Another Year, Another Designer Advent Calendar Debacle
Have we learned nothing from Chanel's advent calendar saga? Just one year after the brand invoked TikTok's wrath for selling an $825 advent calendar filled with stickers and mini lipsticks, Dior has released a $3,500 take on the holiday gift. Unsurprisingly, the internet is not happy.
A quick refresher: last December, TikTok creator Elise Harmon went viral for documenting the disappointing contents of Chanel's ultra-expensive advent calendar. Harmon, who criticized the gift's abundance of seemingly inexpensive trinkets — items that onlookers felt weren't befitting of a nearly $1,000 collectible — went on to allege that Chanel blocked her account.
The drama quickly spread to all corners of the internet, leading Chanel's president of fashion to issue a statement denying Harmon's claim. "We have never blocked access to the Chanel TikTok account to anyone, because it is simply not active," he said.
As the saying goes: history repeats itself! Now, the internet is fuming over the contents of Dior's $3,500 advent calendar, a miniature recreation of the label's Paris flagship.
YouTuber Jackie Aina is taking to TikTok with unboxings of the calendar's contents, so far a selection of miniature fragrances, soaps, candles, candle lids (?), and coasters, offerings that Aina's followers seem patently unimpressed with.
"We've been bamboozled and led astray babes," Aina says in her latest unboxing video, currently playing host to a slew of critical comments. "I've never been so excited to be disappointed," one user wrote. "Soooo is the whole box free samples?" another quipped.
As was the case with Chanel, Dior's website clearly states the contents of its advent calendar — so the joke's kind of on anyone who decides to spend $3,500 on a box of bar soaps and mini perfumes.
If the drama proves anything, it's that shoppers aren't afraid to demand their money's worth. Next year, that advent calendar better contain a purse.
