The Architecture of Olfactory

10.11.2020 | Blog , Fashion | BY: admin

Everyone has their first memories of Chanel N°5. It’s a scent you almost hear of first, whispered and revered.

Chanel N°5 represents ultimate aspiration. Sexy and undone. It’s glamour in the most heady sense of that word. And then there’s the first electrifying memory of a family member, lover or friend – it’s never yourself who wears it first. But you know the scent, you don’t have to ask.

“One must start from the beginning: what does N°5 have to tell us? N°5 is not a simple fragrance. It is an idea. It is an equation that was built to stand the test of time. How can we embody this idea today?” asks Thomas Du Pré de Saint-Maur, Head of Global Creative Resources for Fragrance and Beauty at Chanel.

100 years later, and the parfum continues to captivate wearers. Tasked with reimagining the next chapter for this iconic scent is a significant and exhilarating challenge. And perfect for a figure such as Thomas Du Pré de Saint-Maur, who is adept at drawing inspiration from the past and imaginatively infusing it with the present.

He explains: “I am driven by words, literature and art. I cannot live without reading. I cannot think without speaking. Literature stimulates the imagination; the images are there indirectly. As for art, and particularly Greek and Roman antiquities, it never ceases to trigger intense emotions within me and make me question my concept of modernity and universality.”

*Behind the scenes for the new CHANEL N°5 fragrance campaign, with Marion Cotillard.*

Historic and renowned, as a fragrance N°5 is modern, and timeless. It always was. When initially conceptualising the scent Coco Chanel asked for “an artificial fragrance like a dress, something crafted.” She sought “a woman’s fragrance that smells like a woman”. Then, it was a marked departure from the singular floral, natural scents that traditional perfumers had sought to evoke. Today, it is the aspirational precedent.

Who better to represent that precedent today than Marion Cotillard, a talent who lingers in your memory as if a fragrance herself – compelling, confident and Cotillard embodies a modern myth.

In the latest campaign, Chanel offers a welcome moment of pure, fantastical escapism. Filmed in Saint-Denis, at the Cité du Cinéma and featuring “500 square kilometers of golden moon”, the CHANEL woman embarks on an adventure to the moon and back. The film, Thomas Du Pré de Saint-Maur explains “is decidedly resonant with the present. The song by Lorde, “We are on each other’s team” echoes this perfectly.”

Back to that first evocative note of Chanel N°5. The moment of olfactory revelation. It has always been about aspiration, about the dream of who one might become, who one could become. “The power of N°5 lies in its promise” Thomas Du Pré de Saint-Maur surmises, “which is namely the ability of every woman to make things happen for herself, if she chooses to put her heart and soul into her life.”