Olivier Polge on sandalwood at Chanel

When Olivier Polge became Chanel’s in house perfumer in 2015, he inherited Bleu de Chanel, a fragrance his father Jacques had created five years earlier. Rather than reshape it, Polge chose to develop it: to understand what sandalwood could become across different concentrations and formats, and to build the entire line around that single material. The decision has held. Bleu de Chanel remains one of the house’s most recognisable fragrances, shaped by a vision so coherent that it has barely shifted since his arrival.

The line now spans eau de toilette, eau de parfum, parfum and body care, each version returning to the same woody foundation. The sandalwood sourcing and the supporting notes—citrus, ambroxan and ambrette seed oils—stay consistent across all of them. What changes is intensity and how long the fragrance persists. This precision is deliberate. Polge has said that architecture matters more than novelty in fragrance, and the Bleu de Chanel collection proves it: restraint that makes the material legible, clarity that asks nothing of the wearer except attention.

A new campaign film from Chanel explores this approach directly. Shot in black and white, it strips away context and colour, leaving only geometry, silhouette and the gold lettering of the name. Polge appears at the centre, positioned not as a personality but as the keeper of a material and what it can do. The composition reflects his philosophy: the fragrance does not announce itself, and neither does the man behind it. What the film communicates is the thinking—the decision made with absolute certainty that does not need to defend itself.

A new film from Chanel explores this sandalwood signature directly. The black and white photography strips away everything but geometry and silhouette. The gold lettering sits clean and certain. The sandalwood note becomes almost conceptual, reduced to its essential character rather than its literal presence. Polge sits at the centre of the image: the architect at rest with his materials, the mind that holds the whole thing together.

What the campaign communicates is the thinking behind a fragrance that has already become a modern classic. The vision drives the execution, never the reverse. The sandalwood does the work. It does not announce itself; it simply persists, the way a decision made with absolute certainty does not need to defend itself. That is what a singular vision delivers across every interpretation of Bleu de Chanel.

Olivier Polge’s appointment as Chanel’s in house perfumer in 2015 positioned him to shape the house’s olfactory direction rather than execute commissions. His inheritance of Bleu de Chanel, which debuted in 2010 under his father Jacques Polge (Chanel’s founding perfumer), gave him a fragrance already established and beloved, yet one he could develop according to his own understanding of how sandalwood might mature and deepen across different concentrations and formats.

The Bleu de Chanel line spans eau de toilette, eau de parfum, parfum and a body care collection, each maintaining the woody foundation while varying its intensity and persistence on skin. The sandalwood sourcing and the balance of citrus, ambroxan and ambrette seed oils that sit around it remain consistent across versions, the precision a direct consequence of Polge’s belief that architecture matters more than novelty in fragrance.

The new campaign film, shot in black and white, positions Polge not as a personality but as the keeper of a material and its possibilities. Chanel’s commitment to the fragrance runs deeper than fashion cycle; Bleu de Chanel remains among the house’s best selling fragrances globally, a position won not through relaunch but through the absolute consistency of its vision and the patience required to execute it flawlessly across a decade and a half.

Imagery courtesy of Chanel (@chanelofficial).