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N°5 Chanel artistic codes

  • 19 nov. 2021
  • 3 min de lecture

Would that surprise you if I tell you that the Chanel N°5 is so elaborate that it has exhibitions dedicated to this product? If so, this article is for you!

Coco Chanel, met famous figures in the innovative artistic life of the post-war years, including Dali, Cocteau, Picasso, Apollinaire, Stravinsky and Marie Laurencin (painting in 1923).

In 1921, N°5 was launched in an abundant artistic environment. Cubism, Surrealism and Dadaism appeared, and abstract art took hold. In this spirit of the times carrying the avant-garde, the perfume expresses this aspiration for absolute modernity. Designed as a couture dress, N°5 is the first perfume to break with fashionable fragrances by offering several figurative scents. She sees it as a laboratory denomination, which is also her lucky number.



The design of the bottle was signed by Gabrielle Chanel. Initially, she wanted a simple object for her perfume. It is then a square bottle in a grosgrain paper case, pasted highlighted in black edge with the ornate vials of the time and the abstract names with flowery titles. The case of N°5 is in the vein of the time, a collage, like those of the cubists. The simplicity of its design constitutes a contrast with the presentations elaborated in the perfumery of the 1920s. The graphic line of this bottle, stripped, rectangular, with clear angles, with its cap cut in emerald, is in total contrast with the exuberances of the objects of perfume from the Roaring Twenties.

"What's inside is much more important than the bottle," she said.

The elegance of the bottle echoes the clean line that Coco imposes through its fashion creations. This daring minimalist silhouette is attributed to several sources of inspiration, such as the Russian Imperial Guard vodka flasks her lover owned.


Over time, N°5 becomes the emblem of the House. In 1959, the packaging of N°5 entered the permanent collections of the MoMA in New York. Launched on May 5, 1921, the Maison de la rue Cambon paid tribute to him by starting its exhibition on May 5, 92 years to the day after his birth.


Sober, uncluttered, the bottle of N°5 is considered an icon of the 20th century and has been represented by Dali with facetiously sketched out a self-portrait with a moustache.


In 2013, an exhibition "N°5 Culture Chanel" was devoted to the mythical perfume by the Palais de Tokyo. Mademoiselle's artistic codes are represented through the fashion designer's personal archives, works of art, films, books and photographs.


On collages of Max Ernst, Liubov Popova, Picabia appears the lucky number.


In 1985, Andy Warhol immortalized the bottle as a 20th-century archetype in a series of nine acrylic paintings and turned it into a work of art.

The visual high quality design and effects side of this representations rely the notion of dreams and esthetic.


Over the years, the shape of the bottle will evolve. It will be modified five times, in 1921, 1930, 1950, 1970 and 1986.


Thanks to the participation of big names from artistic sector the advertisement of the N°5 has evolved through the time to emphasize its iconic and unique image. With all this attention, the perfume is a star and it show how the brand CHANEL innovate to continue to develop its luxury image and seduce its audience.

What is certain is that we will still hear about perfume for a long time!


Flore Brault Custot

19/11/2021

References:

https://histoiredemode.hypotheses.org/701 (Eléonore Testa juin 2013)


Images:

picture by Flore Brault Custot at the musée de l'orangerie also available on the CHANEL official website : https://www.chanel.com/fr/about-chanel/gabrielle-chanel/


The war of Chanel N°5: The struggle of an icon against her Jewish associates the Wertheimer brothers

  • 19 nov. 2021
  • 2 min de lecture

At first, Coco Chanel wanted to sell N°5 in her boutiques, then in Galeries Lafayette, thanks to her association with the Wertheimer entrepreneurs.

The Perfume company was founded on April 4, 1924, with Paul and Pierre Wertheimer, owners of the Bourgeois company, which manufactured Chanel 5 perfume, allowing Chanel 5 to be deployed and distributed worldwide. According to the contract, the Wertheimers had 70% of the shares because they took all the risks, the director of Galeries Lafayette, Théophile Bader, being the business introducer, will take 20% of the shares and Coco Chanel only 10%. However, after a few years, under the influence of her lover, Coco Chanel realized that holding only 10% of the shares was insufficient. When the two Wertheimer brothers invented the pocket N°5, she began a gigantic and tough commercial battle.


When World War II began, Coco Chanel was ousted from the Board of Directors of Perfumes Chanel. Its shops are closed. The main factories of N°5 are bombed.

In 1941, Coco Chanel sharply denigrated the "N°5 of New Jersey" and launched the perfume "Mademoiselle N°1". At the same time, she is trying to get her hands on the Chanel Perfume Company through the Nazi Aryanization policy and her relationship with German spy Von Dincklage. For their part, the Jewish Wertheimer are developing a strategy without the knowledge of the seamstress.

The company passes into the hands of the aircraft manufacturer Félix Amiot and the manufacture of the perfume is done in the United States, where they fled. The jasmine is brought from Grasse by a former OSS spy. Despite their respect for Coco Chanel, the Germans decide to leave the company to Félix Amiot, who builds 370 planes for the Reich.


