Bonjour, Mademoiselle! Whitney Peak just burst on the beauty scene as the new face of Chanel’s iconic Coco Mademoiselle fragrance — and Us Weekly got a first look at the making of the campaign.
The moment marks a first: The 20-year-old Gossip Girl star (who previously appeared in the Chanel 22 Bag campaign alongside Lily-Rose Depp) will become the first Black spokesmodel for a scent by the famed French fashion house. She takes the Coco Mademoiselle reins from Keira Knightley, who has fronted the franchise since 2006 (when she, incidentally, was also 20).
The fragrance, meant to embody the wild spirit of a young Gabrielle Chanel (who, by the way, moved to Paris in her early 20s to forge a unique path), is at once strong and soft, playful yet assertive, with heady notes of amber and patchouli. The juice tracks with Peak’s vibe, as the Ugandan-Canadian actress admits that she “loves to be unpredictable.”
It’s no surprise, then, that the campaign leans into that scintillating, youthful joy of an unknown future. “You know the feeling you have when you enter the world, wherever it is, and you have no experience of it, but you know that destiny is on your side,” says Chanel’s Head of Global Artistic Direction Thomas du Pre de Saint Maur, who led the campaign. “When you spray a fragrance, you spray way more than just the fragrance. You spray hope, you spray energy, you spray magic.”
In the campaign, shot by legendary duo Inez & Vinoodh, the Hocus Pocus star represents a young woman entering Paris and bringing the City of Lights to life through her positive energy and interactions with friends, lovers, the people one encounters daily. “It’s not so much about a boy and a girl and the game of seduction as it had been in the last Coco Mademoiselle,” says du Pre de Saint Maur. “Because I believe that seduction has really changed. It’s not about just a two-people story. Seduction is the way you behave.”
Along with the print ad, the brand released a short film directed by Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski which follows Peak, as a modern muse, sparkling through Paris. Watch it here!
Scroll through and allow yourself to be seduced by the evolution of the Coco Mademoiselle girl as Peak shoots this groundbreaking campaign!
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