While everyone is a buzz about Brad Pitt’s appearance in the new Chanel No.5 perfume ad, I’m MORE intrigued by the history of the perfume itself and got lost in an almost 100 year timeline video the other day. {and you should too, it’s great! & only like 4mins}
“A fragrance created in 1921 is still the best selling and most famous frangrance in the world” and that is incredible… inevitable? According to Brad, yes.
Watch the video here…
Inside Chapter 1: the legend of N°5
A woman’s scent “should be as important as her style of dress” … and a woman “should wear perfume wherever she would like to be kissed” advises Coco Chanel.
Seeking “A woman’s perfume with a woman’s scent”, Coco Chanel hired Ernest Beaux who extracted and composed a bouquet of 80 scents for her … and created an “abstract, mysterious perfume radiating an extravagant floral richness” adding Aldehydes for layers of complexity which made it impossible to decipher.
Coco preferred the fifth sample Earnest Beaux presented to her and the number 5’s magical luck-giving quality so it was named… Chanel No.5
Its minimal lines, like the Cartier tank watch, distinguished it from the more ornate bottles of the 1920’s … and its stopper, cut like a diamond, is timeless.
I grew up with the scent of Chanel No.5… Both my grandma and my mom choose it as their signature fragrance. My grandma was heavy handed with it while my mom preferred just a few spritzes… I prefer vanilla scents and skip Chanel No.5, but I do love the history behind it and have a familiar sentimental tug when I sniff it.
* See more at inside Chanel
* Buy Chanel No.5 Perfume
* Buy Chanel No.5 Yellow and Blue Print
* Buy Marilyn Monroe, Chanel No.5 black and white print
* All photos are stills from the Inside Chanel No.5 History video
