Chanel N°5 turns 100 years old

How is a legend born? This is revealed in a new episode of Inside Chanel, which traces the 100-year history of the world's most famous fragrance: Chanel N°5. The mere mention of its name is enough to evoke an image of timeless elegance and to smell its unique blend of Grasse jasmine, May roses and aldehydes, the synthetic molecules that make the essence stay longer on the skin and that almost no one had ever used in perfumery before. 

Rumor has it that Madame Coco was looking for a unique fragrance, different from the lily of the valley or violet fragrances in circulation at the time. She wanted something modern, elaborate that smelled fresh and clean, that smelled like a woman, perhaps like the skin of her mother who was a washerwoman in Provence. So she assigned the task to chemist Ernest Beaux, who in 1921 created Chanel N°5, a product that was revolutionary in every way, even in the essential design of the bottle, which looked a bit like a whisky bottle and which since 1954 has been part of the permanent collections of the MOMA in New York. The rest is a century-long story, made up not only of smells, but also of images created by great masters such as Andy Warhol, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn or Baz Luhrmann and beautiful women. From Marilyn Monroe, who confessed to wearing a few drops to go to sleep, to Catherine Deneuve, Lily Rose Depp, Nicole Kidman and Marion Cotillard, over the years each of them has lent her face and personality to N°5, embodying the many different notes of a pantheon of eternal femininity that Chanel perfume holds inside. 

The new episode of Inside Chanel is available online starting March 19, 2021.