Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu: Gracie Abrams set a Paris café dancing

Gracie Abrams escapes a carefully constructed public image and transforms a Parisian café into a dance floor in Chanel’s campaign for Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu.

Directed by Joe Wright, the two-and-a-half-minute film follows Abrams through rain-covered streets before she enters Café Mademoiselle and changes the atmosphere around her.

The campaign introduces Abrams as the face of the fragrance while presenting Coco Mademoiselle as someone guided by instinct rather than expectations.

Abrams removes her carefully created appearance

The film begins inside a formal Paris shaped by appearances and established rules.

Abrams is surrounded by people preparing her for a glamorous event. Her look includes long hair extensions, dramatic eyeliner, makeup and an elaborate outfit.

She looks at herself in the mirror before deciding to abandon the transformation.

Inside a car, she removes the wig and reveals her familiar short haircut. She smudges the makeup, leaves the formal clothing behind and sprays Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu.

When the car stops, she has disappeared.

Pieces of fabric and clothing lie along the street as Abrams runs through Paris in a simple white dress. She has no keys, destination or plan. Her movement through the city represents a shift from controlled presentation to personal freedom.

The paparazzi chase leads to a café

Abrams moves through wet streets while figures connected to the formal world follow her.

She escapes the attention by pushing open the door of a crowded Parisian café.

Created specifically for the film, Café Mademoiselle combines black-and-white Art Deco lines with colours connected to the Coco Mademoiselle range. The interior feels elegant, but less restrictive than the city outside.

The café becomes the centre of the story because it brings strangers into one shared space.

Abrams initially blends into the room. She laughs, plays pinball and begins responding to the music and people around her.

A heel strikes the floor. She claps her hands and the energy starts to move through the café.

One person changes the entire room

Choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui designed the dance as an expression of spontaneity rather than a formal performance.

The people Abrams passes begin to loosen their movements. Clapping travels through the room as more customers leave their seats and join the dance.

Around 100 performers take part in the sequence.

Abrams climbs onto tables and eventually reaches the café’s gilded bar. From above, she sends another wave of movement through the crowd before diving into the people below.

The café becomes a space where the rules of the opening scene no longer apply. Strangers dance together without waiting for permission or following a fixed routine.

Abrams does not simply enter the room. Her presence changes how everyone inside behaves.

Music gives the escape its momentum

The film uses a remix of Candi Staton’s “Young Hearts Run Free” by French producer Breakbot.

The song reinforces the campaign’s themes of movement and independence. Its rhythm allows the story to build from a private decision inside the car to a collective celebration inside the café.

Abrams is known primarily as a singer-songwriter, but the film gives her a character to perform rather than placing her inside a traditional beauty advertisement.

Her short hair, bare face and loose movement provide a visual contrast to the formal version of herself created at the beginning.

The transformation is not presented as a makeover. It happens through the removal of the makeover she was given.

The fragrance follows the same change in energy

Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu was created by Chanel’s in-house perfumer Olivier Polge.

The fragrance opens with an accord of lychee and grapefruit. Rose and jasmine form its floral heart, while patchouli and amber notes provide a deeper base.

The composition moves from a bright opening into a stronger and more sensual character. The film translates that progression into images.

Abrams begins alone and under control. Her escape creates momentum, while the café sequence turns that energy into something shared and difficult to resist.

The word “crush” is therefore treated as more than romantic attraction. It becomes the immediate pull of a person, fragrance or moment capable of changing the direction of an evening.

Gracie Abrams begins a new Coco Mademoiselle chapter

Abrams had already worked with Chanel before becoming the face of Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu.

For this film, she looked towards the house’s earlier fragrance stories, including Joe Wright’s previous Coco Mademoiselle campaigns featuring Keira Knightley.

Wright returns to the brand with another heroine who refuses to remain where people expect her to be. However, Abrams brings a different energy to the role through contemporary music, her recognisable cropped hair and a performance built around collective movement.

The campaign launched in August 2026 alongside the new fragrance.

No audience, engagement or sales results had been announced at the time of release.

Credits

The Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu campaign was created by Chanel Fragrances and Beauty and stars singer-songwriter and Chanel ambassador Gracie Abrams. Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur, Chanel’s Head of Global Creative Resources for Fragrances and Beauty, led the creative direction, Joe Wright directed the film, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui created the choreography and Olivier Polge developed the fragrance. The soundtrack uses Candi Staton’s “Young Hearts Run Free,” remixed by Breakbot, while Lachlan Bailey photographed the accompanying campaign images.