Although only 20 years old, Whitney Peak has a string of accomplishments under her belt. On the silver screen, she recently landed one of the lead roles in the Gossip Girl series and Hocus Pocus 2. She has also starred in Molly’s Game, the Netflix series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Home Before Dark on Apple TV and Helvellyn Edge. She is set to film three more movies in 2023. She is also no stranger to Chanel, having being appointed the Chanel US local ambassador in March 2021 and muse of the 22 Handbag campaign in March 2022. Now she takes up her most famous starring role to date – the new face of Coco Mademoiselle.
The epitome of the bold and curious Coco Mademoiselle woman and like Coco Chanel herself, Peak has had to adapt to change from a young age. Born in Kampala, Uganda, her family moved to Canada when Peak was nine. It was not an easy transition she says. “It was a complete switch up. I had to relearn everything.”
At the age of 17, she left Canada to pursue a career in New York, which was her ‘coming of age’. “These last couple of years living on my own, I have had time to reflect,” admits Peak. “Alone in my own space I realised I felt the most at home I’d ever been. And that’s because I wasn’t afraid to try new things, I wasn’t afraid to disappoint anybody, to perform or to be someone else. It was the first time in my life that I wasn’t being suffocated by expectation.”
This freedom to embrace and celebrate exactly who you are no matter where you are in your journey is what makes Peak the perfect face for Coco Mademoiselle, a fragrance that reflects what the young Coco Chanel herself was: strong and subtle, youthful but confident, seductive yet not provocative, modern but classic.
On the appointment of Peak, the brand says, “She is the incarnation of Coco Mademoiselle’s original personality, a young woman who moves towards her destiny to become who she truly is and wants to be. Whitney Peak’s joy, spirit, and energy are contagious. She is the embodiment of today’s youth whose curiosity, confidence in life, appetite for experiences and lack of preconceptions echo the temperament of the young Coco Chanel.”
Our favourite Whitney Peak quotes
On life lessons: “My mother raised me with core values and a very strong sense of self that I have no need to be accepted, liked or even wanted. She has always told me to be myself.”
On self-care: “For me, self-care isn’t ‘I’m going to stay home and do a face mask and watch a movie’ – I do that anyway. Self-care to me really is just doing whatever fuels me, whatever helps me put the best, truest version of myself out there.”
On Coco Chanel: “I love that she left room for socialising, that she networked, that she was very smart about every relationship and encounter she had.”
On the Coco Mademoiselle fragrance: “It doesn’t paint too big or full a picture. It leaves room for the imagination for women to embody the fragrance in their own individuality, however they want their own personality to shine through. And when you have the right fragrance, it gives you an air of confidence.”
On speaking out: “I don’t think about it. I’m just existing and living in my truth and sharing my values. I think sometimes as much as you can speak out and be vocal about certain things, sometimes it is more important to act on it and let it speak for itself. I’m never consciously trying to present a certain version of myself.”
