THE luxury French fashion house Chanel is facing a backlash over its debut advent calendar with many questioning whether the meagre contents live up to its lofty £610 ($825) price tag.
A quick summary?
The brand unveiled its first foray into the advent calendar market – produced to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Chanel No 5 fragrance – earlier in the autumn.
The advertising blurb promised "a calendar unlike any other," with 27 boxes numbered five to 31, "each of which contains a full-sized fragrance or makeup product, a miniature or another surprise marked with Gabrielle Chanel's lucky number". It swiftly sold out.
Uh-oh. I'm sensing a hitch?
Roll on the festive season and TikTok user Elise Harmon, a beauty influencer from California, decided to do what is known in the online world as an "unboxing video" where she shared the calendar's contents with her followers.
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Suffice to say Harmon was largely unimpressed with the items she found inside, including Chanel-branded stickers, an empty dust bag, a money clip, a keyring, a badge, a magnetic bookmark and a miniature snowglobe.
What happened next?
Across a series of videos – which together have garnered more than 50 million views on the social media platform – Harmon wryly laid bare her disappointment.
Many who have watched the clips echoed her bewilderment and dismay. Let's hope the calendar was fire-retardant because it got a roasting, variously labelled "a joke" and "junk".
Has Chanel responded?
Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion at Chanel, told the US-based website Women's Wear Daily that the negative feedback was unexpected.
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He said: "This controversy is a bit of a shame because it was not what Chanel intended. Chanel thought it would please some of its customers by offering this type of product. Evidently, we see that you have to be careful and therefore, in future, we will certainly be much more cautious."
When did advent calendars get so fancy?
It has been a gradual creep. Gone are the days of cheap, synthetic chocolates rattling about behind cheap cardboard doors.
Limited-edition, luxury advent calendars have flooded the market over the past decade. This year's options include Dior (£400), Guerlain (£490), La Mer (£435) and Wedgwood (£650).
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High-end jewellers Tiffany & Co. has taken the advent calendar next level, meanwhile, with a four-feet tall, hand-crafted and art-adorned oak cabinet containing 24 gift-wrapped trinkets costing a jaw-dropping £110,000 ($150,000).
There’s an old saying that springs to mind?
Indeed. Something about fools and their money …
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