• Home
  • About
  • Contact

The Accords

  • Latest Reviews
  • Fragrance Finder
  • Features
  • Editors Picks

In Defence of Gabrielle

September 9, 2017

Oh my poor Gabrielle. I’m beginning to worry for her mental health after all this bad press. It seems that maybe 15 years between pillar releases for Chanel raised the bar to incredibly lofty heights, and many are disappointed with the scent. I respectfully maintain that a critic overly enamoured with the legend of status of the house is going to read the intentional austerity of Gabrielle as a failure and I think this is a little unfair.

I resent this “Chanel should do better” story…

Gabrielle herself was a failed cabaret singer who draped young women in the cheap jersey fabric previously reserved for long johns and made a fortune out of freeing their bodies from the artifice and confinement of corsetry. A woman whose famous mantra was “take one thing off”, who created the garçonne look, a simplicity that Vogue predicted “would become a virtual uniform for women of taste, famously comparing its basic lines to the ubiquitous and no less widely accessible Ford automobile.” Yes I’m quoting wikipedia. It’s this bit I find ironic: “The spare look generated widespread criticism from male journalists, who complained: “no more bosom, no more stomach, no more rump …” There was bafflement as to why women would want these ‘formless’ shapes, a uniform that would, to the mostly male fashion critics of the time, make them look all the same, unremarkable. But for women, the uniform was liberating, and it  signified membership to a certain club, elite but on different terms.

Now, does this sound quite similar to the criticisms of Gabrielle, the fragrance? I can see an argument that Gabrielle was neo-feminist anti-fashion waaay before Kristen Stewart got a buzz cut and started taking style tips from Shane McCutcheon. Maybe Gabrielle does not care whether her curves are tight enough or her structure, her bosom and rump, are ‘challenging’ enough for your olfactory sensibilities, especially when Chanel has segmented its market with the Les Exclusifs range that allows the development of more ‘complex’ releases to satisfy the noses of the fragrance elite.

I’m truly confused why a huge international luxury goods house described as “an absolute authority of timeless taste and ageless style”, is criticised for producing a perfume that is conservative.

I think Polge is responding to a market that desires this light-handed approach, that will appreciate that they don’t need to be challenged or feel weighed down by wearing scent. A market that values a finely cut white t-shirt as much as a couture gown (and pairs the gown with sneakers if required). One of the main pull quotes from Chanel chosen for the Gabrielle press material is this:

“I have chosen the person I want to be, and am.”

I don’t think we can delude ourselves that Polge was phoning this in, that Gabrielle for him was an “oops”, a blot on the vintage-cream boucle of Chanel’s oeuvre. It is intentionally composed as such so what does that say? Why aren’t we talking about that instead of making snide insinuations about the size of Chanel’s tuberose fields?

Maybe I’m sentencing myself to forever be that perfume blogger that likes insipid scents and yes, because I write for mainstream titles I sniff a lot of very, very mainstream scents (Girl of Now, my god). Maybe my inspid-o-meter is calibrated to a different scale. I don’t own a vintage N°5 although I have had the pleasure of sniffing a number of iterations from generous collectors. Maybe my nose is just not particularly sophisticated (yet!) – I can handle that. But I still think this Gabrielle bashing is a bit elitist and misses what is enjoyable in the fragrance. There *is* a narrative here in which to position Gabrielle. My most loved fragrance blogger described the scent as “the smell of disenchantment”, and of course he’s right, or rather, this a scent created as a possible, palatable antidote to disenchantment. It’s surely no accident that the campaign film for Gabrielle depicts Stewart, androgynous, alone, running hard through a suffocating, tendril-strewn twilight to break out into some kind of stylised wilderness, her face captivated by the simple sunset (we see her, not really the vista itself, make note). Perhaps this is insipid, Chanel normcore. Or perhaps it is an attempt, within the confines of a huge profit-making machine, to make some space to simply experience something lovely. To be present.

Read my review of Chanel Gabrielle, the fragrance, here.

Read the rebuttal at Olfactics. Love you Liam!

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: chanel, critic, frangrance, gabrielle, perfume, review

« Etat Libre d’Orange You or Someone Like You
Chanel Gabrielle »

Comments

  1. Melissa says

    September 21, 2017 at 11:11 pm

    Having followed the negative reviews and slams on social media, I was happy to see your defense of Gabrielle. To clarify, I wound up with a bottle “accidentally” and I probably won’t wear it often. I doubt that I am a member of the target market, given my age and preference for non-mainstream and/or challenging scents. But I don’t mind the distinctions between mainstream and non-mainstream, between Les Exclusifs and Chanel via the department store and I appreciate good mainstream scents. I have high expectations of both categories and there are poorly designed examples in both. Gabrielle struck me as a well-composed, pretty and wearable floral. I felt the same way about No 5 Eau Premiere, though I liked it more than Gabrielle and I immediately bought a bottle when it came out. No 5 L’eau felt too cleaned up, but I suspect these are matters of preference-it too is well composed. I am happy that Chanel is accessible to people who will never walk into a boutique, or into one of the department stores that carry “niche” and high-end lines. I own 5+ bottles of vintage No 5, but I suspect that the young women at work will be more interested in Gabrielle as an entry into the world of fragrance than my aged No 5, or my 10 year old La Pausa. Is it insipid? Simple, easy to wear and conservative seem appropriate, but insipid is too harsh in my estimation.

    • Rosalind Thomas says

      September 22, 2017 at 7:56 am

      Hey Melissa, glad to be of service 🙂 I felt the same about L’eau. Is a scent that young women will like so terrible? Maybe Gabrielle will open up a world of appreciation for your aged gems (lock them up!!)
      x

  2. Portia Turbo says

    September 21, 2017 at 11:15 pm

    Hi there The Accords,
    I tried Gabrielle today at the airport, expecting it to be bland and boring. I know it’s a crap place to try new stuff but as I was shopping at the CHANEL counter it felt wrong to pass it by. So onto a cardboard strip went Gabrielle. Obviously I need a sample and some skin to really get it but here was my first impression.
    Yes, it’s nice. Nice like a Body Shop, Guerlain Aqua Allegoria or Louis Vuitton scent.
    Though Coco was what you write, foremost she was always challenging the status quo. Risking change for her ideal of beauty.
    The “spare” look she created in fashion was a rebellion. I felt that Gabrielle the scent is about fitting into what’s already there and ubiquitously available; adding the CHANEL label and doing it a little smoother.
    So while Gabrielle is nice (not bland or boring) and I’ll probably buy a small bottle, I had hoped for something more interesting.
    Portia xx

    • Rosalind Thomas says

      September 22, 2017 at 7:51 am

      Welcome home Portia! You’re right of course but I felt the urge to stick up for the poor thing 😉

      Thanks for stopping by, what a treat for me xx

  3. Taeko says

    October 6, 2017 at 11:29 am

    K-Stew reminded me of Shane long before the buzzcut. 🖤
    Ok, back to reading this most interesting discussion!

    • Rosalind Thomas says

      October 12, 2017 at 10:47 am

      I’m glad I’m not the only one!

THE ACCORDS

Strike the keys on a piano to create a
chord, a harmony.

In perfumery, combine single notes to
create a scent that has the power to
transcend its components – an accord.

READ MORE

Instagram

Follow on Instagram

Subscribe

Smell sweet: receive post updates, exclusive offers and fragrant favours by joining.

Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2021 · Rosalind Thomas & The Accords · Website by LiveBy5.com Sydney

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Terms of Use