Vanessa Paradis to Lily-Rose Depp | Two Generations of CHANEL | US

From the COCO Birdcage to a New CHANEL Generation

Vanessa Paradis’s 1991 COCO fragrance film remains one of the sharpest starting points for this mother-daughter story. Jean-Paul Goude placed her inside an oversized birdcage, turning a young French star into something part bird, part mischievous heroine.

CHANEL kept returning to Vanessa over the years: ROUGE COCO and COCO COCOON in 2010, then the Girl handbag campaign photographed by Karl Lagerfeld in 2015. The relationship was already decades old when Lily-Rose began appearing beside her.

New York 2015｜Lily-Rose Steps Forward

The handover becomes especially visible in New York. Vanessa and Lily-Rose attended the 2015 Paris-Salzburg Métiers d’Art re-show there, and only a few months later CHANEL named 16-year-old Lily-Rose an ambassador and the face of Pearl eyewear.

That same year, both appeared within the casino setting of the Haute Couture presentation. It was not a literal passing of a contract from mother to daughter; it was the beginning of a separate CHANEL identity for Lily-Rose.

Lily-Rose Depp

COCO vs. N°5 L’EAU｜Two Campaigns, Two Personalities

Vanessa’s perfume was COCO. Lily-Rose’s 2016 campaign was N°5 L’EAU. Keeping those two fragrances distinct makes the comparison more interesting, because CHANEL used the two women to express very different moods rather than repeat the same image.

Johan Renck’s film for Lily-Rose is quick, youthful and built on contrasts. Placed next to the older birdcage film, it shows how dramatically CHANEL fragrance advertising had changed while still relying on personality rather than a generic beauty image.

If you had to choose one, which feels more like CHANEL? Vanessa’s theatrical little bird, or Lily-Rose’s modern mix of innocence and polish?

Lily-Rose Depp

Vanessa Paradis

British Vogue Shows the Teenager Behind the Campaign

“In the Bag” strips away the fragrance-film mystery. Lily-Rose chats through her belongings with the loose energy of a 17-year-old, which makes the contrast with her polished CHANEL image even more charming.

A Bright 17C Moment at the Venice Film Festival

For the 2016 Venice Film Festival promotion of Planetarium, Lily-Rose wore a canary-yellow embroidered and sequined dress from CHANEL Cruise 2017 (17C). Against the formality of a film-festival appearance, the colour felt unusually fresh.

The collection had been shown in Havana under Karl Lagerfeld, and that bright, open mood helps explain why the dress works so naturally on her.

From Ritz Paris to the 2017 CHANEL Couture Bride

In December 2016 Lily-Rose walked the Paris Cosmopolite Métiers d’Art show at the Ritz Paris. A month later, she became the bride at CHANEL Spring-Summer 2017 Haute Couture, closing the runway in layers of pale pink ruffles.

Vanessa was there as a guest. The daughter joined Karl Lagerfeld for the finale while her mother watched—an unusually clear picture of two CHANEL generations occupying the same room in different roles.

Lily-Rose had known the House long before becoming an ambassador; she has spoken about visiting the 31 Rue Cambon salon with Vanessa when she was a child.

The Most Personal CHANEL Connection Is in Vanessa’s Closet

Vogue’s 2018 getting-ready film brings the story home. Lily-Rose says her mother has kept many CHANEL pieces and that she enjoys searching Vanessa’s closet for clothes and accessories.

She also shows a small pink CHANEL bag she has had since childhood. It is a simple detail, but it turns the campaign chronology into something lived: CHANEL was part of the household before it became Lily-Rose’s own professional world.

Vanessa and Lily-Rose look alike, yet CHANEL never makes them look interchangeable. That difference is the best part of following their story from the 1990s to the runway.

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