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Léa Seydoux casts a spell on YOU

  • 14 févr. 2022
  • 4 min de lecture

In the last Ad Campaign of Louis Vuitton, Léa Seydoux casts a spell on. The luxury house Louis Vuitton is rolling out an international campaign on the occasion of the launch of its new feminine fragrance, Spell On You. Léa Seydoux, ambassador for Louis Vuitton since 2016, embodies the new scent with its magnetic floral composition, a true love potion for the senses, in a film directed by fashion photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino.


A Movie


The Spell On You video highlights the universal longing for touch. The short film evokes the spell exerted by Spell On You. The explicit shots depict the romance between two lovers driven by fiery passion. The movie also evokes travel escape, a captivating theme of Louis Vuitton's signature. Jean-Baptiste Mondino wanted "absolutely to tell a love story, a bewitching romance". He claims to have "decided to translate the protagonists' feelings with elegance and purity by directing the short film full of emotion.


The ad tells a story between a man and a woman and a mutual attraction devoid of artifice. From a caress on the face to a wide shot revealing an oasis of greenery, we admire the budding idyll of two lovers driven by an ardent passion. Bathed in daylight, the couple discovers the intensity of the existing connection. They realize that the inner world they have built can also really exist on the outside. Their sexual attraction becomes universal.



A passionate embrace thanks to the enlarged shots of two intertwining bodies.

By multiplying the angles of view, the director stages a strong female personality and underlines an attraction that unites the two bodies, amplified with each caress.


The desire is irreversible and irresistible!


Dressed in a black suit, carrying her Capucines Louis Vuitton bag in her hand, the Frenchwoman fascinates with her confidence. She affirms her status as an icon of the New Wave and a modern woman. As the actress walks away, a brief transition features her lying in bed.

We wonder if this is a flashback or a simple vision evoking a possible return?



An Icon


We discover a Léa Seydoux full of confidence, ready to conquer the world and seductive at heart. The French actress already has a very rich filmography. Revealed by her role in The Beautiful Person, she was nominated 4 times for Césars. She won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2013 for her role in the film "La vie d'Adèle"? More recently, she played the role of Madeleine Swann, the last James Bond Girl in the 24th and 25th instalments of the 007 adventures "Spectre" and "No time to die", respectively released in 2015 and 2021.

Short haircut, blonde hair, porcelain complexion, tapered silhouette… Léa Seydoux takes on an alluring new role, this time to embody the new fragrance from the Louis Vuitton brand. Barely made up to better reveal her natural beauty, the irresistible "James Bond girl" gets (almost) naked on screen in a very carnal clip.


Léa Seydoux noted: "This is a beautiful evolution of my continuing journey with Louis Vuitton, one that now comprises several evocative stories. I am honoured to embody a fragrance that is imbued with sophistication and sensuality."


The radiantly beautiful actress reveals herself in complete intimacy, skin to skin with her partner, in an ardent and passionate love game on the song "I Put a Spell on You" by Nina Simone.


A song


This particular title was chosen to make us succumb. Originally this piece was composed in 1956 by Screamin' Jay Hawkins, then the artist Nina Simone took it over to transform it into a beautiful love song. Pianist, composer and singer of soul, blues, gospel and jazz, Nina Simone is the greatest jazz singer in history and a great activist for civil rights. Performed in 1965, this piece has around 40 million on Youtube, 96 million plays on Spotify and on the various versions. The success of "I put a spell on you" will be so crucial that it will accompany his autobiography.


A filter of love


To cast this spell, the magic formula!

Louis Vuitton Perfumes celebrate the mysterious alchemy of attraction. This new perfume was composed in Grasse by the Master-Perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud. Designed to act as a love filter, Spell on You is a blend that perfectly distils attraction. The score reveals a heart revolving around two essences of the iris. Isolated and refined, the floral and vegetal facets of the absolute unite with the delicacy of the concrete, more powdery. "The iris is a love potion on its own. Its scents literally overwhelm the senses," says Jacques Cavallier Belletrud. "It is the ingredient of seduction par excellence, in cosmetics as in perfumery".


The other central element is pink. Like a kiss, the rose becomes both evanescent and diffusive. It creates a sumptuous and sophisticated bouquet enhanced with honeyed notes from the acacia flower, radiant jasmine Sambac, velvety white musk and sparkling peach.


Bewitching!


In contact with the skin, Spell On You diffuses a heat as euphoric as it is enveloping, distilling a hypnotic trail into the air. As such, Spell On You releases euphoric, an enveloping warmth directly at first touch, then wafts through the air with a hypnotic develop feeling of a voyage, an escape, the signature of the house. The perfume's spiral of freshness is an ode to magic and feminine seduction in a simplistic and modern bottle but, above all, refillable.


At the end


Much more than a brief encounter, the story told by this cinematographic campaign allows all interpretations, so let's dream and travel!

The advertising is a call to eroticism and, above all, to love.

Léa Seydoux is thus elegant, sensual and sure of herself in an advertisement that simply makes you want to fall in love and celebrate Valentine's Day as it should be!


by Flore Brault Custot

14/02/2022


References :


BEHRINGER: Get to Know – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins .... https://paklebs.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/behringer-get-to-know-screamin%E2%80%99-jay-hawkins/

The clip of the new Louis Vuitton perfume with Léa Seydoux .... https://luxus-plus.com/en/the-clip-of-the-new-louis-vuitton-perfume-with-lea-seydoux


Images :


The 1st book dedicated to exposing the story of the iconic CHANEL N°5

  • 27 janv. 2022
  • 1 min de lecture

It was written by the writer and novelist Pauline Dreyfus, awarded for these works by the Prix des Deux Magots in 2013 and the Prix Albert Cohen in 2015. The book allows us to explore in 426 pages the magical history of perfume which celebrates its hundredth anniversary.

