You might know that Martin Scorsese has a huge HBO project starting in mid September called “Boardwalk Empire,” about the days of prohibition – and it’s meant to be amazing, a must see. But you can see a bit of the great director’s handiwork on line at Chanel.com right now. Scorsese directed a sultry ad for Chanel’s new mens’ scent, Blue de Chanel – featuring an actor giving a press conference, who suddenly steps outside his image. It’s moody and dark, and of course, tinged with dark blue throughout. Playing the actor is French actor Gaspard Ulliel, and no doubt, this will help him get international attention. Take a few minutes, click and check it out.

Chanel has a new fragrance coming out, big news in the fragrance world, fyi. However, before you get too excited, it’s a new mens’ fragrance. Of course, that doesn’t mean that women can’t or won’t wear it – it’s a fresh clean lemony scent, with grapefruit, pink pepper, and seems to be a take on the old Egoiste Platinum fragrance. By the way, the original Bleu de Chanel came out in the 1930′s — this is not a remake of it, it’s just hijacking the name. And the “bleu” has nothing to do with the next Chanel spring 2011 collection. You can pre-order and be the first to have it at www.chanel.com – but of course, you wouldn’t be smelling it first. But it’s clean and clear and we think most men would like it. And did you know that men in Europe and Israel buy the majority of scents for men? Maybe it has something to do with the heat and humidity! – MG

While L.A. ladies tend to go all “ladies of the canyon” when it gets brutally hot, New Yorkers go tighter and shorter, generally. The New York Times Styles section showed Manhattanites in all form of short dresses today (7/29). We checked in with a NY A-list party this week in humid melty NYC, at the Cinema Society of NY – the hottest screening party in town. Blake Lively kept cool in a cut-out back little Chanel dress of mixed textures. Jessica Szohr donned a grey t shirt tunic with grey skinny jeans. (This doesn’t look like it feels very cool in that weather, but it looks hip.) Designer Nicole Miller chose a fatique dress to go with spring’s army trend – that never really took off, did it? And Zoe Kravitz surprised everyone and wore a very baggy silky lilac dress, with longish sleeves (for summer, anyway) and a longer length. Perhaps she was thinking ahead to fall. – MG

Jessica Alba, French star Lou Doillon, Leighton Meester and more were all dressed to chicly kill in the front row of the Chanel Haute Couture show in Paris – and it did not disappoint. Certainment. It never does. C’est formidable. But what with Dior having a tres’ triumph with its Tulip themed collection, it seemed Chanel might be a little – quiet and subtle – in comparison. A bit too lady Prim. Mais non!!! Not our Monsieur Lagerfeld, s’il vous plait. Seems like he and Monsieur Galliano are on the same wave length a la color, intricacy, detail, tulle, detailed shoes, and a new hemline. So we can concur – hemlines will be dropping for spring 2011. Marc Jacobs and Oscar de la Renta already dropped them for fall. So stop hemming all your dresses! Now! And stop buying mini’s. Of course, there were the standard Chanel black and white looks, but there was plenty of metallic, orange touches, gorgeous reds and turquoise embellished with gold. And the footwear – every dress – knee length or mid calf – was shown with an interesting pair of boots that were a new mid length, as well. These were not booties, mind you – they were almost cowboy boot shaped, with a low heel, and some were gold, some were turquoise embellesed with gold. The whole collection had a bit of a Rajastan feel, very India-inspired – there was a lot of shine, a lot of embellishment and sequins. But the shapes were close to the body, not bulky and very very flattering. It was all so interesting when paired with very messy hair – bedroom hair – and only red lipstick. Get ready to see a few of these looks on some lucky star on August 29th at the Emmy’s (the nominations are tomorrow, July – and no doubt, at red carpet movie premiers all fall.

