At the dawn of a new century, Nº5 emerged as a revolutionary fragrance, designed for strong, self-assured women. But it is in the small details that the best stories of this icon of perfumery are hidden.
For over a hundred years, it has been the world's most famous perfume. Its history is intertwined with the evolution of female emancipation, from the first steps in the right to vote to the conquest of values such as equality and freedom of thought. At the dawn of a new century, Nº5 emerged as a revolutionary fragrance, designed for strong, self-assured women. But it is in the small details that the best stories of this icon of perfumery are hidden.

"I present my collections on the fifth of May, the fifth month of the year, so we will let this sample keep the number [five] it already has, it will bring good luck." This is how Gabrielle ‘Coco Chanel’ justified the choice of the name, Nº5, for her first perfume. Conceived in partnership with nez Ernest Beaux, the final aroma was chosen among ten samples, numbered from one to five and from 20 to 24 - in fact, the mixture may have been a laboratory error with a happy ending, as legends suggest; it seems that Beaux's assistant added an unusual dose of aldehyde (an organic compound until then little used in fragrances) to sample number five, which ended up impressing mademoiselle, who saw in it a revelation. Gabrielle did not choose the new fragrance, she recognized it. That "scent of woman" she had been searching for so long was, in fact, hers. Nº5, with notes of jasmine, rose, sandalwood and vanilla, was an immediate hit. It is said that in the days following the final decision, Beaux went with a group of friends to a restaurant on the French Riviera and sprayed the room with the fragrance several times throughout the evening. The tale goes that each time he did this, he was approached by passing women who were curious about the name of the perfume that "someone" was wearing, unaware of the perfumer's marketing tactic.
Launched in 1921, the N°5 captured the essence of a time that looked to the future, when a new spirit (the so-called "l'air du temps") was reflected in scientific advances and cutting-edgeart. It was nothing less than a masterpiece produced "en masse" (the quotation marks refer to the unorthodox way Mademoiselle did it, betting on the excellence of the raw materials used and the originality of the composition), of abstract aroma and radical aesthetics (the originality and perfection of the bottle, considered avant-garde for the time, made it a piece of design and a luxury object, which the aesthetics and creative vision of the maison). Nº5 managed, from day one, an unprecedented feat - and one that remains intact more than a century later - to encapsulate the revolutions that transformed society after the First World War. To build the universe of Nº5, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel was inspired by the Dadaists and created collages showing the four words that best defined her: mystery, impression, love, eternity. In a tribute to her own instinct, she named the fragrance with the number it had when it was revealed to her and put her signature, a double C, on the cap - a signature that would eventually become the ultimate symbol of Chanel and that appears, to this day, on all her products. It could have been just a great coincidence, or it was a very well-studied coincidence: Nº5 is, without a doubt, the olfactory double of mademoiselle.
The synchronicities that tell the story of Nº5 are like an endless string of wonderful fait-divers. In the summer of 1920, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel went on vacation to the Côte d'Azur with her lover, Grand Duke Demetrius Pavlovich of Russia. It was there that she met the famous nez Ernest Beaux, who had worked for the Russian royal family and whose connections to the center of the perfume industry in Grasse made him the perfect ally to launch herself into the world of perfumery. It was this unexpected friendship that eventually resulted in Nº5, the most famous fragrance of all time. One thing is certain: mademoiselle has always been an olfactory person. The scents of her childhood have been with her all her life - the comforting smell of her father, the perfume of fresh clothes, the pure scent of nature. When she met Ernest Beaux she wanted to learn everything about fragrance creation, a new field for her. She asked technical questions and, as was her prerogative, suggested surprising experiments that sometimes irritated the perfumer. "A fragrance should punch you", she advocated. It was this totally revolutionary thought that permeated Gabrielle Chanel's intensions just before she invented Nº5. Launching a fragrance just because her competitors might do so was not in her interest. Her intentions were different. She wanted to create a new olfactory map, a mystery impossible to decipher, something that could "smell fresh as a garden" but that was unlike any garden that ever existed in the world. Impossible? Not for the woman who revolutionized the way women dressed - her tailored suits and straight cut suits, until then exclusively for men, went against habits and conventions and totally remodeled women's wardrobe.
In essence, abstraction and femininity were two sides of the same intention: to offer women a perfume that would allow them to be themselves. When designing her first fragrance, mademoiselle insisted that it should be "artificial", thus distinguishing herself from the floral scents in common use. Because, in her view, a woman who chooses an abstract fragrance escapes any definition and can be whoever she wants to be. Nº5 was, only and solely, "a woman's perfume, smelling like a woman." In Gabrielle's opinion, a "hymn to freedom and self-assertion, in other words, a hymn to femininity." But the secret of Nº5 also lies in its eternal mystery. The glamour that has always surrounded it (not even on purpose, "glamour" comes from the French word "grimoire," meaning "mystery" or "enigma") is an inextricable part of its history. The women who chose, and still chooses, to wear Nº5 are fully aware of its power to seduce and enchant - Marilyn Monroe, who slept with five drops of Nº5, is the ultimate proof of its legendary aura.
"That's the spell of Nº5," said an ad from the 1950s, which showed the fragrance as the magic potion that allowed every woman to discover her own power. As a product of a meaningful coincidence, since mademoiselle was highly superstitious, Nº5 was born with a mission: to throw habits and conventions to the wind. By the time of its appearance in the early 1920s, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel had already relaxed the codes of Parisian fashion, offering a new aesthetic, more modern, more feminine, more aware of women's bodies and needs. Nº5 is consistent with those designs, absolutely pioneering, seemingly simple, supremely well-constructed, trend and fashion proof. Revolutionary on all its fronts, it was the first perfume imagined, thought and conceived by a woman... and whose audience was, besides herself, other women like her. It was worth betting all the chips on sample number five.
Translated from the original on The Good Luck Issue, published March 2023.Full stories and credits on the print issue.
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