Chanel will launch Bleu de Chanel, a new fragrance for men, in late summer. The name is taken from a Chanel fragrance of the 1930s. The advertising will feature French actor Gaspard Ulliel directed by Martin Scorsese…
Introducing CHANCE EAU TENDRE Eau de Toilette by CHANEL.
A new facet of CHANCE is born — the third generation of the CHANCE Fragrance family. CHANEL Master Perfumer Jacques Polge has created a new fragrance constellation that is a whirlwind of tender and vibrant notes. This incarnation of the decidedly youthful scent reveals itself to be [...]
In early April, Chanel will launch Chance Eau Tendre, a new flanker to 2002’s Chance fragrance for women (and see also: Chance Eau Fraîche).
Pure olfactory poetry, a reminder of how rare…
In Perfumes: the A-Z Guide, Luca Turin writes that Chanel Coco Mademoiselle was a quickly assembled flanker, and its success surprised Chanel. However, in Women’s Wear Daily1 before Coco Mademoiselle launched, Chanel’s “Vice President of fragrance and internet marketing”2 said Coco Mademoiselle could double Coco’s business. In the same article, “industry insiders” guessed Coco Mademoiselle might earn as much as $15 million its first year.
Maybe Chanel’s statement about doubling Coco’s earnings was merely grandstanding for the press, but Women’s Wear Daily later reported Coco Mademoiselle raked in $21 million that first year.3 It also broke records by winning the FiFi for Prestige Fragrance in all the FiFi countries — the United States, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Great Britain — as well as being awarded the European Star of the Year. Coco Mademoiselle has continued to hold its ground. The NPD Group, a market research firm, listed it as the third best selling fragrance in the United States in 2008…
Most of us have fragrance milestones: the first perfume we bought with our own money, our first “serious” perfume, and maybe our first signature scent, back before perfume mania sank the whole signature scent possibility. My first signature scent was Chanel Coco. Now, a couple of decades and hundreds of perfumes separate me from my Coco days. When I stopped by Nordstrom last week to ask for a sample of the Eau de Parfum, I didn’t hold out much hope I’d still like it. After all, I’ve loved and left my share of 1980s blockbusters.
Silly me. It turns out all those sample vials of scent from drugstores to niche perfumeries I devoured over the years only led me to appreciate Coco’s artistry more. Coco is warm, elegant, beautifully blended, and easy. No, it won’t shock or challenge. There’s nothing funky or bizarre or tough about it. But just as a dinner of perfectly roasted chicken, potatoes, sautéed chard, and glass of Pinot Noir by the fire won’t rock the world, it satisfies far more often than the sous vide-cooked special from the latest darling chef.
In Perfume: Joy, Obsession, Scandal, Sin, Richard Stamelman quotes from a 1936 Chanel publicity text about Chanel Cuir de Russie:
…I easily imagine this perfume floating in the wake of a tall, slender brunette, whose moves are confident, who voice is accustomed to giving orders, and who fingers are slightly darkened by tobacco. She is one of those women who always wears a suit, even at midnight at the Savoy; one of those women captivating to watch at the casino in Monaco, who after having lost a sum of money, takes bills and a money order from a love letter hidden in her fine leather handbag, where they have taken on a pungent, slightly wild odor, and with great calm throws them on the green baize of the gaming table.1
Wowee! Who could resist a fragrance like that? (Let’s hope the copy writer went on to a career as a novelist.) But by dint of perspective or reformulation, today’s Cuir de Russie is still beautiful, but not the butch aristocrat of yesteryear. Instead, it’s as if the Cuir de Russie of 70 years ago earned an advanced degree and spent time on the therapist’s couch. She’s still elegant and self-possessed, but she’s not getting written up in the gossip columns…