially precious.

Photo by Bois de Jasmin

Of the three new extraits de parfum in Chanel’s Les Exclusifs collection, 1932 seemed most promising, but it turned out that Beige and Jersey held more surprises. As I mentioned in my review of 1932, if you didn’t like the Eau de Toilette, the parfum isn’t going to change your mind, but in the case of Beige and Jersey, the richness, new accents and nuances might make a positive difference for those who were ambivalent about the original versions.

Beige

I already enjoyed Beige for its understated elegance, and while I proclaim my undying love for Coromandel and Cuir de Russie, I wear this delicate white floral far more often. It certainly won’t turn heads the way Coromandel does or make you time travel to the Roaring Twenties like Cuir de Russie, but if you need a well-made fragrance that feels like a comfortable silk slip, Beige is perfect.

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When Chanel announced the launch of Beige, Jersey and 1932 in Extrait de Parfum, purportedly the richest and more luxurious concentration, I was excited. Although neither Jersey nor 1932 caught my attention in the Eau de Toilette versions (Beige, by contrast, is one of my staples), Chanel often has a few surprises up its sleeve, and I waited impatiently till my local boutique received the testers.

There was some speculation as to the reason why Chanel launched the “deluxe” versions of particular perfumes in the Les Exclusifs collection. Shouldn’t the exquisitely beautiful 28 La Pausa, sultry Coromandel or polished 31 Rue Cambon receive more attention? Chanel itself said something about the noble materials and other romantic things, but the truth is that Beige, Jersey and 1932 are the best sellers in the collection, and it made more business sense to focus on them first.

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Christian Dior will celebrate Miss Dior perfume with an exhibition at Paris’s Grand Palais next month. Miss Dior was originally created in 1947, and it’s a green mossy blend that inspired many other perfumes in the same bold, distinctive style. Today, if you want to smell it at Dior, you need to ask for Miss Dior Eau de Toilette Originale. The fragrance currently bearing the name of Miss Dior and fronted by Natalie Portman was created in 2005 and launched as Miss Dior Chérie. It’s a fruity-floral gourmand.

It’s not clear which of these perfumes the exhibit is going to celebrate, but according to WWD, it features large-scale artworks by 15 female artists, rare photographs and a selection of outfits including the dresses that Raf Simons designed for Portman to wear in the Miss Dior campaigns.

The Miss Dior exhibition will run at the Grand Palais in Paris from November 13 to 25 (free to public).

Meanwhile at Chanel, Marilyn Monroe is the new face of Chanel No.5. New print and television campaigns will feature the celebrated actress who once proclaimed that she wears nothing but  Chanel No.5 to bed. Since I found the ad with Brad Pitt to be confusing, to put it mildly, I can’t wait to see the new ads.

Perfumer Jacques Polge has authored or co-authored so many of my favorite Chanel fragrances (Beige, Coromandel, Cristalle Eau de Parfum, Coco) that it always pains me to admit that he has also authored my least-favorite Chanel scent, Chance.  Chance always smells to me as if a brand of lesser and striving quality decided to make something “à la Chanel” in style and came up with Chance.

I understand where marketing was going with this scent—that extremely lucrative twenty-something market must be addressed and not with No. 5.  In its fruit, vanilla, and patchouli trope Chance has the ingredients to appeal to this younger market and from that marketing standpoint Chance was a smart idea indeed; the scent does sell and sell well. I smell it on young girls in the mall, their hair swinging and their limbs tanned, and it doesn’t smell any better to me on them than it does on me.

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