Chanel’s Bois Noir fragrance was created (circa 1986-87) because Chanel’s chairman of the board Alain Wertheimer “wanted something new to wear.”* Wertheimer’s marketing approach to Bois Noir was novel: Bois Noir was not sold in department stores (it was only available in Chanel boutiques); there were no promotions (such as “gift-with-purchase” offers; Wertheimer hated those); and he didn’t really care if Bois Noir was a money-maker for his company. Wertheimer spoke frankly in a 1987 interview and said there were few unusual fragrances like Bois Noir because — “People want success too quickly. From a fragrance point of view, people like what their memory tells them is good. Memory tells you it’s good if it relates to something else you like. When a fragrance is completely different, they’re lost.”*
By April of 1990, things had changed — Bois Noir’s name for one. Amidst a flashy (and expensive) print and film ad campaign — the largest ever for a Chanel men’s fragrance — Bois Noir (no doubt with some tweaking of its formula) became Égoïste and was widely launched: in department stores no less! In its advertisements, which included the now-famous Jean-Paul Goude TV commercial, Chanel didn’t use images of men…
Shower gels named after famous warriors? Well…okay, but why can’t we use another type of person to promote products, a type that didn’t thrive on warfare, a type that doesn’t make me feel so “adolescent” as I buy a WARRIOR shower gel? I’d even risk appearing pretentious over appearing adolescent, so maybe I’ll develop a Poet Series of scented products myself: Haiku (Bashō) bath gel fragranced with pine needles, lotus, green tea leaf, kyara wood, smoke and bamboo, or a Leaves of Grass candle (Whitman) with sap, lilac, birch, cumin and musk. What about a fragrance honoring a poetess: Marianne Moore; she liked apricots and baseball, so osmanthus and ‘baseball glove leather’ would do the trick for Tricorne Eau de Parfum. 