This perfume exposes the evolution of the perfume's packaging, composition, manufacture and marketing, with unprecedented access to the Chanel archives and those tasked with creating the fragrance today. The most famous perfume in the world is presented in two volumes. The first one mentions the early years of Chanel N°5 from 1921 to 1945 and the second is the period in which the perfume went genuinely global, from the postwar years to today. Created in 1921 by Gabrielle Chanel alias Coco, one of the first perfumes made from synthetic components. A fashion visionary, Gabrielle Chanel wanted to offer the modern woman an authentic fragrance, presented in a minimalist glass bottle, which would also become iconic.


The world's leading creatives have slowed their talents to the perfume's advertising campaigns, which are given pride of place in the book, from photographers such as Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon, to film directors including Baz Luhrmann and Ridley Scott, and modern muses Coco Chanel herself, of course, as well as Nicole Kidman, Catherine Deneuve, Audrey Tautou, Marion Cotillard and Lily-Rose Depp and many more.


The N°5, which Marilyn Monroe has promoted spectacularly, still fascinates her millions of followers worldwide. This book summarizes my other articles on famous perfumes, so I highly recommend it.


Flore Brault Custot

27/01/2022

References:


A campaign that saved the Chanel N°5

  • 21 janv. 2022
  • 4 min de lecture

The history of beauty marketing was characterised by the significant change of the Chanel NËš5 perfume in the early 1970s.

In the beginning, when Gabrielle Chanel launched NËš5 in 1921, her marketing strategy was what we would call "non-media". She invites high-society relatives to dinner and surprises them all by spraying them with perfume and handing out a few bottles. In addition, the seamstress infused the cabins of her boutiques with her fragrance to raise consumer awareness and create a unique olfactory experience. Success was immediately evident in the circle of Parisian high society.

It was not until 1924 when Chanel Parfums became a company to be developed. The first campaign in New York was low-key to retain the sense of scarcity that was effective in Paris.


In 1934, the first advertisements appeared in the New York Times. However, marketing and the multiplication of points of sale attracted an increasingly large audience because the initial message was lost. Towards the end of the sixties, N°5 no longer evoked the same sophisticated image and risked being identified as a perfume for the general public.


In 1974, Mr Wertheimer saw the potential of NËš5. With him, the management of CHANEL has chosen to use this complicated situation as an opportunity instead of a threat by taking bold and visionary measures to restore its prestigious image through a campaign that has become world-famous. He wanted to turn the perfume into a brand icon by making a radical change in direction that could cause short-term losses. For the product to be "exclusive" again, the number of points of sale was reduced from 18,000 to 12,000 and NËš5 was no longer sold in pharmacies. The long-term goal is to keep perfume at the top of the industry again and again with marketing that reflects the house's original vision. It was necessary to find an imprint of glamour and sophistication that Mademoiselle Coco had. Wertheimer cut ties with external advertising agencies to entrust the supervision of all creative decisions fully and therefore advertising to its artistic director Jacques Helleu.

Considered as the "eye" of the house of Chanel, Helleu has for forty years very skilfully constituted the images that have contributed to making the house of Chanel one of the most prestigious brands in the world and which have greatly influenced the marketing of luxury.

He defined himself as "a sensor of ideas, a hunter of emotions". The artistic director of perfumes found inspiration in a few words from designer Gabrielle Chanel who originally wanted a sober design for perfume N°5, " transparence pure " and " une bouteille invisible ".


The simplicity of the idea, unexpected for the time, was already attractive, but the execution of the concept by Helleu made the result extraordinary. The black and white photographs, like the original packaging, were printed with high contrast to produce a feeling of clarity and simplicity. The campaign and the various advertisements did not use slogans, titles or text. Helleu imprinted his aesthetics on the Chanel image, from the packaging to the advertising campaigns, commissioning the famous photographer Richard Avedon in 1966 to produce a film "Tomorrow's Woman"on the N°5 with Philip English and Vicki Hilbert.


Richard Avedon is American fine art and fashion photographer. He is known for his iconic portraits of celebrities, spanning over half of the 20th century, including Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol and Ezra Pound. Avedon believed that a successful marketing image required an underlying narrative that was not just about selling but creating a soul that allowed you to connect directly with it. His impact in terms of style comes in part from his decision to have emotive subjects when the trend is for still and dark portraits. One of his techniques that set him apart was bringing a humanistic dimension to his images by bringing out the muse's personality and including his flaws and intimate, vivid expressions.

In 1968, Helleu contributed to making the young actress Catherine Deneuve, who posed for N°5, famous in the United States. The American press designated her as the most elegant woman in the world. After Chanel, the French government chose Deneuve to represent Marianne, the national symbol of the Republic. The brand's muse was little known in the United States, but her participation in the perfume campaign would boost sales.


During the 1970s, Avedon, Helleu and Deneuve collaborated to create exceptional simplicity and grace images. They are still among the most potent and iconic photographs in the history of beauty marketing.



In 2005, a book entitled "Chanel and Jacques Helleu" was published, tracing the history of the creation of the Chanel image for 40 years, seen by its artistic director.


The marketing direction that Chanel still continues to operate its vision today.

Many collaborations will follow, like the last with Marion Cotillard in a film signed by a compatriot of the actress, Baz Lurhman.


Even more recently, actress and model Camille Razat that you may I have seen recently in the serial of Netflix "Emily in Paris" published a post on Instagram using the codes of the elegant campaign.



Flore Brault

21/01/2022

References:


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