Chanel nose Jacques Polge created the beauty brand's latest fragrance, Beige.The latest addition to Chanel's fragrance collection Les Exclusifs de Chanel is a perfume called Beige. On the eve of its launch, Vanity Fair beauty director SunHee Grinnell spoke to Jacques Polge, the revered Chanel nose who created the scent.
SunHee Grinnell: I believe that it takes a very sensitive, particular person to create such exquisite fragrances. So, who is Jacques Polge?
Jacques Polge: I am a lover of poetry. What would reality be without its poetic dimension? Even if you do not read poetry, it plays an important role in everyday life. I am a lover of fragrance, and fragrance is a form of poetry. It doesn't speak, but it gives so much.
Where did you grow up? Did your early-childhood surroundings contribute in any way to your becoming one of the great noses of our century?
I grew up in the South of France, near Avignon. I would go to Grasse for the summer with my family, and go to Cannes to swim in the ocean. From Nice to Cannes, to Grasse was a garden when I was a child. There were fields of rose, jasmine, violets, and orange blossom. It was the birthplace of perfumery. When you approached Grasse, you would smell the jasmine. Now you don't, because there is much less production here, but then, flowers were everywhere. Of course my surroundings as a child lead me to perfumery. We are all influenced by our childhood. It is unconscious and instinctive.What are Beige's notes? Was it created in the usual way, from top to bottom?
The notes of Beige consist of a bouquet of hawthorn, freesia, and frangipani, with shimmering hints of honey. It's a stunning blend of white petals and yellow gold. It's a sumptuous white floral. At Chanel, we never create fragrances from top to bottom in the traditional way. Hawthorn is typically an endnote, but in Beige, it is the keynote, which ends in a powdery softness.
Hawthorn grows in many places. It is often used for hedges in the countryside, as it is a beautiful blooming thorny bush. It is also known as May blossom. The stamen inside the flower is yellow and smells honey-like.
What emotions do you hope this scent will trigger?
For the Les Exclusifs collection, I wanted to offer a choice of fragrances for everyone. Beige offers a new choice. The emotion is that the past is alive again. It's renewing a fragrance of the past. Mademoiselle [Coco Chanel] had a fragrance called Beige de Chanel, which launched in 1940. It's been a long time since the hawthorn note has been used in a fragrance. It's something from the past which now comes to life in a modern way. Proust wrote about hawthorn. He spoke of the melancholy that memories of the past can bring. So, for me, Beige is a modern fragrance with a link to the past.
This fragrance is perhaps the best embodiment of the couture house's foundation. Did Mademoiselle Chanel have inspirational words that you drew from when creating a scent for this extremely versatile color?
Mademoiselle Chanel spoke of beige as a comfortable color, a color of eternal elegance, not à la mode but something that never goes out of style. My inspiration was to translate the idea of this color into a fragrance that was fresh and floral. My vision of the beige color came alive with the hawthorn note in accord with honey.
What are the characteristics of women who would wear Beige?
I see many types of women wearing this fragrance. Beige is an important color for Chanel. A Chanel woman follows fashion but is looking for that which never goes out of style.
