[unpaid/sample] If you love make-up, and particularly CHANEL make-up, the new book by Natasha A Fraser (designed by Olivier Andreotti) is a feast for the eyes. I was invited to listen to Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur, head of Global Creative Resources for the house, covering fragrance, beauty, watches and jewellery. Honestly, I didn’t know anything about him but he turned out to be one of the most interesting people I’ve ever come across. The interview was an hour – I could have had an other hour at a minimum because Thomas is witty, very, very French, sharp, twinkly eyed and most importantly, a realist about Gabrielle Chanel. Better still, he taught us the word, ‘coolitude’, and that is staying with me forever. A person or a thing either has it or does not and I’m a black and white thinker so this is a perfect concept.
I wrote something about her a couple of months ago and someone replied that they hated the glorification of Mme Chanel. We know, we all know that there are aspects of her life that are disappointing and undoubtedly those same decisions would not be made today. As a long standing CHANEL fan, I have followed the brand’s evolution over the last decades and can see from a journalism and consumer perspective there have been shifts in communication. Thomas Pré de Saint Maur is a guardian of the brand’s codes and understands that it’s possible to be loyal to the codes while evolving them.
In as far as it’s possible to know someone no longer with us, Thomas knows every aspect and every inch of Chanel’s life – the good and the bad. He is the first to say that she could be difficult and that she loved men, which often left her broken hearted and lonely. But, without forgetting her flaws and her politics, he can bring her specific tastes and demands to life in an exact and modern way.
In something of a twist, the author’s great aunt ended up marrying the love of Chanel’s life, Boy Capel, an English polo player. Natasha had unprecedented access to CHANEL archives and provides a unique narrative throughout, shifting though colour nuances beige, pink, blue, black, gold, red and so on – effortlessly. The photography is stunning. She has included some technical details that is cat-nip to a make up lover and collector like me. As consumers, we tend not to think about the technicality, the componentry, the texture designs or the packaging that goes into creating make up – I’m never happier than when watching videos of lipsticks being filled in a factory.
Thomas recounted a Mother’s Day event that the brand held in which they invited children to come and draw and play with products. The drawings were, let’s say, free in style and variable in ability but they used a professional photographer and treated it – and the children – in exactly the same way they’d treat any prestige event or guest. The execution was CHANEL. He made me laugh when asked if there was anything CHANEL wouldn’t do, he said, in a tone I can only describe as exaggeratedly icy, ‘collabs’. Not for them the paid influencer collaborations, then!
Chanel is an arrogant brand – they’re the best and they know it. However, behind the scenes, they work hard to make it the best until they know it is so there’s never any self-doubt. Mostly, I have good memories with this brand – visiting Chanel’s apartment in Paris, buying my first CHANEL bag with my own money when my career had it’s brief (very brief) high earning moment and all the beautiful costume bracelets my husband has bought for me over the years at the Bond Street store.
I spent one night just before lock-down with my son in Hotel Cambon on Rue Cambon next to the original CHANEL store, showing him the staircase to the apartment, and had to rush home before the whole of the UK locked down at 12am that night (managed to grab a box of mirabelles though!). Max had the suite, which was upgraded because hardly anyone was around, all to himself for the next two nights and lived like a king (he lives in Sweden so didn’t have to rush back). It was so heavily rumoured that the lock down was coming that I’d bought a second ‘insurance’ ticket just in case, not thinking I’d have to use it. But, I did.
I have kept key pieces from all the collections I have been sent, dating back to the late 90’s, early 2000s, and some of them – notably Jeans de Chanel – are in the book. It’s a like a luxury catalogue of things I have safely stored away but with more information than I’ve ever been party to before. Parts of my collection have been borrowed at various times to feature in magazines and as store decoration. You have to be a) a make-up fan, and b) a CHANEL fan to really understand why a book like this takes us right into the DNA of the brand, via make-up, and it’s expensive too at £125 (it’s here for less). But, if you are curious about luxury beauty – the design, the concept or the wider picture or you love opulent photography and want to look at beautiful people wearing beautiful lipstick, all by colour order, it’s for you.
I’ve had a fantasy dinner party guest list for years, but quite honestly, I’d settle for just a long lunch a deux with Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur.
NB: Lower case for Chanel the person, upper case for CHANEL the brand.
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