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Gossip Girl's Whitney Peak is a Chanel girl now, and tells us "fragrance is a form of self-care"

See Hello! Fashion's exclusive behind the scenes images of Whitney's Coco Mademoiselle campaign

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Natalie Salmon
Fashion Digital Editor
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Actress Whitney Peak, is still at the dawn of her career but has already secured one of her most impressive roles yet, a Chanel campaign. 

 Probably best known for landing one of the leading roles in the reboot of the Gossip Girl series playing Zoya Lott, she also starred in the Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and as the lead in Hocus Pocus 2. Now she is the face of Coco Mademoiselle. The fragrance has clearly become a mainstay in the star's beauty ritual, "For me, self-care isn’t 'I’m going to stay home and do a face mask and watch a movie.' I do that anyway," Peak tells us, "Self-care to me really is just doing whatever fuels me, whatever helps me put the best, truest version of myself out there. I put on a fragrance as a form of self-care."

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Whitney Peak is the new face of Coco Mademoiselle

"Honestly, I never dreamed I’d get the attention of such a reputable house, let alone the pleasure of working with and representing them," Peak said of the announcement, "I’m looking forward to showing how versatile and timeless Chanel is." In 2021, Whitney became a Chanel brand ambassador for the US market, then was named the muse of the 22 Handbag campaign in 2022, and now she fronting the maison’s iconic fragrance.

"The relationship between Whitney Peak has developed with the House of Chanel and keeps evolving," the couture house explained in a statement, "Whitney’s joy, spirit and energy are contagious. She is the embodiment of today’s youth whose curiosity, confidence, appetite for experiences and lack of preconceptions echo the temperament of the young Coco Chanel.” The new advertising campaign featuring Whitney Peak, which previously featured Keira Knightley, will be unveiled next month in March 2023. 

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Exclusive behind the scenes imagery courtesy of Chanel.

The parallels between eponymous designer Gabrielle Chanel and Whitney present themselves in eerie ways, "So I only recently discovered a photograph of her [Gabrielle Chanel] wearing a white shirt with a tie and riding pants. And you know, I have worn pretty much the same outfit... I know it might sound corny, but when I saw it, I completely resonated with it. I love that she made these choices because that’s what she wanted to do. She was very singular about that."

It's not just style that the pair have in common but their approach to socialising, "I think moving to New York at 17, being on a showlike Gossip Girl - where it’s kind of portraying an elite lifestyle - and getting exposure to so many things and experiences, I think it is easy to get lost in the scene, in Hollywood." Whitney had to learn to became a master of, "keeping people aroundyou that feed your soul." 

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Exclusive behind the scenes imagery courtesy of Chanel.

Whitney's "New York family" is made up of creatives who have, "extensively grown my taste in everything fromliterature to French cinema." Gabrielle Chanel’s own circle of support consisted of poets, musicians, artists and actresses, such as Jean Cocteau, Sergei Diaghilev and even Picasso. "She was a much better networker than me," Peak says of Chanel, "But, I loved that she left room for socializing, that she networked, that she was very smart about every relationship and encounter she had."

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RELATED: Chanel makes history with its first show in Dakar, Senegal

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Exclusive behind the scenes imagery courtesy of Chanel.

According to Chanel, Peak is the embodiment of  Coco Mademoiselle's original personality, a young woman who moves towards her destiny "to become who she truly wants to be." The woody fragrance of "citrus fruits mixed with a sensual wave of distinguished patchouli" is a signature of the brand, and on the 22nd of February they will be launching the “unique and singular fragrance” as a hair perfume. "When I get out of the shower, I put my moisturizer on, I do my oil, I put my fragrance on and I also put it on my clothes and on my hair. Without [my fragrance] I am incomplete," explains Whitney.

Making a good hair day even better? Definitely something worth gossiping about. You know you love Chanel, xoxo. 

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