Digital Cover #3: Nana Komatsu talks about her journey with Chanel

An imposing white camellia looms in the centre of the room — a flower so grand it could pluck a man and not the other way around. The sculpture is enormous yet radically understated, planted here before us, in the centre of the Chanel Fall/Winter 2023 ready-to-wear show, awaiting the appearance of each model like a flaming torch.

While you might know why Gabrielle Chanel worshipped the camellia — for its lack of thorns and fragrance and its neutral, pure elegance — you may not have expected to see a woman take shape inside of one. Two big eyes blinking in its centre. Sultry eyelids, jet-black pupils, now a mouth, then an entire figure. The petals, a face: that of Nana Komatsu’s.

Hers is a beauty that is difficult to measure. One that’s not defined by any clichés of curves or waist size. Rather, it’s a gaze that pierces and probes your soul — a sort of electricity. If you follow astrology and the movements of the stars, you might discern those strange worlds in her which come together to exude grace. I recognised her immediately as we’d already met the day before. Let me describe this woman to you.

Komatsu recounted her travels, discussing the fundamental differences between the West and Japan, which to her can be summed up by the fact that in Japan, the thought alone of wearing shoes in a room is enough to make one’s skin crawl, with literal goosebumps. Having never visited Japan, I thought at first that this must be an exaggeration, but when she implored me to change the subject, I quickly realised it was not; what we find repellent is an important aspect of our personality.

Her career as an actress began quite naturally at age 18, the way one says goodbye to a stranger in the blink of an eye. She starred in a variety of roles, some dark, some light, in an attempt, as she said, “to find myself, discover myself, even exorcise certain things.” I appreciated her frankness, the candour with which she told me how difficult these things are to put into words. I know what she means: sometimes silence offers the best indications, details you gather from a feeling rather than in the noise of speech.

Afterwards, Komatsu returned to the task of enthralling the camera flashes on the ceiling. Thirty minutes had already passed in our discussion, and I still hadn’t gotten an answer as to whether the fruit sitting before us was real or plastic. She was delighted that a Chanel fashion show would soon take place in Japan, on June 1, with a collection entitled Métiers d’Art, named after the show which took place in Dakar last December.

As she explains, Chanel has long been invested in saving certain artisanal sectors headed for extinction, the famous artisanship we hear so much about — true artisanship, not just an artificial talking point. Chanel’s 19M is a collection of art houses in a neighbourhood of Paris’ 19th arrondissement, which she had the opportunity to visit.

“What’s striking about it, is the vast range of ages you find there, the intergenerational aspect of all these artisans, this transmission of artisanship from one generation to the next, which you can feel in the air — you should really go visit.” It’s true, I thought, as I took my leave of her, passion truly does have a fragrance.