Chantal Roos, the woman behind one of the most successful fragrances of all time, Opium, is poised to hit the big time again with Jean Paul Gaultier's new scent, Fragile.
Chantal brought Yves Saint-Laurent's Opium to the shelves in 1977 after starting her career with Coty.
'When I created Opium, I didn't realise it was going to revolutionise the perfume industry,' says Chantal, who was in town for the launch of Fragile.
'Before Opium, fragrances were all sweet and polite, then Opium came along with its brazenly sexual image with [model] Jerry Hall in the adverts.' A string of controversies helped make Opium a top-selling perfume.It was banned in the US and there were even protests against the scent.
It was not the scent which caused the fuss, but its name.
'I think it was a bit naive of the people who sought to get the fragrance banned to think that naming a fragrance Opium would actually make people use drugs,' says Chantal.