Freelance Journalist and Writer

He will only say so if pressed. Although why he should be so hesitant is unclear. “Well on my passport it says that I am a perfumer”, says Jacques Polge, the top man at Chanel. Part of the truth - but certainly not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. “Its just that to most people it sounds a little odd if I give a more accurate description of my job”, he confides. “And what might that accurate description be, Mr. Polge?”, his interviewer insists, evidently eager to hear him articulate the magic words. “Well”, Polge replies a little uneasily, “I am a nose”.

He is far too modest that Mr. Polge. For not only is he a nose, he is undoubtedly the leading nose in the world. Based in his elegant fourth floor offices in Paris’s smart Avenue Charles de Gaulle, and just a stone throw from the Arc de Triomphe, Polge’s brief is daunting indeed: entrusted by Chanel to interpret the aromatic heritage and spirit of the late Mademoiselle herself, his constant challenge to adapt and create new perfumes for the contemporary world.

Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel was perhaps the most influential couturier of the twentieth century, her glamorous designs helping to liberate women from the plumed and corseted extravagance of Belle Epoch costume. Freeing women from ostentatious displays of wealth, she instituted a classically elegant modern style that persists to this day. All the more ironic, therefore, that the most successful of her ventures was the launching of the apparently eternal fragrance No. 5, introduced with much fanfare back in the early 1920s. A classical heart, introduced by a rush of dizzying sensuality, and surrounded with a multitude of light floral notes, No. 5 was dazzling, upsetting each and every conventional aromatic notion of the day. Almost immediately the reputation of No. 5 spread overseas to become one of the great mythical symbols of our time. After the liberation of Paris, G.I.’s who wanted to take a bottle of the celebrated perfume back home could be seen waiting patiently to enter 31 rue Cambon, forming queues over 500 meters long. Nor has its popularity waned - even to the slightest degree - with a whole generation of younger women rediscovering Marilyn Monroe’s definition of voluptuousness - to sleep in nothing more than a few drops of No. 5. And therefore surely something of a difficult act for Mr. Polge to follow, n’est ce pas?

“Most definitely”, he admits. And all the more so because he never had the opportunity of meeting Coco Chanel, the self-proclaimed Queen of Haute Couture, whose reign endured for almost six decades. “Of course it is a handicap having to create perfumes without her. But I try to overcome this by having my own private dialogue with her. And I think that goes for all of us employed here at Chanel, in perfumery and fashion alike.” 

So how does Mr. Polge go about creating a new fragrance? Well, its all in the mind, he insists. That is to say a perfume is established in his thoughts and imagination, only setting out to produce the formula for what has already been ‘smelled’ somewhere deep down in his psyche. This creative process can take place at work, whilst in his lab (aptly situated in the Avenue des Parfums) or, just as likely, whilst bellowing out Maurice Chevalier songs under the shower. Whereupon he declares the French equivalent of ‘by George I’ve got it’. He must have been working in the lab or showering a lot, of late, for during the course of the last few years he has come up with best selling brand names such as Coco - a homage to Mademoiselle, of course - Égoïste, Christalle and Allure, the fresh and sophisticated abstract-floral scent which Chanel is confident will blaze a trail well into the next century.

“Please forgive me if this sounds rather rude - but your nose looks quite ordinary to me.”

“It is”, Polge retorts with a smile. “A nose is made, not born. I haven’t got a ‘better’ nose than you. Its just that I have had a certain training; I am used to working with my nose as a matter of course, and as such I am able to put order into what I smell. Its like becoming proficient at the piano - there are certain muscles that have to be exercised regularly. Its the same thing when it comes to perfumes - you need to train and work your nose.”

Do not even think of interrupting Polge at this point, for he is in full flow. Anxious to explain the universal appeal of perfumes, he is moving onto interesting terrain. Its time for sex, philosophy and religion - subjects which are traditionally taboo for the Anglo-Saxons - but without mention of which no day would be complete for any self-respecting Frenchman.

“Perfume’, he asserts, “is an internal dimension of femininity. Nor is it a coincidence that some 98% of perfumes sold today are from the famous marques of couturiers. If companies such as Chanel became interested in perfume - and we were the first - then of course its related to commercial reasons. But it is also to do with deeper reasons, which are telling us that perfumes are to do with an invisible prolongation of the work being carried out by the couturier. In other words the couturier acts on the outside - and the continuation of what he does is his perfume. Plus olfaction is most definitely the most ‘wild’ of our senses - smell being directly linked to primitive instincts such as sex. People often ask me what makes a beautiful perfume. To which I reply its the perfume which the woman you love is wearing.”

“I am afraid that we noses are a breed on the way to extinction”, he explains a little sorrowfully. “Its just in the old days each marque used to employ its own nose. What tends to happen now is that very few companies actually make their own perfumes - they buy in or have it made for them. To me the future doesn’t seem very rosy.”

Despite Polge’s pessimism about the future, however, he has been unable to deter his 23 year old son Olivier from wanting to follow in his father’s (how should one put it?) - footsteps.

“I tried to talk him out of it”, Polge confesses. “But then I thought about it and concluded that I didn’t have the right to do any such thing. I can’t say that I will be able to make a great nose out of him. That’s impossible. But of course I hope that one day he too will become the nose of Chanel. Because for someone passionate about perfumes, there really is no better position in the world.”

A sentiment with which the great, late Mademoiselle Chanel would no doubt concur wholeheartedly.