Do you think the upcoming new Chanel blockbuster Gabrielle, the first for a good many years – and supposedly an ‘abstract floral’, which for me is never a good sign ( I can’t stand dull chemical swirls like Jour d’Hermes or Guerlain Idylle )- could possibly be enjoyable, like Olivier Polge’s Misia, or will it just be boring, like Boy?
Misia is surprising. There is a new and optimistic heedlessness to this scent that sets it apart not only from the dignified and beautiful classics from this house – as well as its big commercial blockbusters – but also from the more preened and ‘luxurious’ stablemates from the house of ‘Les Exclusifs’ – 28 La Pausa, Bel Respiro – with their glimmering – if sometimes strained and diluted – facades of Parisian and New York chic.
A new perfumer is at work. Olivier Polge, son of Jacques, in-house perfumer since I978 and soon to become the chief Chanel scent creator himself, has authored his first creation for the house, and judging from this exuberant and outgoing perfume it seems that he may well be about to take the company’s fragrances in a different, more uninhibited direction. I had heard of course that Misia was a ‘retro’-influenced perfume, based on…
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The Black Narcissus 