Chanel Gabrielle: Making Of A Classic

What does it take for a perfume to transcend time? Unique ingredients? A legendary name? Gabrielle by Chanel has both.

Classic, did you say classic? In perfumery, a classic, inescapably, transcends time. It becomes a point of reference held in high regard for its pure finish, for the coming together of all its components directed by a gifted hand. It registers very well with its own time, it either jostles with it or, on the contrary, merges with it completely. Thanks to its intrinsic qualities, it can do nothing else but become relevant on a quasi-universal dimension. A signature perfume, it is recognisable by its own personal, unique scent. And after, there either is or isn’t a transformation in its relationship with its era before it becomes timeless.

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Each decade brings with it certain classics, that sometime slip into a slumber and leave our minds for brief moment. Some are continually visible through the passage of time and to them a brief disappearance is almost fatal. Chanel N°5 has remained the classic. This quasi centenary composition has continued to be the most famous in the world. “To create a perfume which is successful and that would also probably last,” says flacon designer, Pierre Dinand, “is like sitting at a slot machine in a casino and waiting as it will only dole the money out if all the four cherries or bananas align.” The fragrance, the name, the flacon and the message represent those four elements in this case.

The name

The original name, Gabrielle, nurtured the infancy and accompanied the adolescence of the couturier before Coco could invent and forge an audacious and out of the ordinary personality.

Gabrielle, is where it all began, is the foundation that comes from the name of an archangel. Influenced by the disappearance of a mother and the loss of a father through certain events, Gabrielle Chanel spent her adolescence receiving a pension in an austere environment, Aubazine, a strict Cistercian abbey.

Edmonde Charles-Roux, in L’irrégulière asks, “Is it the monastery of Aubazine that gave her the meaning of starkness which is witnessed in her work thereafter, her instinctive horror for that which goes beyond moderation, and how her work has always maintained a significant distance from excess? Unconsciously, without a doubt, Aubazine remained one of the sources of Chanel’s aesthetic.

Gabrielle is all the strength of an aspiring individual, an extraordinary personality who will bloom. A free and daring woman who was also a romantic, a rebel who would never give in, always evolving, living her personal and private lives with gumption. Gabrielle, the perfume, stands as an identifier for a woman who has succeeded. This name opens to a new life, for a woman ready to conquer the world, who says: I chose that what I wanted to be and I am it.

The perfume

Undeniably and instinctively the composition has its own identity. A strange sensation takes over when you uncork the bottle. It is an unwavering conviction of an inexplicable nature.

Olivier Polge has chosen the best of flowers just as Gabrielle Chanel had decided to do for her first perfume: only mature flowers of best quality. For this new abstract, imaginary bouquet, Olivier began with choosing a few, very Chanel, flowers — ylang ylang, jasmine and orange blossom — and played around with those. The orange blossom fizzes, refreshing with citric notes, mandarin peel, grapefruit zest and a touch of cassis. The jasmine accentuates the intensity. The ylang-ylang, with an addition of white musk, has velveteen traces.

To this glorious bouquet, tuberose, a powerful, most disconcerting of all perfumery, almost hypnotic flower, is added. Legends are woven around this flower: young girls should not be allowed to approach this flower in the night for fear of over-stimulating their senses. In this perfume the tuberose is tame, made gentle with smooth sandalwood. It is an abstract floral composition and resolutely Chanel.

The flacon

A simple and sober appearance, geometrically sound squaring, the flacon represents a technical prowess orchestrated without flamboyance but with elegance. Even in the era of N°5, this sobriety has been fascinating. For Edmonde Charles-Roux, “what is remarkable about this full of life packaging is that the creative imagination subscribed to is of a new system of indicators. This golden liquid trapped in a naked crystal cube and made visible for the sole purpose of desire.” For Gabrielle, the sobre square has been reinvented.

The inspiration came from multiple sources from the world of couture: Lesage embroidery, a Desrue necklace with feather motifs, and a gold and vermeil box gifted to Coco Chanel by the Duke of Westminster. At the base of the flacon, where normally the glass is needlessly thick and opaque, Gabrielle is light and transparent. The marloquette also called the policeman’s hat, is a technical term used for the convex raised excess glass at the bottom of the flacon which in this case has been pushed outward and then polished to remove the bulge allowing the base to sit perfectly. On the sides, the gently bevelled edges orchestrate a geometric cut of the glass so that the lines, like rays, converge at the centre where the label is put. A squared, spot-faced, mat stopper bearing the double C initials dresses the rest.

The muse

To personify this new perfume, a modern day personality was required, an actress who is already very Chanel, an ambassador for its les metiers d’arts and makeup campaigns. Noticed first for her adolescent performance in Panic Room, Kristen Stewart has moved from the Twilight saga to great American movies like Into the Wild and art films such as Sils Maria and Personal Shopper by Olivier Assayas. Actress of a specific taste, Kristen flaunts a style that is uniquely her own. Already the muse for the new Gabrielle bag, she will be seen in a photography campaign by Karim Sadli along and a film directed by Ringan Ledwidge.

From the September 2017 issue of L’Officiel India.