Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel had a lifelong affinity for the lion. It’s fitting, given a comparison provides a striking number of character parallels: a shared intrepidness for forging into new territory, an impressive fearlessness, an inherent strength (the king of the animals in physicality, the designer in her assuredness), and definitely more than a fast of fierceness.

But perhaps above all, both designers and beast have incredible instinct. Chanel, after all, bucked every sartorial trend in the early 1900s with her simple yet elegant silhouettes. It was an intuitive move that would see the aesthetic of the time pivot, not only in her beloved Paris, but across the globe.

It’s little wonder, then, that the lion became something of a spirit animal for Chanel. An ancient symbol of protection and strength, as well as Chanel’s own brith sign, the lion cemented its importance for the designer after a trip to Venice in 1920, while she was mourning the death of her lover Arthur “Boy” Capel. There, the ancient bronze winged lion in St Mark’s Square and the many others that gaze down from buildings throughout the city, inspired in Chanel a deep and personal connection with the city.

“I’m a Leo and, like [the lion], I show my claws to protect myself, but, believe me, I suffer more by clawing than being clawed,” said Chanel, who had the animal sculpted in marble, bronze, and wood, and placed in every corner of her Parisian apartment at 21 rue Cambon.

To this day, lions are engraved on the buttons of the fashion house’s iconic tweed suits, worked into the clasps of its quilted handbags, and is a favoured high-jewellery motif. Now, this symbols of strength has made its fragrance debut in Le Lion de Chanel.

Le Lion is the newest addition to the Maison’s premium fragrance collection, Les Exclusifs de Chanel. As you might imagine from a fragrance inspired by the leader of the animal kingdom, this luxe oriental scent packs plenty of olfactory authority.

That sophistication has a lot to do with the spare-no-expense raw materials used in its creation. “The singular identity of Chanel fragrances depends entirely upon the raw materials themselves, and always has,” says in-house perfumer and Le Lion’s creator, Olivier Polge.

Given carte blanche to craft Le Lion, Polge has built this new recruit on two notes: cysts labdanum – a velvety, almost leathery white flower native to the Mediterranean – and vanilla, extracted from the very best Madagascan beans grown at Chanel’s Grasse headquarters. The addition of patchouli bolsters the sophistication level, giving Le Lion a sense of elegance (designer) and power (beast) rolled into one.

While this is not the fragrance line’s first oriental scent (there is also the woody and intensely chic Coromandel), Le Lion brings something new to the elegant line-up: a proud luxuriousness. “Le Lion de Chanel is opulent, deep, and radiant,” says Polge.

You could also say there is a touch of instinct in Le Lion, which “harbours a certain animality even though it is fully plant-based,” says Polge. But really, you’ll cover this scent for its multi-layered feeling of luxury.

“I was much more interested in the emblematic Chanel lion than the animal,” says Polge. “For Chanel [the brand], the lion represents everything from the Zodiac sign to Gabrielle Chanel’s totem animal, the inspiration for sparkling pieces of jewellery. These multiple visions of the lion are what interested me, and the common denominator is a certain notion of power that is always conveyed with elegance.”

Want to feel unstoppable? A spritz of this will do.

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Text: Bauer Syndication