May’s Paris Diary

About Gabrielle and Pharrell (and Katy and Karl)

There are fashion parties and fashion parties. Sometimes it's in and out, a little air kiss here, a nod there, and everyone drifts away again. But there are also parties where you are lifted out of reality, look at each other and think: ‘is this real?’, and linger in your room for hours afterwards. I had such an evening yesterday.

The new perfume from Chanel was presented: Gabrielle. As you would expect from Chanel, the perfume presentation was already masterful. It reminded me of an adult version of a children's party where you can all engage in different activities. You could have yourself painted, view the brand new Gabrielle campaign in a closed space (still so secret that you had to hand in your phone), you could smell the different flowers that are incorporated in the perfume, and there were delicious snacks, cocktails, champagne, and cozy seating areas in the garden of the Palais de Tokyo. The perfume is composed of jasmine and tuberose, a floral scent that smells to me like the adult and creamy version of Chance. The bottle is stunning and the color of ‘the juice’, as the French call the fragrance substance, is beautiful somewhere between yellow and white gold.

We had smelled the perfume, touched the bottle, eaten snacks, and drunk two glasses of rosé. Now we were ready for a cautious dance, so we made our way to the DJ. And the stage. Suddenly the DJ booth was removed. And microphone stands were brought in. And a playlist was stuck to the ground. I'm not a whiz at math, but I can add one and one together. Pharrell is in Paris + Pharrell is the face of the Gabrielle bag = he is going to perform now.

But that he would be within touching distance (he even held my hand very softly and quite long during Daft Punk's ‘Lucky’) and that Katy Perry would also come and that Pharrell asked Saskia (head of fashion Glamour) and me to come dance on stage second and that Karl himself watched contentedly, I could never have dreamed of. With a touch of Pharrell on my wrist and a spray of Gabrielle, we dove into the night. It was a magical, exciting, unexpected evening. Exactly how Gabrielle herself would have wanted it.