Another ad for Chanel Coco (see yesterday’s version with Vanessa Paradis if you missed it), starring Inès de la Fressange, the original face of Coco when it launched in the mid-1980s.
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32 Comments
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Robin, thanks for making me feel 17 again. Now where did I leave those opera tickets?
Can I just add here — isn’t Ines just beautiful? She is the first face I remember for Chanel when I was young. At that age, I wanted to be her or Isabella Rosselini. Not bad choices.
She was such a perfect fit for Chanel — and for the Coco fragrance. I don’t think they’ve done as well since.
neither has she come to think of it.
That may be true…she had a fashion & a perfume line, but they’re both gone now, is that right? I don’t know that much about her except that she’s gorgeous even now in her 50s.
FYI she is now the creative consultant for Roger Vivier and is credited in reinventing the label (and deservedly so: her choice to open a store right opposite of Hermès’ 24 Faubourg headquarters and then furnished it with Picasso alone is ballsy to say the least–and did wonders to the brand). Inès de la Fressange also has a stake a Jean Paul Gaultier and in fact did a show for the couturier’s SS 2009 Haute Couture collection. She is still quite active in the fashion industry: just more niche and more behind the scene, which might as well because she has to take of her two daughters.
Oh, Ines is just beautiful.
And I always wanted to be dark-haired and slender and elegant and European, too. Didn’t get any of that!
I have a small bottle of Ines’ first fragrance, the one in the octagonal bottle. It’s a fruity floral, but not a sweet ditzy one – you could wear it to work in the summer.
Beautiful woman, she fits exactly in the spot for Coco Chanel.
Yep.
Tres bien! You will never see a fragrance ad like that anymore. Although I do like Audrey Tautou for No. 5 MUCH more than Nicole Kidman.
Oh yes. Although I cannot entirely blame NK for the Chanel no. 5 ad, which after all she neither wrote nor directed. I tend to think of her as all wrong for No. 5, but I might think differently if that particular ad was not so horrid.
I’m just not a NK fan in general.
I’m not either, but still…I don’t think I would have liked that commercial with anybody.
Me neither.
Thanks for making my day by speaking your mind. I remember when the film came out people in the fashion industry l-o-v-e it and hailed it as a masterpiece. Back then I kept my mouth shut because it wasn’t my place to speak my mind. After all, a lot of people’s careers depended on the success of that campaign.
By the way, while it’s true that Kidman neither wrote nor directed the film she did have a great deal of influence on the whole project. During the contract negotiation stage she insisted on hiring Baz, for instance. She even said “No Baz, no me”. And Chanel wouldn’t make the mistake of airing anything without Baz and Kidman’s approval–knowing Helleu he wouldn’t have done it any other way.
By the way I actually think Kidman was a great choice for Chanel. The 2005-2006 print ads were well thought-out and intelligently executed. Kidman even manage to draw a younger audience to the stores: thus it wasn’t a surprise to me that Eau Premiere was introduced. So what can I say? Too bad Helleu was mostly ill during that time or he could have done more with the campaigns.
The print ads were beautiful, agree, but never thought they “fit” Chanel no. 5 (the juice), although perhaps that was exactly what Chanel wanted.
Interesting you brought it up because I always thought that the hauteur quality of ice-invoking aldehydes compliments Kidman’s Kelly-eque, slightly unapproachable red-carpet style. Maybe it’s one of those we agree to disagree issues. The bottom line, however, is that Helleu, and by extension Chanel, is known to be a perfectionist to the n-th degree. If he thought that Kidman couldn’t compliment the juice he wouldn’t have even offered her a contract.
Yes, we’ll have to agree to disagree: Ines de la Fressange looks like Chanel no. 5 to me. Kidman doesn’t. But, she would be likely to expand the audience: so again, exactly what Chanel had in mind no doubt.
Albert, I think you and I are the sole admirers of the Kidman ads! I thought she had a pleasingly Kellyesque chilly ice princess thing going on…but I did love, love Ines de la Fressange! I also thought Carole Bouquet was a really exquisite and appropriate choice for a Chanel face. Well, de gustibus non est disputandum…
P.S. Has anyone seen either or both of the films about Coco Chanel? There is a French film with Audrey Tautou and an American with Shirely MacLaine. I havn’t seen either, but I’m guessing the French film is better? Wondering which I should as to my Netflix queue.
See yesterdays post about the Vanessa Paradis commercial, there were a few comments.
Thanks!
Now THIS one I remember… though I think the American version was a little different. Great ad. Great face.
It might have been! There’s another version, also wonderful, where’s she’s falling down the stairs.
I love Inez! IMHO, I always thought she was the perfect face for Coco. I’ve googled her and she looks wonderful-how to get some of those great genes???
Yeah…I’ll take those cheek bones.
Me too! And to have long slender legs.
I’m sorry folks, but the only Chanel ad I can remember is the one for No.5 back in the 1970′s with the woman in the pool and the announcer says,”Share the fantasy- Chanel No.5″.
That was a good one too.
Ahhh…yes, and the music was by the Inkspots: “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire (I Just Want to Start a Flame in Your Heart)”.
I loved that ad. And lord knows she is brave wearing the white swimsuit!