It’s safe to suspect that Barbie has expensive taste. The ballgowns and spacesuits stuffed into the dream house wardrobe were solid hints, but French luxury brand Chanel has confirmed suspicions by naming living Barbie Margot Robbie as the latest face of their No.5 fragrance.
Following Robbie’s $US1.4 billion ($2.1 billion) box office success playing the Mattel figurine and positive reviews for this week’s US release of the movie My Old Ass, produced alongside husband Tom Ackerley, the accomplished actor continues her winning career streak with the lucrative deal.
A pregnant Robbie appeared at the Los Angeles premiere of My Old Ass this week in an ash body-con dress and stilettos. There are no reports of Chanel No.5’s heady whirl of jasmine, rose and ylang ylang emanating from her pulse points.
Margot Robbie is the new face of Chanel No.5. (Right) Megan Park, Maisy Stella, and a pregnant Robbie arrive at the premiere of My Old Ass in LA on Monday.
“I think Chanel No.5 is one of the most iconic fragrances in the world,” Robbie, who has been a Chanel fashion ambassador since 2018, says in the French brand’s press release. “It’s incredible to be a part of it.”
Robbie is the second Australian to represent the storied perfume, following Nicole Kidman, who appeared in a 2004 television commercial for the fragrance by Elvis and Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann. That advertisement appears in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive ever made, costing a reported $49 million, with Kidman supposedly paid $5.5 million for the four-minute feature.
In 2014, Brad Pitt became the first man to become the face of the fragrance. According to industry sources, Pitt was paid $10.4 million, with the advertisement costing a reported $25 million.
Robbie seems to have forgotten her Babylon co-star’s role as a perfume pin-up, focusing on women such as Catherine Deneuve, Love Story’s Ali MacGraw, Lily-Rose Depp and Marion Cotillard, who have starred in previous campaigns.
“There’s such an impressive lineage of women who’ve been associated with the fragrance over the years,” she says. “I am very honoured to be joining that long list of incredible talents.”
Marilyn Monroe, who appeared in 2013 advertisements via old footage for the fragrance, would tell interviewers that the scent was her sleeping attire.
“They ask me questions. Just an example: ‘What do you wear to bed? A pyjama top? The bottoms of the pyjamas?’” Monroe said in an interview obtained by Chanel.
“So I said, ‘Chanel No. 5,’ because it’s the truth. And yet, I don’t want to say ‘nude.’”
Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt in advertising campaigns as the face of Chanel No.5.
Created by Ernest Beaux in 1921 for Coco Chanel, No. 5 was the first fragrance from the French designer. When Beaux presented samples for Chanel to inspect, she chose the one labelled No. 5.
Chanel used the perfume to rehabilitate her image as a suspected collaborator at the end of World War II, according to writer Hal Vaughan’s 2011 book Sleeping With The Enemy. “Within days after the last German troopers left Paris, Chanel hurried to give out bottles of Chanel No. 5 to American GIs.”
For Robbie, it’s a less controversial but equally fragrant drop in an ocean of accomplishments.
Make the most of your health, relationships, fitness and nutrition with our Live Well newsletter. Get it in your inbox every Monday.