Nana Komatsu THE LADY of the CAMELLIA

At just 27 years old, the Japanese actress has been Chanel’s House Ambassador for over nine years. Amid flashing cameras, writer Matthieu Peck spoke with her in a Parisian courtyard.

- MATTHIEU PECK

An imposing white camellia looms in the centre of the room - a flower so grand it could pluck a man and not the other way around. The sculpture is enormous yet radically understated, planted here before us, in the centre of the Chanel Fall/Winter 2023 ready-to-wear show, awaiting the appearance of each model like a flaming torch.

While you might know why Gabrielle Chanel worshipped the camellia for its lack of thorns and fragrance and its neutral, pure elegance you may not have expected to see a woman take shape inside of one. Two big eyes blinking in its centre. Sultry eyelids, jet-black pupils, now a mouth, then an entire figure. The petals, a face: that of Nana Komatsu's.

Hers is a beauty that is difficult to measure. One that's not defined by any clichés of curves or waist size. Rather, it's a gaze that pierces and probes your soul a sort of electricity. If you follow astrology and the movements of the stars, you might discern those strange worlds in her which come together to exude grace. I recognised her immediately as we'd already met the day before. Let me describe this woman to you.

Seated in the back of a studio 24 hours earlier, I watched the endless camera flashes flooding a quiet ceiling as if idiotically attempting to freeze themselves on it a plainly futile endeavour. I waited for Komatsu to finish her session, tossing limbs and smiles around the room, before finally coming to sit beside me and recount part of her journey.