Chanel responds to outrage over luxury advent calendar

Chanel has responded to the outrage on social media following the release of its £610 advent calendar, which left customers less than impressed over its contents.

The luxury house found itself under scrutiny during the weekend when Tiktok influencer Elise Harmon posted a video to share her disappointment about the calendar, which contains full-size perfume and makeup products, miniatures and souvenirs embossed with founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s lucky number.

The video quickly went viral and gained over 15 million views and 2 million likes, with other users adding to the list of criticised gifts including Chanel stickers, magnets, an empty dust bag and a string bracelet with a No. 5 logo.

Bruno Pavlovsky, President of Fashion and President of Chanel SAS, said the house did not expect to receive negative feedback for the calendar, which was made in celebration of the centennial anniversary of Chanel No. 5 perfume.

Pavlovsky reportedly said to WWD: "This controversy is a bit of a shame because it was not what Chanel intended. Chanel thought it would please some of its customers by offering this type of product. Evidently, we see that you have to be careful and therefore, in future, we will certainly be much more cautious."

TikTok users also claimed that Chanel has now deleted its official page in reaction to Harmon’s video, while Harmon alleged that Chanel's TikTok account has blocked her.

In an official statement, Chanel clarified that the claims were untrue as the brand is not active on the popular social media platform.

The house said in a statement: "We have never blocked access to the Chanel TikTok account to anyone, because it is simply not active. It has never been activated, no content has ever been published, it has no subscriber and no subscription. The page therefore appears empty to anyone who visits it. When Ms. Harmon visited our page, she naturally found the usual message that she could not access this account, just like anyone else on the network.

"We are aware of the comments that are currently visible under our publications and are sorry that this calendar may have disappointed some people."