In partnership with CHANEL Beauty

“My earliest recall of an encounter with bottled fragrance is the CHANEL N°5 my grandmother kept on her bathroom sink,” Gracie Abrams tells me over Zoom. “I remember going into her bathroom as a little girl and feeling as if it was this tangible symbol of womanhood. I was so perplexed by it.”

Artist and CHANEL muse, Abrams was recently announced as the face of new House classic, Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu. Compelling and cool, she exudes a joyous sense of magnetism that feels so right for the world of Coco Mademoiselle. Dialling in from home in a baseball cap, her chocolate hair just escaping beneath, she’s unaffected but charismatic – it’s easy to see why she’s joined a lineage of renowned women representing one of perfumery’s most iconic scents.

“I feel really over the moon and lucky that I get to represent this fragrance,” she says. “For me, at this stage in my life, it feels very fitting – there’s just this sense of freedom.”

Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu is the smell of a crush; it’s the intensity of attraction, passion, allure, sensuality and first impressions. It bottles up the palpable excitement of what could be. It exists within the Coco Mademoiselle collection, but affords an intensity not previously explored by the House.

The work of in-House perfumer Olivier Polge, the fragrance is also about duality. “It was always on my mind to work in line with the Coco identity,” Polge tells me, on a call from Paris. “There are shared notes with the original Coco Mademoiselle, but I was looking to reveal or transpire two sides within this new perfume: one that grasps your attention right away, and something else that lives on your skin and brings this sense of long-wearing sensuality – it is more for the wearer.”

Crush Absolu borrows the ambery throughline of its predecessor, Coco Mademoiselle. Originally crafted by Olivier’s father, Jacques Polge, it is a fragrance known for its sensual jasmine and rose notes, atop a patchouli and vetiver base. Since its 2001 launch – as a furthered interpretation of the youth-inspired 80s CHANEL hit, Coco – Coco Mademoiselle has gone on to be the landmark example of cult feminine fragrance. Crush Absolu crystallises this vision – it’s about freedom of spirit and authenticity of self.

“There is a new intensity to [Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu],” Polge explains. “I think the ambery side we see in the original Coco Mademoiselle is completely opened up here, and then there is bright grapefruit and lychee at the top. So really, it changes a lot in terms of the identity of the scent.” When I ask what it is about the scent he finds so enamouring, he tells me “It is the sense of femininity it brings – I think it's a femininity with the right equilibrium. In my opinion, it shares this in common with Coco Mademoiselle.”

Coco Mademoiselle was introduced by Jacques Polge as a manifesto for the wonderment of feminine youth. Crush Absolu carries this sentiment – it’s about discovery, liberation and the confidence to follow one’s instincts. Abrams, who just released her third studio album, Daughter From Hell, embodies this completely. “In your 20s, you’re in this famously transitional, ‘in between’ place, where there’s one foot in your adolescence, but you’re also very much looking into the future of adulthood and extending your horizons; your imagination and thinking is broader,” Abrams tells me. “I love how this fragrance encourages you to run toward that – towards the stuff that makes you feel alive.”

Known and loved for her diarised lyrics and raw but captivating stage presence, Abrams is a star on the precipice of mega fame, but she’s also just a girl figuring out her world, her art and herself: “I do think I fluctuate on a daily basis between feeling tough and soft, and when I experienced this fragrance for the first time, I felt as if it could hold all these versions of myself – I was relieved, in a sense. It feels very me. It’s multifaceted and you’re able to lean into these moods based on the way you wear it.”

There’s definitely an unspoken dialogue between Abrams and Polge; she seems to incarnate and animate all the qualities he’s layered into the fabric of Crush Absolu. When asked to describe Crush Absolu in three worlds, Polge answers: “Catching, spontaneous and sensual.” Abrams, on the other hand, gives me one word: “Embodied is what I’m compelled to say.”

So, what’s it like, to interpret a scented legacy while also building something new? “When I create a new scent, I am not obliged to follow certain rules,” Polge explains, “but you have to think about the interaction of your new creation with what already exists. Interestingly, when you have such strong signatures as we do at CHANEL, like N°5 or Coco Mademoiselle, it almost makes it easier to create a new scent because there is already such a strong sense of personality – there’s no choice but to make something equally as strong.”

The House of CHANEL has defined much of the modern luxury fragrance market; Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel saw perfume as an accessory and a personal statement – she viewed scent as an extension of self. Importantly, she also believed that fragrance should, in some capacity, be more for the wearer, less the world around them.

“I don't know exactly how people will feel when they wear it, and that's probably the beauty of it,” Polge adds. “I create a scent, but people will go and make their own story surrounding it. I think of perfume as an everyday ritual – we can share the legacy and the codes, but the wearer will always personalise.”

“In your 20s, you’re in this famously transitional, ‘in between’ place, where there’s one foot in your adolescence, but you’re also very much looking into the future of adulthood... I love how this fragrance encourages you to run toward that – towards the stuff that makes you feel alive.”

It is a delicate thing, reimagining an olfactory classic, but the rebirth of House icons is something CHANEL does with aplomb. There is always loving acknowledgment of the past alongside a firm gaze towards the future; the House is always making and creating for a modern woman. There’s nothing wistful or outdated about it.

“It’s a translation of what feels relevant to me today,” Polge adds. “Somehow, throughout our history, CHANEL has never had a nostalgic take on perfumes. We are always instead looking at today and at the future.”

I ask whether Polge ever feels the pressure, creating for the house of CHANEL, simultaneously inheriting and caretaking for icons that were crafted by his father? He considers his response, telling me: “How can I say this… nothing is written. I don’t think that there is a good or bad path to take when it comes to a new perfume creation. Nothing that I make needs to look or smell as things were before but should instead pay tribute to the strengths of the creations made before me.”

He continues: “Heritage is important, but there is nothing mandatory about it. I am so fortunate in that I have a deep well to draw from but am still able to shape my own work and my journey within CHANEL.”

This thinking – this creative freedom and liberation, is the very embodiment of CHANEL codes. It’s why Abrams was such a brilliant choice. She’s beautiful, she’s talented, but she’s also passionate, dedicated, spontaneous and not fixed to any form of status quo, both as a musician and as a woman. When our Zoom call draws down, I ask Abrams what she thinks is the most unapologetic thing about her. “I am an unapologetic friend to my people. I feel very fiercely protective of my friends. I will never say sorry for being that way,” she says without pause. And my last question, having just watched the Crush Absolu campaign film that sees her shake off inhibitions and turn a late-night Parisian Café into a heaving dance floor: what song will you always get up and dance to?

“Countdown, Beyoncé.”

Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu is now available in stores and online at the CHANEL website.