The rarest Chanel vintage

Today we associate Chanel name with the little black dress, with modern art (cubism), black-white-beige and everything that is supposed to speak about abstraction. The history of No5 says that she wanted a perfume different that the smell of a garden, and by that opposed to what must have been popular in those days. But how much of that is truth and how much is myth?
Looking back at Chanel collections from 1918 to 1930 (in Vogue and Femina) the historical difference is huge. Chanel used lace, embroidery (a lot), flowers, all kind of decorative inspirations (medieval, China, Russia, Japan, etc) and mostly, it was quite coloured. Reading the descriptions of models in Vogue I am amazed by some colours: bright pink, vivid green, yellow, celestial blue, gold… everything that the black&white magazine was not able to capture.
By its name and design No5 was quite a revolution in that period. But Chanel produced also other perfumes, today rare than anything.
Rose, Chypre, Ambre, Jasmin were perfumes produced in the 20's. They can be seen in a ARTE documentary about Chanel (at 26.20'). It seems that Ernest Beaux brought the entire collection of Rallet perfumes and bottled them under the Chanel name! (just a theory, I've never smelled those Rallet).
The Chanel fashion in the 20's was amazing. All her models are very simple while other designers did very complicated fashions but she was not above fashion. As we would say today, she did all the "trends" but her way (I saw even a Louis XV inspired jacket!).
Rose was a very simple fragrance with a lot of rose oil (Rose distillation Selim) and a spicy note.
Chypre was similar with Coty's perfume but with more oakmoss and not as subtle.
Ambre was based on natural amber note and it was not very sweet as the opoponax bases (like Guerlain would do an amber).
Jasmin was not very jasmin (like Coty's) but rather musky with an ambrette note.
In our image of Chanel (and No5) as the ultimate abstract smell, those perfumes seem quite a exception. She already had a small garden (rose, jasmin, magnolia, gardenia) that contradicts what se said later. But all who studied Chanel know that telling the truth (about her past) was not her quality. Reinvention and the recreation of the past seem core values of the Chanel brand. But a commercial brand is not a history class nor a trial and so … the truth is something very relative. :) If by any chance you came across to those perfumes (bottles) keep them with the greatest care because they have a big historical value in front of a brand that always rewrites history in the most beautiful way.

photo: first (Vogue 1921), second (auction in Paris)