The following Chanel perfumes, even rarer, I smelled them quite a long time ago. I'm not sure if they were produced or given as a gift and I had troubles to understand their commercial history. So, I will do a very short description just to give a rough idea.
They were all created around 1930 (maybe earlier but not after for sure). Chanel created in 1929 a very fresh spring collection with dresses in red/blue/beige in jersey (a sport style with stripes and geometric pattern) as depicted in a Vogue review from that year.
In the same year Jean Patou launched Le Sien, the "unisex" perfume (chypre) that was inspired also by the sport spirit. Chanel and Patou promoted in those years a day fashion inspired by sports, with geometric patterns and young look. Maybe Chanel wanted to answer Patou's sport perfume (Le Sien = Her's) with her famous colours - red, blue and beige - used in jersey's sport dresses. But those perfumes are also an echo of the French Flag (bleu, blanc, rouge). While Jean Patou (her biggest competitor in the 20's) employed American mannequins and insisted on the American beauty, Chanel wanted to insist on frenchness and impose her style as the French look. In the mid 30's she was also depicted as the French national symbol Marianne, by the illustrator Iribe and also in the last collection before WWII she featured dresses in the colours of the national flag!
In 1930 Chanel was invited to go to Hollywood (by Sam G Mayer) to dress the American actresses. Was she thinking to dress the American stars in the pure French style and give them a symbol of France and Chanel (her 3 perfumes)?
Bleu, Beige, Rouge, the colour of her jersey suits but also an echo to French flag could be seen as a symbol of her famous No5. They all seem variations on No5 (but not No22 !), like flankers would be today, with some notes accentuated. In the same period Jean Patou launched also his famous cocktail bar with the 3 perfumes to be mixed. Were Bleu, Beige, Rouge 3 perfumes to recreate the Chanel spirit in a modern layering concept?
Chanel Rouge Has a very strong rosy note (with geranium) and a powerful vetiver Java with all kind of (methyl)ionones floating around. It lacks the sweet coumarine note but has an ambery touch (like in Ophris Base Givaudan). I do not remember any lily of the valley note. (!)
Chanel Bleu Is an extremely aldehydic variation with a strong violet (+cassie) - lily of the valley touch (almost cyclamen) and a cedar-sandalwood background. It's not very ylang as No5 and shares some resemblances with Soir de Paris (the violet on top and the sandalwood).
Chanel Beige Has a jasmin-orris-ambery side more present than in No5, and it made me think of a combination between Arpège and Vol de Nuit. It's very warm and soft and from all 3 it was the most interesting, though the top notes were very damaged.
They were all created around 1930 (maybe earlier but not after for sure). Chanel created in 1929 a very fresh spring collection with dresses in red/blue/beige in jersey (a sport style with stripes and geometric pattern) as depicted in a Vogue review from that year.
In the same year Jean Patou launched Le Sien, the "unisex" perfume (chypre) that was inspired also by the sport spirit. Chanel and Patou promoted in those years a day fashion inspired by sports, with geometric patterns and young look. Maybe Chanel wanted to answer Patou's sport perfume (Le Sien = Her's) with her famous colours - red, blue and beige - used in jersey's sport dresses. But those perfumes are also an echo of the French Flag (bleu, blanc, rouge). While Jean Patou (her biggest competitor in the 20's) employed American mannequins and insisted on the American beauty, Chanel wanted to insist on frenchness and impose her style as the French look. In the mid 30's she was also depicted as the French national symbol Marianne, by the illustrator Iribe and also in the last collection before WWII she featured dresses in the colours of the national flag!
In 1930 Chanel was invited to go to Hollywood (by Sam G Mayer) to dress the American actresses. Was she thinking to dress the American stars in the pure French style and give them a symbol of France and Chanel (her 3 perfumes)?
Bleu, Beige, Rouge, the colour of her jersey suits but also an echo to French flag could be seen as a symbol of her famous No5. They all seem variations on No5 (but not No22 !), like flankers would be today, with some notes accentuated. In the same period Jean Patou launched also his famous cocktail bar with the 3 perfumes to be mixed. Were Bleu, Beige, Rouge 3 perfumes to recreate the Chanel spirit in a modern layering concept?
Chanel Rouge Has a very strong rosy note (with geranium) and a powerful vetiver Java with all kind of (methyl)ionones floating around. It lacks the sweet coumarine note but has an ambery touch (like in Ophris Base Givaudan). I do not remember any lily of the valley note. (!)
Chanel Bleu Is an extremely aldehydic variation with a strong violet (+cassie) - lily of the valley touch (almost cyclamen) and a cedar-sandalwood background. It's not very ylang as No5 and shares some resemblances with Soir de Paris (the violet on top and the sandalwood).
Chanel Beige Has a jasmin-orris-ambery side more present than in No5, and it made me think of a combination between Arpège and Vol de Nuit. It's very warm and soft and from all 3 it was the most interesting, though the top notes were very damaged.
For a curious reason the bottle type of this perfume (Le Rouge) recently seen on ebay is close in style to a certain type of Coty Chypre version sold in USA in the early 30's, also found on ebay some weeks later.
Note: Chanel Bleu (*)
Note: Chanel Bleu (*)photo from a recent ebay auction
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
