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Chanel

No. 5

1921FloralParfumFrance

Chanel No. 5 bottle
Wikimedia Commons

Bottle palette

glass

cap

accent

Where to find it

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Outbound links open a search on each site for Chanel No. 5. Product pages aren't deep-linked because retailer URLs change and stock varies.

Editorial notes

  1. 01

    A clear, squared flacon that has been a department-store fixture since the Jazz Age, the perfume bourgeois women buy when they cannot decide.

  2. 02

    A widely repeated origin story credits an unnamed lab assistant for jolting the formula with an unprecedented dose of synthetic aldehydes. Whether or not it happened, the dose is the point.

  3. 03

    Marilyn Monroe told Marie Claire in 1960 that she wore 'just a few drops' of No. 5 to bed. The interview is preserved at the Library of Congress.

  4. 04

    Composed by Ernest Beaux in 1921 around aldehydes, neroli and bergamot over an iris-jasmine heart with a sandalwood-vetiver-vanilla base. The name came from the fifth sample vial Chanel chose.

Dossier

Edition · 000

Status · Active. Reformulated 1986.

An aldehydic floral.◐ Reformulated since launch

Composed by
Ernest Beaux
Bottle by
Coco Chanel
Founder
Coco Chanel
Country
France

The pyramid

Top
aldehydesbergamotneroliylang-ylanglemon
Heart
irisjasmineroseorris root
Base
sandalwoodvetivervanillamusk

The brief

Chanel sought a modern abstract fragrance departing from the single-flower scents that dominated the era, to suit the liberated 1920s woman.

NameCoco Chanel chose the fifth vial Ernest Beaux presented and kept its number, saying she presented her dress collections on the fifth of May.

Why it mattered

  • Used an unprecedented overdose of aldehydes after a lab assistant reportedly added them at full strength rather than diluted.

The flacon

Rectangular flacon with beveled edges inspired by the Charvet toiletry bottles owned by her lover Arthur 'Boy' Capel; the squared faceted stopper was redesigned in 1924 for shipping durability.

Reformulated · 1986

Jacques Polge revised the formula in 1986 and again across the 1990s and 2000s; the current EDP differs perceptibly from pre-1986 stock, though Chanel has kept the silhouette remarkably consistent compared with most contemporaries.

Cause · successive IFRA restrictions on natural musks, jasmine absolute and oakmoss

Worn by

  • Marilyn Monroe1960

    Told Marie Claire in a 1960 recorded interview that she wore 'five drops of Chanel No. 5' to bed.

  • Catherine Deneuve1972

    Was the face of Chanel No. 5 advertising in the United States, including Ridley Scott-directed commercials.

  • Nicole Kidman2004

    Starred in Baz Luhrmann's short film campaign for Chanel No. 5.

Footnotes

  • Launched on the fifth day of the fifth month of 1921.
  • Ernest Beaux was a French-Russian perfumer trained at Rallet in Moscow, and Chanel No. 5 echoes his earlier Rallet No. 1.

The Curator's Note

The world's most famous perfume, named after the vial Chanel happened to like.

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