Seaside off-season, a sport car, a dinner at the hotel. The CHANEL Iconic Handbag campaign pays tribute to A Man and a Woman, a film by Claude Lelouch in which the French director captures the intensity and the poetry of a burgeoning love story. Two icons, Penélope Cruz and Brad Pitt, meet another: the CHANEL Iconic Handbag is the privileged witness to this suspended moment in Deauville, a place intimately linked to the House.
Virginie Viard has always been passionate about cinema – particularly the New Wave – and wanted to pay tribute to Claude Lelouch’s masterpiece. A work that smoulders with sensuality, with that legendary beach scene… the horizon as far as the eye can see… the eternal sea… and, of course, Deauville.
This campaign photographed and directed by Inez & Vinoodh repeats almost word for word, shot by shot, some of the film’s original sequences, with Penélope Cruz, a living legend of the film world and CHANEL ambassador since 2018. And Brad Pitt, a cult actor who, with much delicacy, embodies the somewhat daunted, blushing man.
Their characters shudder, traversed by emotion, skin tingling with goosebumps. Penélope Cruz’s hand tightens on her bag, discreetly, as if to hide concern. Her fingers caress the quilted leather, we hear the sound of the clasp turning, and notice the chain over the shoulder… Instantly identifiable with its perfect silhouette, modern and rectangular, the iconic CHANEL bag and its impeccable allure that makes it so unique and desirable.
The CHANEL bag is an emblem. It metamorphoses according to the mood… a day bag to be worn in the evening, a faithful companion from a sleepless night to rising at dawn. It lasts a lifetime, to then be handed down from generation to generation. Collection after collection, it appears in countless variations of colour, shape and material. Imbued with meaning, contrast and mystery, it exudes a sense of freedom. It is a coat of arms slung over the shoulder, a liberated silhouette that reveals something about the wearer. It bears within it the very history of the House of CHANEL, its present, past and future, woven together like the links of its interlacing chains and leather ribbons. Over the years and the CHANEL collections, countless designs have paid tribute to the iconic bag, reinforcing its status as a unique icon, indeed as a legend.
