As today is Fragrance Day, here are 10 facts about Chanel No 5, the first perfume launched by French couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel in 1921.
Before Chanel No 5, Perfumes fell into two categories. Floral scents for fine ladies and musky scents for ladies of the night. Coco Chanel decided the market needed a new kind of fragrance for the modern woman of the time.
She asked French-Russian chemist and perfumer Ernest Beaux to come up with some samples. The story goes that she picked the fifth sample he presented to her and that’s how the name No. 5 came about.
Although possibly she’d have picked the fifth one even if it smelled disgusting, because Coco Chanel was especially fond of the number 5 anyway. She spent six years in a convent orphanage from the age of twelve, and the number five had a special significance there. The number five was the number of quintessence: the symphony of earth, water, wind, fire, and spirit; the pure embodiment of a thing, its spirit and meaning. The paths leading to the cathedral featured patterns relating to the number. Chanel would launch her new products on the fifth of May because she believed it was an auspicious date.
Chanel No 5 has over 80 ingredients including May rose, Jasmine, ylang-ylang and neroli from the town of Grasse in France, sandalwood and Vanilla. The formula has changed little since 1921, except for changes to certain animal based products in line with current fragrance industry requirements. It takes one tonne of flowers to create 1.5 kilograms of its “absolute”, the concentrated oil used in perfumery.
During the second world war, the resistance used modified Chanel No 5 bottles to carry secret messages, literally under the noses of the German occupiers. They didn’t suspect a well dressed woman carrying a luxury accessory. At the end of the war, American soldiers queued in Paris to buy bottles of it to take home for their wives and girlfriends.
The simple design of the bottle contrasted with other brands at the time, which went for romantic and complicated designs. Chanel based it on her lover’s Whiskey decanters. There was also a design feature only obvious when looking at the bottle from above. It’s the same shape as Paris’s Place Vendôme.
Coco Chanel herself was the first face of the brand in 1937. Since then a number of famous faces have appeared in the advertisements, including Ali MacGraw, Jean Shrimpton, Catherine Deneuve, Nicole Kidman (who starred in the most expensive TV advertisement of the time, directed by Baz Luhrmann, which cost US$33 million to produce), and Brad Pitt (the first man to appear in an advert for women's perfume). The face of Chanel No 5 at time of writing is Marion Cotillard.
A bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume is sold worldwide every 30 seconds.
In April 1952, Marilyn Monroe was asked what she wore in bed, to which she replied, “I only wear Chanel No. 5.”
The most expensive bottle of the stuff was a 30.4-ounce Chanel No. 5 Limited Edition Grand Extrait in red, handcrafted from Baccarat crystal in 2018. Only 55 bottles were ever made and it would set you back $30,000.
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