The legendary Jacques Polges, creator of Chanel Fragrances, has announced that he is preparing to retire and has named his son, Olivier, as his successor. 

No details have been revealed about the precise date of Polges senior's retirement, but his son will join the company in September where he’ll work alongside his father and Chanel Fragrance Laboratory’s Director of Research and Development, Christopher Sheldrake for a transitional period. 

The significance of the handover cannot be underestimated – Jacques Polges was only the third perfumer in Chanel’s history and has created every fragrance for the house for the past 35 years, including Coco, Coco Mademoiselle, Allure, Chance, Chanel de Bleu, Chanel No.5 Eau Premiere and Les Exclusifs fragrances, with his personal favourite being Allure. 'It’s very simple and when I smell it on a woman it’s very pleasant.'

So how does Polge the younger’s olfactory CV stack up against his father’s impressive legacy? Olivier is an award-winning perfumer in his own right and has created fragrances for luxury houses including Dior, Dolce & Gabbana. Some of his greatest hits to date include Flowerbomb by Victor & Rolf, Balenciaga’s Flora Botanica and Lancôme’s big hit of 2012, La Vie est Belle.

Anyone who spritzes Chanel’s Coco on their wrists every morning will appreciate the significance of Jacques Polges’ achievement. As both guardian of Chanel’s perfume legacy and innovator in his own right, he has been responsible for shaping the way we view scent as an essential element of our style – as vital as the right shoes, handbag or lipstick for expressing who we are.

He once described how he sees the medium in which he works: 'Perfume is a poetic form. It’s a language that uses neither words nor images, and yet it’s one everyone can speak in their own way.' We look forward to seeing his son, Olivier, taking that philosophy and making it his own, with iconic fragrances of the future for Chanel.

Click through the gallery to see some of the iconic campaigns for Pogue senior’s Chanel fragrances