Becoming the Chanel face, the interview with Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur
What's behind a Chanel commercial? Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur, director of creative resources Parfums Beauté, tells us about it
Text by FABIA DI DRUSCO
Since 2014 , Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur has headed the Global Creative Resources of the fragrance and beauty division as well as the jewellery and watches division of Chanel . Occupying the position that had been held by Jacques Helleu , the inventor of the brand's beauty imagery. It is Helleu who in 1968 chose Catherine Deneuve as testimonial, who called photographers such as Avedon and Newton to collaborate, who invented with Jean-Paul Goude commercials that entered the collective imagination, one above all that of Egoiste shot at the Negresco for the perfume male symbol of the early 90s, he who involved directors such as Ridley Scott , Luc Besson and Polanski and succeeded in the coup de theater of recounting N°5 once again through the much talked about director and actress of the moment, Baz Luhrman and Nicole Kidman at the pinnacle of fame thanks to “Moulin Rouge” . A legacy that du Prè de Saint Maur has been able to live up to, respecting its pillars, while continuing to innovate… From the debut in N°5 with Gisele Bundchen (and Daenerys Targaryen 's sex toy in "Game of Thrones" Michiel Huisman ) at the launch of N°5 L'Eau with Lily-Rose Depp to the latest campaign of N°5 with Marion Cotillard dancing on the moon... Up to the new campaign for Coco Mademoiselle , played by Whitney Peak , twenty-year-old Canadian actress of Ugandan descent, seen in “Gossip Girl” .
L'Officiel Italia: Keira Knightley, Kristen Stewart, Margot Robbie, Marion Cotillard..A cast of exceptional actresses, for talent, charm, collective obsession with them. How did you choose them?
Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur: I've always adored Marion Cotillard , but she was busy with Dior... Then the planets aligned. I'm looking for actresses because the directors of our shorts are important directors and they need real actresses to be able to play for real. Kristen Stewart physically fascinates me, I think she embodies an unparalleled modernity, she exudes an intensity that is frightening, everything about her screams insurrection ... and enchantment. That's why I wanted her in the short for the launch of Gabrielle , radically different from the others. It wasn't successful, because women didn't find anything of Chanel in it, but I still like it. Margot Robbie is an incredible, busy actress, she has her own production company which gives space to the development of other female talents, she is also very nice, and then we needed a blonde, throughout the history of Chanel advertising there is always a blonde, from Deneuve to Candice Bergen to Estella Warren , Little Red Riding Hood directed by Besson for N°5 ...
LOI: Whitney Peak, the new face of Coco Mademoiselle, is an actress, but for the first time not a star. Why just her among so many newcomers?
TPSM: With Whitney Peak it was love at first sight. She reminds me of Diana Ross at 18. Whitney is so young that she's obviously inexperienced, but she's totally self-confident, and she's very witty. When I chose her I hadn't even seen “Gossip Girl” . And then it was time we finally had a spokesperson of colour at the dawn of 2023!
LOI: Among the many important directors you've worked with, from Luhrmann to Joe Wright, from James Gray to Steve McQueen, as well as of course Goude, who has impressed you the most? And what were the most unforgettable moments?
TPSM: Scorsese . He's a genius, one of those directors who already has all the editing in his head. Moments… when we shot N°5 Holiday with Lily Rose Depp … it was May and it was at least 40° in Paris, and we were on the roof of the Grand Palais, made of lead… In general I love shooting at night, because you completely lose track of time... The night shooting of Bleu in Bangkok with Steve McQueen was incredible, as was Kathryn Bigelow in Berlin, in a Cold War climate, a short that never came out, for the disappearance of Gaspard Ulliel . The director of the short with Whitney is Joseph Kosinski , the one of “Top Gun: Maverick” , but beyond the hype for the film with Tom Cruise , I think it is essential to choose directors who know how to make not only cinema, but also advertising. Just like Joseph. And then of course there's Jean-Paul Goude , he's been imagining Chance for 20 years … First he draws the short shot by shot, then he shoots, and what you see on the monitor is very different from the drawings, but when he delivers the final image it's absolutely identical to the original sketches... I feel infinite admiration for his totally pre-digital way of working.
LOI: The soundtrack is essential for the success of a commercial... Why did you choose "Follow me" for Coco Mademoiselle?
TPSM: Because I adore Amanda Lear , and I adore disco music, also the Italian one, I am crazy about Loretta Goggi . The director was obsessed with David Bowie , but during a break in filming at So Paris, I had “Follow me” play in the background … and he was convinced. In the commercial there are many changes of clothes because I didn't want something linear, an infinitely repeated image like for N°5 , here I wanted to give a more impressionistic than naturalistic impression..and then, as I said, Whitney makes me think of Diana Ross , and she changed so many times during a concert…
LOI: What are the identifying characteristics of Chanel's beauty communication for you?
TPSM: The first is that we are not on the transfer market, we are not interested in changing testimonials all the time, as other brands do. We're loyal in relationships, even if that sometimes means not casting the hot girl of the moment. The Coco Mademoiselle relationship ended with Keira , but the relationship continues. Ali MacGraw , who became the heroine of “Love story” after being spotted in the N5 commercial, is today among the watch spokespersons, like Carole Bouquet and Claudia Schiffer . Even Vanessa Paradis , the legendary bird in Goude 's cage for the Coco perfume has been filmed .. An operation that cannot be done with Kidman , because the situation is unrepeatable: when the commercial was shot she was the most famous woman in the world called upon to interpret the most famous perfume in the world. For this reason Chanel commercials often stage the lifestyle of the star: because the star represents the most intense, more dilated life, because if luxury is expansion, the promise of a more interesting life, the star is by definition the emblem of that position. But Chanel 's point of view is to put the star who has apparently achieved everything in a situation where the story is yet to be written
LOI: Two years ago you imagined the Factory 5 Collection..Are you thinking about other similar projects?
TPSM: N°5 needs to remain a living language, so we will certainly rethink an operation that I hope will have an equally impactful one. We will certainly never make senseless operations, such as the umpteenth variant of a perfume to the point of depriving it of identity and aura. I defend Chanel 's intrinsic classicism to the bitter end. I'm talking about a Michelangelo- like classicism, which shouldn't become rigidity. On the other hand, if there were no classicism, an operation like Factory would become dangerous and ridiculous.
