Chanel Paris St. Moritz Is Exactly How I Want to Smell This Winter
Fluffy boots, oversized sunglasses and the kind of scent that makes someone stop you to ask what you are wearing.
text: Jahwanna Berglund
Imagine stepping out into crisp white snow, wrapped in your favourite puffer jacket or fur, with fluffy boots and sunglasses large enough to conceal any evidence of one too many mulled wines the evening before. The air is cold, your cheeks are pink, and there is nowhere you particularly need to be before lunch.
That is where Chanel Paris – St. Moritz takes me. And it is exactly how I want to smell this winter.
There is a freshness to it that feels entirely at home in that scene. A little sweetness, too, followed by soft, ambery, musky warmth. It feels youthful and quietly seductive, with something inviting about the way those qualities come together. I keep thinking of cold air against warm skin.
For Olivier Polge, Chanel’s Perfumer Creator, the starting point was the comfort we reach for when temperatures fall. He wanted to capture something of the feeling of wearing a beloved garment, translating that familiarity into a fragrance with warmth but without heaviness.
The composition centres on three main notes. Pear brings a green, juicy freshness, while rose introduces spicy and mineral nuances. A musky amber accord gives the fragrance its soft, enveloping warmth. Reading the notes, I can see why I was already mentally reaching for my winter wardrobe.
Paris – St. Moritz is the first fragrance in Les Eaux de Chanel to explore a winter destination. The Swiss resort was somewhere Gabrielle Chanel spent time with friends, moving between days in the snow and evenings in hotel salons. There is something appealing about a fragrance imagined around both parts of that day. I would happily wear it for either.
To me, it has all the makings of a turn around and ask for the fragrance. The kind you catch as someone walks past, then find yourself hoping they are still close enough to hear, “Excuse me, what are you wearing?”
This winter, I would quite like to be the person being asked.
