Hello! Fashion was given a sneak peek at Chanel's theatrical and high-tech fragrance festival before the curtain rises to the public later today.
Staged at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris, from 15 December to 9 January, admission is free but make sure you book tickets in advance.
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Le Grand Numéro de Chanel exhibition
It’s a truly immersive, sometimes surreal, experience, with moving works of art, larger-than-life installations, a live band and balletic dancers roaming around (clutching oversized perfume bottles). You can go behind the scenes of a cabaret show, a nod to Gabrielle Chanel’s stint on stage in Moulins, or roll the dice at a 'Chance' casino to win a Chanel keepsake.
As well as discovering prototype packaging and rare artefacts from the Chanel archive, reacquaint yourself with some of the brand’s iconic celebrity ambassadors. The exhibits also present the stories behind perfume artwork and the raw ingredients used in each composition.
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The space fuses technology and fragrance
You can even take a personality test to find out which fragrances might appeal to you most, or allow an algorithm to whittle down your favourite notes via scent diffusers set into the walls. As Chanel’s head of global creative resources, Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur, comments, this multi-sensory experience is "an opportunity to discover every facet of a fragrance and the role it plays."
The exhibition is free to the public
Perhaps the main draw is a very special opportunity to witness the historic moment perfumer Ernest Beaux presented Gabrielle Chanel with his five fragrance samples (the fifth is what we now know as Chanel No 5). In a coming together of technology and the artisanal craft of perfumery, a virtual reality headset transports you to a gilded Parisian salon in the 1920s. Aptly described as an ‘olfactory odyssey’, the walls don’t just talk here, they smell, too. This exhibition is a must for fragrance fans and aficionados.
Book Le Grand Numéro de Chanel exhibition here
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