Le Lion De Chanel

Chanel launched Le Lion de Chanel in 2020 within Les Exclusifs de Chanel, the collection that tells the story of the house through its places, people and symbols. The eau de parfum was first reserved for the Middle East, before a worldwide release in early 2021.

Gabrielle Chanel’s sign

The fragrance pays tribute to the astrological sign of Gabrielle Chanel, born on August 19, 1883. According to the house, she made the lion her totem animal: she collected lion figurines and used it to adorn the buttons of her suits, the clasps of her bags and her jewelry.

The Candy Perfume Boy recalls another link: Venice, a city placed under the guard of the lion, with which Gabrielle Chanel fell in love in the 1920s and whose art and culture inspired her.

Olivier Polge and amber

The fragrance is signed by Olivier Polge, Chanel’s perfumer-creator, who says he was far more interested in the lion as the house’s emblem than in the animal. Kafkaesque reports that he had assisted Christopher Sheldrake on Coromandel, until then the only other ambery Exclusif in the collection.