Switching work perfumes mid term always feels rather daunting to me. You get into a groove of smelling a certain way every day – my default setting these last few months has been my Shiseido shampoo and Rosarium rose oil soap, plus Nivea Soft and to top it off, the pleasingly modern and pared down rose de mai/ warm woody balsamic fragrance from Parfums Dusita, La Douceur De Siam. It has worked well. Enveloping but not overpowering, I feel that it smells, somehow ‘honest’.
But all good things must eventually come to an end, and I am down to the last of the bottle. I want to save what remains. Plus, there is a sharp breath of spring in the air at the moment and, finding a cheap, half used. not pristine but fine in the important stages Cristalle edt, I took the plunge in its icy waters today, having washed and relaundered all my work clothes. I am wearing it now, as I sit at the back of a classroom, lessons prepared, naughtily writing this.
How does the original 1974 iteration of Cristalle smell? In a word: discreet. At least I hope so. I am getting some gentle traces now of a delicate vetiver oak moss, still detect the crystalline flowers ( there is a point in this particular slightly worn vintage when the metallic Roudnitska-ish Diorella like melon note interacts with a bitter almost leather tone and I wonder whether I really should be adopting it as a daily work perfume – but this soon fades and the whole does feel rather stylish. There is something so deliciously unspoken about it.)Whether others will feel the same is another issue, but in all honesty this Cristalle is so ‘barely there’ it will probably not even register in anyone’s consciousness: I am just enjoying how it is currently lingering ambiguously on the edges of my shirt cuff and sweater.
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Yesterday I put up a one sentence post connected to politics ( I am highly and deeply aware of the fact that changing one’s work scent in the grand scheme of things means absolutely nothing, but then at the same time if you only ever thought in those terms, erasing all the trivialities, I don’t think you could ever actually make it through a single day).
But even perfume can be political. There are a lot of Chanel think pieces in circulation right now because of the new TV drama on the rivalry between Gabrielle Chanel and Christian Dior, ‘The New Look’, the latter of whom apparently comes across as a virtuous man and a hero. the former an antisemitic Nazi collaborator, informer and spy for Vichy occupied France. With the publicity surrounding the show and the negativity damaging the image of its founder, will Chanel the brand suffer the cancelling consequences ? Should we all toss our Chanels on a big fire and renounce all further consumption?
I don’t know. I hate antisemitism and I detest, from the depths of my soul, everything that Nazism represents/ represented, but I am not sure what I think about the morality of wearing anything Chanel : Coco had already been dead four years when Cristalle was released : is Henri Robert’s lovely creation tainted by association, or can it work as an elegant work of olfactory work in its own right? The discussion table is open.
At any rate, Cristalle is working nicely for me cet apres-midi. The Chanel flower, the camellia, was also flowering in my garden this morning. Is that flower also guilty by connection?
How ethical are most of the products we buy, really ?
I’m guessing the freezing opening that Cristalle EdT has, is somewhat muted in your vintage bottle & the base notes are well developed.
I love Cristalle edt with all my heart. An ever present in my fragrance wardrobe since the early 80s. I stocked up when it became almost impossible to find.
Congrats on your find
Thank you : I want more !
Pristine unopened bottles were coming up on eBay UK for reasonable prices. Now they’re asking silly money.
Despite Chanel claiming the new packaging has the same fragrance inside, it’s an EdP, so maybe it’s the EdP in that new package. I haven’t sniffed it but the it’s the snootiness & frostiness of the edt I love so much
me too
Not many people know about Beaux’ role working for les renseignements généraux in the first world war…
please. tell us more !
We’ve known about Chanel the Nazi for a long time.
I know : but these things fade from view – virality in this era makes things quite different
Agreed.
I thought the Wertheimer brothers’ ownership of the brand helped mitigate some of the taint… but these questions are indeed convoluted. I’ve only smelled the modern formulation of Cristalle.
‘Mitigate the taint’: a perfect way of putting it.
I think it did, a lot, but there is still something quite powerful about the very figurehead and founder of Chanel having that background still has the power to shock when it is all over the media again.
Apparently there is a totally new Cristalle that came out recently : might have to try it tomorrow
I think the new Cristalle is the EdP (my favourite, although I really should try the EdT), which has been “reimagined”. Why? I want to imagine it and in fact enjoy it as it is. Sigh.
I know
The 1993 version IS you, personified !
stock up if you can
still quite curious to try the new one though
Bit late, but just had to say that I wore Cristalle on my wedding day in 1980! Seemed so appropriate. Of course it doesn’t smell the same now after quite a few reformulations, but there is enough of its personality to bring back memories when I spritz it on.
That is a wonderful idea .. I can imagine it. Perfect choice x
Great entry on Cristalle, a love of mine. Please allow me this brief post-scriptum: the irony of the whole C.D. hero thing is that it was his designs and perfumes that had their most devoted (albeit Continental) clientele in a post-war West Germany flush with the newfound wealth of the Wirtschaftswunder, not hers.
All melanged up together
Your comments made me, a Jewish woman who owns and loves some of the Chanel perfumes, wonder about how I felt of the ethics of a “Chanel” branded object. I had mixed feelings about it. Then, just today I read an article in the New York Times (March 10) that discussed how the perfume business of Chanel (as opposed to the clothing design business) was originally 80 percent owned by two Jewish brothers, the Wertheimers. The success of Chanel No 5 made it extremely valuable. When the Nazis took power in France, Chanel denounced her Jewish partners and tried to have all their shares returned to her. After the war, the Wertheimers settled with her and got control of their company back, and it is now owned privately by the grandsons of one of the Wertheimers. So if you’re worried about the ethics of buying and wearing Chanel perfume, well, you’re actually supporting the Wertheimer family. See: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/05/style/the-new-look-coco-chanel.html