PARIS — Gigi Hadid goes way back with Rabanne and its blockbuster 1 Million men’s scent that is housed in an ingot-shaped bottle.
“I dated someone as a teenager who wore that,” she recalled in an exclusive interview. “That bottle is such a vivid memory. I always loved the graphicness and the concept of that gold bar.”
Now Hadid has signed on as an ambassador for Rabanne’s new Million Gold for Her fragrance.
One of Hadid’s earliest olfactory recollections is being in her backyard and enjoying the scent wafting from something that grew on the fence.
“I want to say it was jasmine, or some sort of white small flower,” she said. “The way that the sun hit that flower and made the air smell — it’s a very intense childhood memory.”
Hadid also adores fragrance blends.
“If a fragrance doesn’t have a blend, a sweetness and something more intense or weighted in some way — it could be like woody or something more surprising — but if the fragrance doesn’t have that, then I’m mixing fragrances.
“It’s always like a mix for me, because I feel like that’s my personality,” she said during a video call from home. “I really feel that I have a girly side and a tomboy side. I’m constantly waking up seeing which part of me is going to come out more that day.”
Since Hadid was young, she’s been interested in product and packaging, too.
“Then, obviously, since I worked in fashion, I’ve loved Rabanne,” she continued. “I’ve worn Rabanne, and it’s just really an honor and so exciting to be part of this campaign.”
When modeling offers come up, Hadid tries to be in tune with whether the feeling that it generates is genuine and sparks joy.
“Because these days half of my time is with my daughter,” Hadid said. “I don’t work during that time for the most part, and so the time that I do have to work I want to prioritize jobs that will make me feel fulfilled and like I’m using my time in a good way.”
All About Power
The Rabanne project appealed to her because the campaign carries an empowering message.
“I think that women everywhere can either relate or come to relate to the feeling of being able to break into your power,” Hadid said. “That comes differently for everyone, through different experiences in life. But just that feeling of stepping into who you are, knowing who you are, knowing how to speak up for yourself, draw boundaries — whatever that is — I felt all those things when I shot this campaign.
“The more that I’ve grown into myself, the more I know myself, the better I feel about myself, the sexier, more beautiful I feel about myself,” Hadid said. “That’s the feeling that this commercial gives.”
Gigi Hadid in Rabanne’s Million Gold for Her campaign.
Photo by Mert Alas / Courtesy of Rabanne
Speaking of the making-of, she reminisced: “This commercial is obviously the newest generation of many Rabanne Million Gold fragrance commercials, and all of them have this snap in it. So we knew the snap was going to be a big thing going into it. There was a couple of songs I knew I would want to do that to all day.
What Makes It Snap
“We had Stephen Galloway. He’s one of the most amazing choreographers and movement coaches there is, and we always just kind of tune in with each other — like what’s the vibe for today? It went fully Beyoncé and Rihanna,” Hadid recounted. “There was ‘Love on Top.’ There was less snapping at this part, but ‘FourFiveSeconds,’ I think it’s a funny last-hour-of-the-day song, because she just has this attitude that I think everyone at the last hour of work has. We’re like: ‘Let’s get this done. Let’s make it great.’ You know what I mean?
“Then the commercial ends up [being] to a Beyoncé song,” said Hadid, referring to “Pure/Honey,” which has the lyric: “It should cost a billion to look this good.” The song is from Beyoncé’s 2022 “Renaissance” album, which became the most-streamed album on Spotify in a single day, with more than 43 million streams. (The singer wore a customized Rabanne chainmail dress for the opening of her “Renaissance” world tour.)
“It was amazing, because we were dancing to Beyoncé all day, snapping — me and Stephen. We were having the best time [with] Moses [Sumney],” said Hadid, who has an Instagram following of more than 78 million. “We just laughed and danced. So much of this job is just going for it. So much of that in me comes out in front of the camera.
“There’s an alter ego to me that like really I wouldn’t pull at the zoo,” Hadid said. “You know what I’m saying? There’s something that comes out [with] this environment: the fragrance, the beautiful, gold Rabanne pieces that I was able to wear, the sets, Stephen Galloway, the music. Everything made it feel how it was supposed to, to communicate what we wanted in the final.”
The vibe, one could say, was literally snap happy.
Rabanne vice president Jérôme Leloup said Rabanne has championed a strong femininity since the 1960s, with the likes of Jane Fonda, Françoise Hardy and Brigitte Bardot dressed by the Spanish founder Paco Rabanne.
“So we chose as a face the most influential supermodel of our generation,” Leloup said of Hadid. “Gigi is divine. For me, she’s almost like a young Bardot, a young Barbarella, a super empowered girl, huge on social.”
He also called Hadid a bit of a tomboy. “She’s very funny, very witty,” Leloup said.
Director Manu Cossu and photographer Mert Alas created the campaign, in which Hadid wears a gold Rabanne dress shimmering with hundreds of thousands of Swarovski crystals designed by Rabanne creative director Julien Dossena. It breaks Monday as the fragrance launches worldwide save for Northeast Asia and the U.S., which is scheduled for the first quarter of 2025.
A New Fragrance Universe
Million Gold for Her, coming in a bottle with the house’s signature jewelry’s XL link, debuts a new fragrance universe for Rabanne.
Rabanne’s Million Gold for Her
Courtesy of Rabanne
Rabanne’s first grand floral, it includes notes of rose, white flowers and mineral musk, a combination of traditionally masculine and feminine ingredients. The scent was created by Symrise perfumers Alienor Massenet, Suzy Le Helley, Nathalie Benareau and Loc Dong, and has 90 percent ingredients stemming from natural origin.
Million Gold for Her prices range in France from 78 euros for a refillable 30-ml. eau de parfum bottle to 145 euros for the 90-ml. version. The 200-ml. refill goes for 189 euros.
The Million Gold Eau de Parfum Intense scent for men, fronted by Sumney, launched starting in early August. That and Million Gold for Her are part of the fragrance franchise started by Rabanne’s 1 Million scent, introduced in 2008.
Leloup called the additions like a “sub-label, sub-culture that’s more luxurious within the successful Million universe, which is our top universe.”
The Million men’s franchise has been growing by solid double-digits year-on-year. Rabanne fragrances rank in the top five worldwide.