In 1944, Paris was liberated. Coco Chanel will be arrested at the Liberation for collaboration with the Germans. She will be released thanks to Churchill and will leave for Lausanne. During her exile in Switzerland, she relaunched her improved fragrance, "Chanel's Super 5". This will confuse the original for these clients and cause the Wertheimer brothers to end the war with her. They will find an agreement, which will make Coco extremely rich.


This page of history has long been overlooked. It was not until after his death that evidence of his collaboration was disclosed. Without denying all the accusations indicating Coco Chanel's anti-Semitism, the Chanel group downplays the claims by emphasizing that its role during the war retains "an element of mystery".

Strongly linked to the brand's image, the revelations about the personality of its founder could always be detrimental to the group.


Gabrielle Chanel is a timeless icon, thus remaining a controversial figure for her attitude during the war and her determination in the business leading to conflicts with the Wertheimer family.


Finally, without Gabrielle Chanel, who embodied this Chanel 5 perfume, this international success would not have been. Without the Wertheimer family, there would not have been the creation of this beautiful perfume house.



Flore Brault Custot

19/11/2021

References:


Images: (Presentation by Flore Brault)

http://revues.univ-tlse2.fr/pum/nacelles/index.php?id=222 (Félix Amiot à la barre de son yacht à la fin des années 1940, Archives personnelles de la Famille Amiot-Lang)



Le Chanel N°5 a story, a number, a revolution for the Brand

  • 19 nov. 2021
  • 3 min de lecture

Like N°007, precious to Her Majesty's British agent, N°5 also has its universal reference because, for a large number of minds, Chanel N°5 symbolizes the most famous of perfumes, N°1 in sales, since 1929.

This lucky number hides an epic as well as unique know-how and process. If the history of this perfume is to be fascinating, its conception and its plant origin proceed from revelation and admiration. If the success of this perfume has never wavered, it is because it has known how to maintain its fantastic legend.


Gabrielle alias Coco Chanel was a visionary for fashion as well as for perfume. In the middle of the Russian trend, Gabrielle Chanel and the Tsars' perfumer created the French scent," un parfum de femme à odeur de femme ", with the most famous number in the world. They met in the circle of many Russian emigrants. Gabrielle Chanel was very inspired by the pomp of the Russian aristocracy. Ernest Beaux presented her with several versions of the fragrance. Most often, it is mentioned he showed her ten samples, numbered from 1 to 5 and from 20 to 24.


N°5 was created in 1921; it is a real olfactory revolution and the quintessential spirit of "Coco". At the time, the perfumes worn emphasized a single scent, unlike Chanel N°5, which does not refer to any specific odour. Coco Chanel wanted to differentiate herself by offering: "an artificial perfume, I say artificial like a dress, that is to say, manufactured. I am an artisan of sewing. I don't want roses, lily of the valley, I want a perfume which is a compound."


For this purpose, the first perfume with "aldehydes" was born thanks to Ernest Beaux. Aldehyde is a synthetic molecule, unknown at the time, which fixes floral notes while providing them with an element of mystery. Without the arrival of aldehydes in perfumery, Chanel N°5 would not exist. The aldehydes offer a significant number of olfactory notes and enhance perfumes like lemon reveals strawberries, messages which have the power to make flowers sing. Their discovery dates back to 1835, but it was not until the 20th century that perfumery used them. You can recognize the smell of aldehydes in Chanel No5 by their metallic and intense freshness. This olfactory family goes very well with already existing notes, particularly floral scents. Thus, this new chemical compound makes it possible to "make abstract" this trail, so one cannot distinguish one flower more than another in this luxurious olfactory bouquet. Ernest Beaux, the fragrance creator, will balance the original notes of jasmine, rose and ylang-ylang with the aldehyde to prevent them from taking over. This innovation responded to the olfactory desire of the fashion designer.


Composed of a subtle blend of 80 ingredients, it aims to combine strength and surprise effect.

No more unique scents of jasmine or rose.

Because she is the designer, Coco Chanel wishes that we could not recognize one flower rather than another.


By marketing Chanel N°5, Gabrielle Chanel becomes the first woman at the head of a fashion house to launch her perfume. By launching her fragrance in the Roaring Twenties, she instilled the same odace as for these collections with incredible modernity.



Mademoiselle Chanel was very attached to signs and symbolism, and she fell in love with the fifth numbered samples from Ernest Beaux. The number five, having always brought luck to Gabrielle, it was apparent. According to one of the most replicated versions, she said : "I present my collection of dresses on the fifth day of the fifth month, and so we will leave this sample number five with the same name that it already has, it will bring good luck. "Officially, Gabrielle Chanel launched N°5 during a parade organized on May 5, 1921. She first offered it to her best customers, who thus became her first muses. Gabrielle Chanel recommended using perfume extract "Where you want to be kissed".

Coco Chanel is superstitious, and the number 5 will accompany her throughout her life.

It is also no coincidence that Audrey Tautou, former muse of this fragrance, wore a star necklace in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Night Train advertisement because it has five branches.



Coco's smell will match her flair. This recipe was fruitful since its perfume remained "number 1" in sales in France until 2011 when it was just overtaken by J'adore de Dior, another bouquet of flowers in a bottle. Today, 10 million bottles of N°5 are still sold each year.


Flore Brault Custot

19/11/2021


References :


Images :

Homemade drawings by Flore Brault Custot



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