Kiss the red or dark lip trend, the light grey nailpolish trend, and gold eyeshadow look goodbye come September. Enjoy ‘em for the next two months, because Chanel has already started advertising its fall 2010 color system, and Chanel and Nars set the trends. So we can look into the crystal ball and tell you this:

• the hot nail color will be Paradoxal, a brownish purply grey mix – very dark. It looks almost black, but it has tones of all three of those colors in it. This means it’s time to lighten the lipstick.
• the hot lipstick will be a light peachy pink – but not beige at all. The three new Rouge Coco’s: Chalys, Chinz and Rose Dentelle are variations on a wood rose pink, starting at a tulip shade, and getting a bit darker.
• The blush is Pink Explosion, to make the cheeks really pink to match the lips.
• The eyes are called Enigma: plum/smoke grey, pink, silver and smoky violet.

As you can see, the Chanel ad shows a strong smoky eye comeback. It works with the fall clothes in a lot of greys, violets, orchids and of course, every shade of black you can image.

If you haven’t seen “Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky” – the Dutch/French indie production starring French actress Anna Mouglalis as Coco exploring a love affair with the married composer Igor Stravinsky in Paris 1913 – there is more than one reason to go (which is, you are interested in the historical fact that Chanel let the famed avant garde composer live in her estate to write, and they had a passionate affair). We think that’s reason enough – we would see ANY movie, good or bad, European or American, that portrays the great Chanel. But this one’s particularly visually interesting to fashion people: Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel approved the film, and let the entire Chanel archives open for the film’s costumes. Secondly – and even better – Karl Lagerfeld specially created a brand new ‘timeless’ Chanel suit and an embroidered evening dress for a scene recreating the legendary and scandalous 1913 performance of Stravisnky’s “The Rite Of Spring.” In order to recreate the world of Coco Chanel as faithfully as possible, CHANEL also granted the filmmakers full access to Coco Chanel’s celebrated apartment at 31, rue Cambon, Paris. It’s playing at the Laemmle Royal in West L.A. (as well as in Pasadena and Encino). For those who love Chanel, run don’t walk – as the film’s been open for more than a week and who knows how long it will play. – Merle Ginsberg

We have to announce this because it does not happen that often: the Chanel boutique on Rodeo Drive is going on sale. We got a card in the mail – a very fancy card, mind you. It does not say what the percentage is of the markdown – that would be tacky to inquire about, right? The Spring Summer Collection is on sale June 2 – 3. Do yourself a favor. Buy a Chanel jacket and save it for fall, if you can find a fall color like navy, black or brown. You’ll thank us.

Fresh from showing the Chanel cruise collection in St. Tropez – about an hour away from Cannes – Karl Lagerfeld popped into the Cannes Film Festival rather quietly, hosting the likes of Chanel Rouge Coco lipstick model Vanessa Paradis and her longtime man Johnny Depp – and what appears to be new couple, Paris Hilton and Adrien Brody. The party was held at Club VIP in Cannes, and of course, Vanessa wore a backless semi-sheer black Chanel dress, which was totally sheer from the knees down. Meanwhile, Paris and Adrien have turned up together at a lot of Cannes nightspots and parties – and of course, Paris IS single now. Perhaps not for long. But did Karl invite Paris? Word is, he actually invited Adrien, who brought Paris along as his date. But it was Johnny we think was the best dressed person at the party!

How sixties are these pictures? This new rose shade from Chanel called “Super” looks like something a cool girl would be wearing in St. Tropez in 1965 with these white sunglasses. It’s a great color for when you’re tan and wearing a white dress, or a polkadot dress, or even black – but you can’t wear much other makeup with this shade. Probably a little grey eyeshadow and a bit of black eyeliner would match it up perfectly. In any case, try it out at the Chanel counter at Barneys or Saks or Neiman’s – Barneys probably has the best Chanel salespeople. WARNING: do not buy Super lipstick on the internet! It’s a strong strong color, very “pop” – and if that’s not your style, it may not work. Take all your lipcolor off before you try it on.