Fun Fact: Happy Memorial Day Weekend! I'm feeling super 70's for the summer! Obsessed with this Marques Almeida suede halter top... the neck buckle is everything!!! It's on sale here. It's such an awesome week for sales happening right now. My whole look is on sale...drop the mic! Also my fav Coach patchwork booties and charmed out Marc Jacobs bag! Hope everyone is having fun shopping the sales and in the pool with swan floaties and enjoying this summer heat!
We went on the most beautiful trip to the South of France, Grasse with CHANEL to experience the May Rose Flowers and the new CHANEL No.5 L'eau Perfume. We arrived at our gorgeous hotel located in the countryside of rolling hills, Cyprus trees and fresh flowers. We first started at the Museum of International Perfumes where we saw the evolution of perfume. They had the original bottle of CHANEL No.5 Perfume from 1921 and we walked around town. Later that night, we went to a famous cozy French restaurant La Colombe D'or (where Justin Timberlake goes all the time) and enjoyed the bessst food, desserts and amazing company. In the past, famous artists like Matisse, Picasso and Magritte used to pay for their meals in exchange for their paintings... so their incredible Art hung on the walls.
The next day we excitedly ventured out to CHANEL's May flower fields that harvests roses, jasmine, and lavender. The air is so fresh and the flowers are sooooo beautiful---we just soaked it all in. It was so incredible to feel and be so close to nature and see all the love that is put into making CHANEL fragrances. It was like a painting come to life! And we were welcomed with open arms! It's actually a family affair and the fields are owned and operated by the owner's (Joseph Mul) son in law Fabrice Bianchi. We met with the amazing Fabrice who taught us how the rosebuds are picked by a lovely group of forty five people and brought to the factory. We were out on the fields with the workers, picking roses, dancing in the fields and enjoying the best day ever. We used the technique of using our thumb, index finger, pressed and then clicked to take the roses off the bush and placed into our linen aprons.
May is the best time for the flourishing of the roses and there was an astonishing five generations of roses that surrounded us. Fabrice was telling us how they have mastered the original quality of the rose and how the valley of the hills and specific soil have made the fields a micro climate.
The bags of roses are then brought over by a tractor, put into a vat with a solvent, steamed and then turned into a liquid that is then used in the CHANEL No. 5! The rose only has a only a 2.5 hour window from the time it's picked in the fields, getting to the factory and turned into an extract for the best quality perfume. When we got to the factory, we watched as the bags of roses were poured into the vats and they told us to jump in! Ommmg! We jumped in the fun began! Bags and bags of roses were poured on us and we couldn't stop laughing! We were smiling ear to ear! It was beyond amazing! And it smelled INCREDIBLE! Roses everywhere!
A video posted by Cailli Beckerman Sam Beckerman (@beckermanblog) on
After the factory visit, we met with the super talented and creative genius Olivier Polge who created the new CHANEL No.5 L'eau perfume, the fresh and sexy fragrance. Olivier wanted the new scent to be contemporary, sexy and have a purity to it. It has notes of citrus that is the fresh accord, has floral notes that enhances the fresh green fruity aspect, has base notes of cedar wood that pushes the fragrance. We just love how Olivier said that the scent is spontaneous + structured and we are obsessed with it. The No. 5 L'eau fragrance only uses a few ingredients and that's the key to making it more modern. There's with an emphasis on the No.5 DNA but now it's all dressed up.
Perfumes are linked to memories and good times and the L'eau No. 5 fragrance is now our all time favourite scent reminding us of our special trip to Grasse. We are spraying it right now as we type this! The new CHANEL L'eau No.5 is available Sept.7th! #ChanelGrasse #NewChanel5
We got invited on a trip of a lifetime to see the CHANEL Cruise Cuba 2016/17 Collection on the streets of Havana Paseo Del Prado! Cuba is changing dramatically and it was such a special time to be there, because CHANEL is the first international fashion house to have a show there! It was so exciting because it was also Karl Lagerfeld's first time in Cuba! (We got to see the first U.S cruise ship in forty years docked there and Fast and the Furious 8 is the first American movie that has started filming!)
On our first night, we went to a CHANEL dinner at Atelier that CHANEL hosted for all the press that attended. We ate delicious pesto pasta, Coco Flan and had yummy drinks in fresh coconuts while we chatted with friends. Later that night we went to Tropicana to see an incredible Cabaret show filled with flamingo dressed dancers, chandelier headpieces and neon outfits. Everyone was shaking their tail feather while sipping on champagne.
We stayed at Hotel Nacional de Cuba and went on a shopping tour the next day to see local artists at a Flea Market. We bought some hand made pop can hats, tie dye dresses and purses. The walking tour we went on was amazing because we saw such beautiful architecture and soaked up the culture since it was our first time in Cuba.
A video posted by Cailli Beckerman Sam Beckerman (@beckermanblog) on
We then all went back to our hotel, jumped in the pool and got ready for the big night!
Before the fashion show started, we all got picked up in vintage rainbow convertible cars that brought us to Havana Paseo del Prado. There were 170 cars that brought all 600 guests to the show. It was so much fun being in the car with the buildup of the amazing energy and excitement before the show started. Locals were on their balconies behind us and in front of us cheering on the models and waving at us. We met Vin Diesel who was such a sweetheart and we took a fun selfie with him. We were all sitting on park benches and the models walked down a runway that was 160 metres long. CHANEL made history and turned Havana's street into a gorgeous runway show, showing lots of colorful tweeds, neon sequin dresses and Viva Coco Libre tees. There were also military jackets, lots of Panama hats and brogues. There were 86 looks total and some menswear looks that had the male models smoking Cuban cigars. CHANEL embraced Cuba's culture playing live Afro Cuban music during the show and even had Cuban Cigar purse boxes and vintage car prints on skirts and bathrobes.
At the end of the show, the models Cha- Chaed down the runway and danced their way back with drummers and dancers and singers! It ended with a Congo line, a Cuban carnival tradition and they all followed behind Karl who was holding his godson's Hudson Kroenig's hand. It was EPIC! All of the guests rushed on to the runway to dance and be a part of the celebration. We ended up right behind Karl and Hudson capturing it, in one of our videos on Instagram. After the show, guests jumped back into the vintage cars and headed to La Plaza de la Catedral for the after party. Dancers and live singers filled the party with Cuban beats and dance moves. We danced all night until our feet hurt! One of our favourite moments was when Karl hit the dance floor. It was everything! We didn't want the night to end. It will be forever be one of our most unforgettable and special trips! Cha Cha Cha!
