You’ve seen the Italian concept of superleggera attributed to cars, motorcycles, watches—and now, for the first time, fragrance. At its core, the idea is all about streamlining. Taken literally, superleggera essentially means that the lighter something is, the more powerful it becomes. By removing excessive and heavy materials and keeping only the lightweight essentials for the item to function, you create something new.
Conceptually, this is simple to understand when it comes to something like a sports car. But fragrance? That’s a bit more esoteric. Which is exactly why it so inspired Olivier Polge, Chanel’s in-house perfumer. It’s easy to assume that in the world of perfumery, power would come from quantity, concentration, or the combination of both, but according to Polge, that’s not necessarily the case. In fact, when you hear him talk about fragrance formulas, it’s instantly clear that he envisions them as a puzzle, or maybe even an engine. He speaks in shapes, vibrations, and energy; the idea of notes seems almost secondary to him. Which is perhaps why the idea of superleggera was so appealing to Polge in the first place.
The culmination of this experiment is the new, limited-edition Chanel Allure Homme Sport Superleggera, a rethinking of the classic Allure Homme Sport (available in August at chanel.com). For Polge, this new version didn’t come about through broad strokes but instead through small tweaks, a few note switches here and there and painstaking attention to detail. The result is a zingy, energetic take on a classic, with less amber, a lighter mix of woods, and an “engine” of patchouli. The energy is palpable—it almost crackles across your skin as you spray it—and the overall effect is not unlike the idling engine of a race car, an undeniable power vibrating below your skin’s surface. If that’s not superleggera, we don’t know what is.
We sat down with Polge for an exclusive interview on what superleggera means to him and how exactly he captured that lightning in a bottle.
Chanel in-house perfumer Olivier Polge in creation mode.
How did the concept of superleggera inspire you?
This is really based on the car. Every weight that you remove gives more power to the car. When we were starting to think about this scent is when I realized that I could work in the same spirit of removing certain elements. I found logic in the idea of working the lightness by removing the heavy elements.
So I adapted that idea to the scent of Allure Homme Sport, which is very fresh but has certain powdery notes—a good kind of depth but heaviness as well. I really fine-tuned the formula to somehow exchange certain components for lighter and more vibrant raw materials. I tried to make the parallel with the vibrancy of the scents. You have certain scents that are quiet and you have certain scents that are not really energetic, but there is something still very vibrant. Superleggera is vibrant.
How did you keep the connection with the original Allure Homme Sport?
Allure Homme Sport already had that connection to sport, so I already had a good engine to continue down the same path. There were certain shapes, something maybe more dressed up about it. There is a little, I would say, memory of Allure Homme. The first Allure Homme fragrance is a much more powdery, amber-y fragrance. This is the part that I reshaped with totally new raw materials.
Allure Homme Sport Superleggera.
How did you approach the original composition when developing Superleggera?
What was interesting and challenging was that I had the ability of having a very different effect by not touching that many things. So I had to counterbalance certain notes. I pushed the freshness in the zesty notes, and those materials in the woody notes gave me the counterpart to the freshness with something more vibrant. There was this whole amber-y note made of sandalwood that I rebalanced with sandalwood, patchouli, and certain white musk notes. This is mostly in the background. Then I extended the fresh notes, the citrus and mandarin notes, and found ways to use concentrated citrus notes that make a more nervous, almost metallic quality.
Did you use any new notes in Superleggera?
There are certain woody notes that are round in the Allure Homme Sport and I change them into more vibrant and lighter woody notes, like cedarwood. There is a touch of patchouli, which is not in Allure Homme Sport, which really boosts the engine of the scent.
Chanel Allure Homme Sport Superleggera bottle.
What is different about this fragrance versus the original Allure Homme Sport?
I think that there is something more casual and free. They are not opposite—I think they are linked to each other—but I think that you might touch a different sensibility in someone who wears Superleggera rather than Allure Homme Sport.
Speaking of that, whom do you envision wearing Superleggera?
To tell you the truth, I never really envision anyone specifically when I create. I like to work on a different feeling, on a different emotion. You never know who will wear your perfume, and I like to be surprised. I don’t like these too-marketed intentions where you believe that a perfume will target certain specific tastes or specific people. It is best to be surprised. I think that it’s like people who wear certain clothes—the mix and match of clothes and the mix of match of people and personality, I think that’s what makes a perfume special in the end.
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