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History re-writing itself, as Vanessa Paradis, Lily Rose Depp's mother, had been the face of Coco by Chanel perfume two decades ago and counting, trapped within a bird's cage.
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| pic of Lily Rose Depp from i-D |
Seeing as we had announced the upcoming Chanel No.5 L'Eau fragrance a while ago with the tag line "meant to appeal to millenials" (and the sneaking suspicion its face will be Kristen Stewart who has signed with Chanel already), it seems that Chanel is embracing this demographic tighter than generally anticipated for. But then Chanel did almost the same thing during the early 1980s when Karl Lagerfeld essentially took a dying house and injected it with youth.
The good thing is that with Lily Rose Depp being quite inquisitive about her own sexual direction and open about it, this is a rather good chance for mainstream media and pop culture to delve a little deeper into how we define such fluid terms as femininity. I know it's a little hip, even in academic circles, but all the same it might serve as the nudge that would shift the scales off balance in how we envision fragrance; a gender bender fragrance opportunity in what is ultimately both a means of identity and of a calling card.
Parthian shot: Is it my own perverted mind who sees the bondage link between the two?
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Fucking embarrising.
ReplyDeletePlease elaborate? (could be interpreted a hundred different ways)
DeleteI find this new relaese boring before I have sniffed it, and that is because of this new face.
DeleteThanks, Hilde, for clarifying, even if I was belated in saying so.
DeleteCelebrities' kids inherited the world :-)
ReplyDeleteMakes one want to push their parents into show business! :O :D
DeleteWell it is consistent with the gender bender idea with the new Boy Les Exclusifs ...a nice theme.
ReplyDeleteGood choice I say. Why not.
I am also glad to hear L'eau will be rose dominant rather than gourmand. Whew ....
I think it will be light and airy with a slice of fruity citrus atop ;-)
DeleteThe theme of gender bender is SO Chanel that it begs to be treated that way.
Fashion has always been entrenched with nepotism, but lately it has become absolutely ridiculous. Still, Lily-Rose isn't the worst of the bunch. She's pretty and poised, with a lucky resemblance to both her parents...until she speaks. Let's just say she is a teenager through and through, and while that's normal and there is nothing wrong with it, it still puts a curb on her allure.
ReplyDeleteAs for her proclamations about her sexual orientation, claiming to be bisexual is a new kind of combination of virtue signalling/way to piss off elders among many teenagers of her social milieu. I wonder if you are intimating a similar sentiment when you write "hip, even in academic circles". Actually, most especially in academic circles! As far as I recall reading, Depp is pulling jargon straight from a gender studies class, a "highly problematic" (to also borrow from its jargon) discipline. Its claims of the "fluidity" of gender and sexuality range from scientifically tenuous to discredited. Don't believe Lily-Rose is that transgressive, and fashion has already embraced a number of openly bi or gay models and spokespeople. I assume the next logical step will be to embrace self-identified "genderfluid" or "nonbinary" models. But don't get me wrong, I'm all for breaking the perfume gender binary!
If it were up to me, I would have made the bold choice of hiring actress Marine Vacth for this perfume. She is uncommonly beautiful and very "French" in style and manner. She played a teenager in the cult film Young and Beautiful, and images of her character adorn hundreds of teenagers' tumblr and Pinterest pages, and in real life she is a young mother in her mid-twenties. Lagerfeld already invites her to all the Chanel shows. She would have appealed to teenagers and older millenials alike (though in my 30's, I'm technically one myself), without risking diluting the sophistication of Chanel.
Still looking forward to this new version of No.5, and hope the ad campaign won't be as cheesy as all the recent ones. Won't set my expectations too high though. Her mom in a birdcage - one of the all-time best! - Ioanna
Thanks Ioanna for a truly insightful and detailed comment!
DeleteYes, I did mean it in that vein, when I referred to the academic circles. It was revolutionary in the 1990s, peppered here and there, but gender studies have gained a life of their own in recent years and the notion of a fluid sexuality can be a doubly-edged sword. I think it's interesting that parents (Jolie is another one) do try to acclimatize themselves in a new "reality" of acceptance, on the other hand I wonder whether normal childhood and teenager years' experimentation (and there is experimentation, no doubt about it) have gained new nuances.
I was not aware of Marina Vacht's apparently extensive appeal. Thanks for pointing that out to me! It would seem like a good choice then, but I suppose the pervading nepotism in the media and "arts" (in the quote inducing context, not the actual arts) is self-evident long before this case.
I see old Coco spinning in her grave! LOL
ReplyDeleteTrue, too true, alas!
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