I think it’s fair to say that no one has better represented Coco’s Chanel better than Freja Beha Erichsen in a very long time – while the luxe brand stands the top of the food chain, I still picture an essence of Coco within the girl who wears Chanel today. I see a girl with unkempt eyebrows wearing last night’s smoke-stained designer bag. Boys feed off her unique allure, and girls wish they could work a faux pas this well. And Erichsen truly does it for me. Too bad for her, no one’s liking the Fall 2011 campaign Carine Roitfeld creative directed her in. Just for fun, let’s discuss it!

So barely anyone had a complaint about Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2011 campaigns. Here, we see Lagerfeld’s golden toys, Baptiste Giabiconi and Freja Beha straring off into a distance. We see the camelia, the 2.55, the biker injections, the tweed. And they’re gorgeous beyond anything else.

Had they spirit? Not really, but they were sooo the Chanel we know, love and are familiar with today.

For Fall 2011, Chanel took a very different path. Lagerfeld employed Carine Roitfeld to art direct the shoot. Today, the ads were released. Among several sites I browsed and people I spoke with, a lot of people find it very jarring. Some find it try-hard, others find it too editorial, most find it plain horrible. I find it more Roitfeld than anything Chanel.

Which is something I actually find extremely refreshing. I love the free spirit that resides in this campaign – I’m just confused as to how it got approved. If you took away the branding, you couldn’t tell it was a Chanel ad. But I like that it drops all of Lagerfeld’s imprint on the brand – it isn’t a formulaic seller! It’s cute, fun and fresh – a message Chanel hasn’t projected in such a long time. 

What say you? What do you think the campaign, and why? Just for fun, let’s discuss!