Scent and Sensibility

The press prowls through his Manhattan pied-a-terre, where he sleeps among Rousseau paintings and Wodehouse novels. His diary and love letters are circulating around town. Known simply as the Egoiste, he is designed to he the most compelling roue since Rhett Butler. But this fantasy man is the invention of a Chanel team led by dapper artistic director Jacques Helleu (at left, the son of the wizard who designed the Chanel No. 5 bottle), and was created to launch the new men's scent Egoiste. Is Helleu the inspiration for the homme fatale? "There is a little Egoiste in every man,"proclaims Chanel, which hopes there will soon be a little Egoiste on every man.

AMY FINE COLLINS