SCENTS of LEGACY

Chanel's in-house Perfumer Olivier Polge on continuing the House's and his family's traditions

For many, an inheritance typically comes in the form of material goods or financial assets. Olivier Polge has been bequeathed a finely tuned olfactory sense from his father Jacques Polge. The elder Polge served as Chanel's in-house Perfumer for 37 years from 1978 to 2015, and his works, like Allure, Chance, and Bleu de Chanel, are still available today. When he retired, the job went to his son.

Olivier Polge, however, had not intended to take over the reins from his father. "As a teenager, I didn't want to do the same thing as my father. It was only when I was 20 years old, after doing a summer internship at my father's lab, did I realise that there was something about fragrance that really spoke to me," says the native of Grasse, the perfume capital of the world.