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Vincenzo La Torre

Chief Editor, Style; Fashion Editor, Post Magazine


While the most important factor in the success of a perfume is its scent – what fragrance industry insiders call the juice – everything around it is also key. From the packaging to the ad campaigns, the celebs who front them and the real-life activations, all these elements drive desirability.
Just ask Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur, head of global creative resources for Chanel Fragrances and Beauty. For almost 20 years, the Frenchman has been behind some of the most talked-about moments in Chanel’s beauty division. In 2024, he even worked with legendary director Martin Scorsese on a video starring Timothée Chalamet for Bleu de Chanel, the house’s bestselling men’s fragrance.

To launch the house’s most recent fragrance, Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu – formulated by in-house perfumer Olivier Polge – du Pré de Saint Maur collaborated with director Joe Wright on a video starring Chanel ambassador Gracie Abrams.
In a recent interview in Hong Kong’s Tai Hang neighbourhood, du Pré de Saint Maur talked about his work at Chanel and – of course – founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel.

How would you describe your role at Chanel?
I am an orchestra conductor and I have different musicians: some design packaging and some create books and some work on events and some work with celebrities and some do advertising, so I guide everyone to make sure everything is unique and surprising but also to bring a sense of unity.
How do you come up with the visual aspects connected to something like a fragrance?
I have a true belief that when you wear a fragrance you just don’t spray the physical juice but much more. I’m sure that when women wear Chanel No 5, whether they admit it or not, they spray Marilyn on their body. I always try to lean more towards that than the actual description of the fragrance.

What about the references for the Crush Absolu launch?
The colour of the juice already has a visual influence and the movie has that sexy feeling, this idea of something you can’t resist, so I wanted to do that in motion but I didn’t want to make it too flirtatious. The fragrance brings confidence and is a bit mysterious so how do you bring that to life? When I spoke with Joe Wright we immediately agreed that we would shoot on film and not digital, which is a nightmare and takes longer but also brings a kind of sensuality to the image, especially when you shoot at night. We created a cafe on a set and it was like a live Broadway show. Joe knows how to shoot choreography and we used the same choreographer he worked with for Pride & Prejudice.
How does it feel to work with creatives like Joe Wright, Martin Scorsese, Luca Guadagnino and Margot Robbie?
When you choose talent it’s super important to have an idea of what you want, but not what it will look like, because they’re in charge ultimately. The first thing for me and my team is that we want to work with that person. I feel very privileged to work with people I admire and I want to work with. I believe that you can’t do great creative work if you don’t desire the people you work with and you want to be part of their story and you want them to be part of your story – even for a commercial.

Do you look for something specific when it comes to choosing the muses for the Coco Mademoiselle line?
For Coco Mademoiselle we always choose someone at the beginning or at a pivotal moment of their careers. Keira Knightley was very young but she had already done big movies like Bend It Like Beckham, Pirates of the Caribbean and Atonement. Gracie Abrams and Whitney Peak [also a Chanel global ambassador] are both at their beginning of their careers in different fields. I like the path Gracie chose because she could have done something else considering her background [she is the daughter of American filmmaker J.J. Abrams] but she didn’t want to do that and she chose music, which wasn’t a given, and she did small festivals and she did it in her own way. She could have chosen the easy way but I guess she felt that was more true to her.

How does Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu relate to the values embodied by Coco herself?
She herself was the first one to change the story, because the truth is the least interesting thing in the world. It’s this suspicion of whether it’s true or not that creates excitement. What fascinates me is that when this woman arrived in Paris in the early 1900s, she had no experience of the great city and its society, no clue, but [she] has this extraordinary instinct for what makes sense for her and picking up the right things. There is a sense of joy and also a feeling of excitement about who she was becoming and that’s the most contagious part of it. Becoming someone can be scary, especially when you’re breaking boundaries, but when you attach that to a sense of jubilation and joy and happiness, you go for it and jump into it. That capacity of enjoying becoming herself makes her so special. That’s what the movie is also about because she’s crashing a party and she is enjoying it.


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Gracie Abrams is the new face of Coco Mademoiselle. Photo: Handout

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Gracie Abrams is Chanel’s new Coco Mademoiselle. Photo: Handout

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Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur tapped director Joe Wright for the launch, the brand having previously worked with Timothée Chalamet and Martin Scorsese


Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur tapped director Joe Wright for the launch, the brand having previously worked with Timothée Chalamet and Martin Scorsese.


Style Edit: Gracie Abrams stars in Chanel’s new Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu campaign

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur tapped director Joe Wright for the launch, the brand having previously worked with Timothée Chalamet and Martin Scorsese

Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur tapped director Joe Wright for the launch, the brand having previously worked with Timothée Chalamet and Martin Scorsese