THERE IS something inherently Gracie Abrams about the way Chanel’s new campaign moves: instinctive, slightly undone, quietly assured.
As the face of Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu, Abrams does not so much step into the role of Mademoiselle as make it her own. It is a natural evolution for the singer-songwriter, whose relationship with Chanel has grown from House ambassador to the face of its newest fragrance.
Gracie Abrams for Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu
The campaign film imagines a Paris suspended between eras. Haussmannian façades loom in the dark, cobblestones catch the streetlight and convention hangs in the air. Then comes the disruption: Coco escapes. Bare-legged, boyish-haired and dressed in white, she runs towards the unexpected, propelled less by a destination than by instinct.
That spirit feels particularly well matched to Abrams. Her appeal has always rested on a certain lack of artifice: thoughtful but not overworked, polished without seeming to have been polished. Chanel describes the connection in similar terms, pointing to Abrams’s freedom, instinctive elegance and ability to arrive where she is not expected.
Gracie Abrams for Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu
And then, inevitably, the room changes. In the film, Coco enters a Parisian café, and with a click of her heel and a clap of her hands, its quiet geometry gives way to movement. Bodies loosen; faces catch the light; a hundred people become one. The effect is less choreography than contagion: a celebration sparked by the presence of one woman.
Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu
It is a fitting metaphor for Abrams herself, currently moving between music, fashion and her forthcoming acting debut with an ease that feels less strategic than curious. She has spoken of wanting to stay open to whatever arrives, resisting the urge to let fear dictate the next move.
The fragrance itself, created by Olivier Polge, is the latest chapter in the Coco Mademoiselle story: an intense ambery composition fuelled by grapefruit and lychee, rose, jasmine and patchouli, alongside vanilla and vetiver. But the campaign’s real subject is not perfume. It is presence that it disperses, the idea that confidence can be felt before it is explained.
Gracie arrives, the room looks. Everyone has a crush.
by Imogen Clark