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| Oct 07: Loyal readers of this column will know that we normally abstain from endorsing overtly commercial domains, websites that are little more than bigger-screen ads adapted to fit monitor and mouse. And yet at this moment, we are slavishly engrossed by a site that's just that, a glitzy shameless product plug, namely Coco Mademoiselle, the youthful fragrance from the house of Chanel. What made us so easy, you ask? Maybe it's L-O-V-E (the viciously catchy Nat King Cole ditty that the URL plays on loop). Perhaps it's the gangly comeliness of Ke300x600 Knightley, who stars in the lavish video at the center of it. Or possibly the blame falls on our affinity for haute French home decor, the sort that teeters dangerously close to kitsch. It certainly has to do with the fact that Chanel continues to be one of the most Internet-friendly and -savvy fashion firms around. (To wit, in an unprecedented and commendable move, the company recently invited a group of 15 bloggers from around the world on an all-expenses-paid trip to Paris to explore its ateliers, labs and other inner sanctums.) Since the scent's campaign was inspired by the Right Bank apartment of Coco Chanel herself, the website's winning conceit is to take the viewer on a tour of its sumptuous rooms, moving from salon to salon, stopping along the way to zoom in on odd details that give clues to the unique sensibility of the iconic designer—baroque mirrors, precious "objets" and gilded tchotchkes at every turn. As with everything Chanel, the site's strength lies in the subtle details. The Study, for example, features a little feat of flash design in the boats that gently rock back and forth on the famous oriental lacquer screens. It all culminates with the campaign's showpiece, a mini-film that's sure to join the brand's productions with Vanessa Paradis and Nicole Kidman as an advertising classic: Miss Knightley, looking (and smelling) exquisite in red satin (and a spritz of Coco), exits the elegant apartment into the sparkle of Paris at night and the arms of a predictably handsome prince. Still not convinced such a cloyingly superficial pleasure is worthy of our praises? Then take it from Coco herself, who—in one of her eccentric bon mot—pronounced that "A woman who doesn't wear perfume has no future." And that's a scary prospect.
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