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“What do you wear to sleep?” “Five drops of Chanel No. 5”Marilyn Monroe trusted. Created a century ago, this perfume that “smells like a woman” enjoys eternal youth, still being one of the best sellers in the world.
In 1921, French designer Gabrielle Chanel undertakes a new revolution beyond the feminine wardrobe, with the launch of this fragrance, contained in a geometric bottle with a simple black and white label.
“Its name, its aroma and the radical lines of the bottle contribute to making this an icon of the so-called crazy years (in France). With a simple figure, in reference to the sample chosen (to make the perfume), Chanel breaks with the trends and goes into abstraction “, estimates Julie Deydier, the firm’s asset manager.
The designer wants to distinguish herself from the naturalistic and floral tradition of the 19th century and conceive this fragrance with the “smell of women”, like a haute couture dress.
“An artificial perfume, artificial like a dress, that is to say, manufactured. I am an artisan at sewing. I don’t want roses or lily of the valley, I want a compound perfume.”
The perfumer Ernest Beaux, in charge of this mission, thus creates a fragrance that does not reproduce any scent existing in nature.
No. 5 smells like Chanel, identifiable by its atypical aroma due to an important presence of synthetic molecules, aldehydes, which add freshness to the floral notes and give it its “abstract” character.
The simplicity of the bottle, barely modified over the decades, breaks with the ostentatious presentations of the time. “You have to concentrate 100% on the perfume, not at all on the presentation,” said Chanel.
For an advertisement for the American press in 1937, Chanel decides to embody No. 5 herself. Along with her photograph, a text reads: “Gabrielle Chanel is above all an artist of life. Her dresses, her perfumes are created with a perfect dramatic instinct. No. 5 is like soft music that enhances a love scene. Unleash the imagination and leaves an indelible trace in the memories of the actors “.
During the decades that followed, films and actresses helped perpetuate its legendary aura and today it remains one of the world’s best-selling perfumes.
An image of Marilyn Monroe scented the neckline with No. 5 was used in 2013 for an advertisement for the fragrance, which was also ambassador Catherine Deneuve, Nicole Kidman and Gisele Bündchen.
In the last ad campaign, Marion Cotillard dances on the Moon, wrapped in the king of perfumes. (I)
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