Page 34 - BFM F/W 2024

Light Touch
For CHANEL’s latest limited-edition men’s fragrance, the luxury fashion house takes inspiration from a mid-century Italian coachbuilder
HOW MANY SUPERLEGGERAS CAN YOU NAME? WE’VE GOT THE ASTON
Martin Lagonda Rapide, the Maserati 3500 GT, the Alfa Romeo 2600 — all perfect examples of the fleet-footed, coach-built cars that bear the Italian term (it means “superlight”). This fall, however, you can add another entry to that illustrious list — but it’s not a car. Rather, it’s the latest fragrance from CHANEL, and it has every one of the full-bodied, high-octane hallmarks that you’d come to expect from the most sublime superleggera.
It’s called CHANEL Allure Homme Sport Superleggera. And, while the motoring connection may seem a little tenuous at first, it’s actually more pertinent than you think. Because the true mark of a superleggera — an auto construction style popularized by the motoring maestros of Milan-based Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera in the mid-20th century — is how well it can square away its remarkably light weight with strong, substantial engineering. And, to this end, CHANEL’s latest limited edition offers a decent parallel.
This is a fragrance, you see, with gossamer top notes; aromas of the
most delicate, sprightly citrus. They sparkle between grapefruit and lemon, floating above an only barely more substantial base of clean white musk. But then, through these first wispy, zesty impressions punches a deeper, denser power — for the scent has a heart of woody amber, one of the most complex ingredients in perfumery and a substance that features mineral, salt, and earth notes. Together, these disparate elements galvanize into one strong but soft, subtle but striking scent — something as pleasantly contradictory as one of Carrozzeria Touring’s incredible superleggeras.
It’s also fitting, then, that the smoked glass bottle bears the famous coachbuilder’s logo — the curvy, cursive moniker rendered in passionate Italian red. This same red can be spotted on the black rubberized lid, where a metal ring conceals a red insert and CHANEL’s “double C” logo is cast in the fiery crimson colour. It’s the final piece of connective tissue between both perfume and machine: a surprising match, but a perfectly engineered partnership.
34 BFM / FW24 PORTFOLIO
LIGHT TOUCH: TEXT BY JONATHAN WELLS.