in a fascinating novel where the perfume is the main character through a fantastic journey across the XXth century - The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World's Most Famous Perfume. Based on several facts, many apocryphal stories and a personal interpretation of the past, this is an exciting fantasy where the novelist becomes a fragrance detective searching for clues and events 100 years ago. This is the DaVinci code of a famous perfume where true facts and fictional events are mixed to explain the DNA of a perfume. The story is presented through our modern eyes as if it was true and we follow the scent trail as early as the time Gabrielle Chanel went to Aubazine. The notion of cleanliness, as perceived today on the other side of the Atlantic, becomes a thread that leads us to the fragrance and its use of aldehydes but for that we go back to the Island of Cyprus "thousands of years before the common era, and this heady scent - a sweet and woody concoction with hints of citrus and vanilla - was dedicated to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sexual love." And this was before the conquistadores!The beautiful Belle Époque is presented to us in all its splendor and richness. We assist to an imaginary fragrance launch of Paul Poiret during a famous party and right after the Great War we see the Americans soldiers desperately looking for French perfumes in Paris, several years before they started to be heavily advertised in US Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.
In The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World's Most Famous Perfume we learn the different legends surrounding the creation of Chanel No 5 including the never found "Le Bouquet de Catherine" and the apocryphal story about François Coty (who btw did not use any aldehyde before 1927) and industrial espionage about a stolen masterpiece. Mazzeo reveals that the instantly recognizable scent of heavy jasmine, rose, and musk was not invented by Coco. I would add that 90% of perfumes (except maybe the Eau de Cologne style) in that era used those ingredients in strong doses. I revealed many clues of the Chanel No5 genealogy on this blog in the past 5 years, including the perfumes Ernest Beaux had studied, but the author did not read me and you will not find the correct evolution of the scent. The author speaks about the creation and launch of the most famous perfume in modern terms and we can even assist to the launch party with Ernest Beaux, set in a restaurant in Cannes, scenting the room before the invention "No5 vapo". Coco Chanel imagined an unusual marketing strategy for the success of her creation after she studied François Coty and his famous "guerilla campaign" of La Rose Jacqueminot (a story that was actually told or invented in the late 20's). We learn about the fragrance of fashion designer Molyneux who launched in 1925 a perfume called Le Numéro Cinq, after his new address on Rue Royale (a chypre floral aldehydic perfume with soft fruity notes and not related to Chanel). It was later changed to Le Parfum connu during a famous scandal and the subject was largely explained in the era. We discover how Coco Chanel was marketing minimalism and how Catherine de Medici inspired her logo (!) while the bottle might be the never-to-be-found first Rallet design. Of course, historians have a different opinion because there is a known designer behind the first square Chanel bottle and there are several very similar bottles from 1919 and 1921 (one by Lalique, the other by Baccarat) while the bottles inspired by Chanel were presented on this blog. The novel goes on when François Coty enters the scene with his Aimant in 1927, launched after he acquired Rallet (is it because a famous nose like Vincent Roubert could not duplicate the aldehydic perfume since 1921?). The success story of Chanel No5 is followed during the 30's when the perfume becomes a global star and later during the war. The very mysterious story of Mademoiselle No 1 and the other red label perfumes is unveiled to us. "Where was Ernest Beaux during WWII. His friend, Léon Givaudan -one of history's great innovators in the science of fragrance chemistry-was based in Zurich, Coco Chanel's home after the war, when she was filled with plans for those red labels." Léon Givaudan was dead since 1936 but I'm not sure if he was buried in Zurich. We discover how the mysterious Chanel 31 became after 1965 the masterpiece Chanel 19, created by Henri Robert. The great perfumer was probably lucky to find after 20 years a bottle of Chanel No 31 or a formula created when he was in New York (he entered Chanel in the early 50's), adding to this 20% Hedione (!). Leaving the historical fiction we enter the modern days and the subject of reformulations discovering the problems of nitromusks "based around molecules that were essentially explosive, they were chemically unstable, and this was true especially if they were exposed to sunlight, when they tended to degrade and react in ways that were sometimes neurologically toxic." In fact, I'm so happy every time I find a vintage bottle of fragrance with some unstable musk that holds the fragrance a week on the blotter allowing a beautiful diffusion. This week, right before I read this new novel about Chanel No 5, I had an enormous chance to find the Houbigant 1911 perfume that inspired Ernest Beaux for his Rallet creation. I opened the bottle and it was smelling 80% Rallet without any doubt (I later made the analysis). For me the mystery of Chanel No5 is solved. He was not duplicating the beautiful Quelques Fleurs and the "arctic note" is an older perfume idea perpetuated after the 1917 Revolution in a soviet perfume launched around 1929.
Chandler Burr: “Mazzeo has written an account of the rarest of things-an international olfactory icon-that fairly rushes off the pages. Here is the life of one of the 20th century’s most interesting and deeply complicated women, a fascinating cultural history, and the story of an extraordinary perfume.”
The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World's Most Famous Perfume (304 pages) is available on Amazon for 14.29 USD.
we learn the different legends surrounding the creation of Chanel No 5 including the never found "Le Bouquet de Catherine" and the apocryphal story about François Coty (who btw did not use any aldehyde before 1927) and industrial espionage about a stolen masterpiece. Mazzeo reveals that the instantly recognizable scent of heavy jasmine, rose, and musk was not invented by Coco. I would add that 90% of perfumes (except maybe the Eau de Cologne style) in that era used those ingredients in strong doses. I revealed many clues of the Chanel No5 genealogy on this blog in the past 5 years, including the perfumes Ernest Beaux had studied, but the author did not read me and you will not find the correct evolution of the scent. The author speaks about the creation and launch of the most famous perfume in modern terms and we can even assist to the launch party with Ernest Beaux, set in a restaurant in Cannes, scenting the room before the invention "No5 vapo". Coco Chanel imagined an unusual marketing strategy for the success of her creation after she studied François Coty and his famous "guerilla campaign" of La Rose Jacqueminot (a story that was actually told or invented in the late 20's). We learn about the fragrance of fashion designer Molyneux who launched in 1925 a perfume called Le Numéro Cinq, after his new address on Rue Royale (a chypre floral aldehydic perfume with soft fruity notes and not related to Chanel). It was later changed to Le Parfum connu during a famous scandal and the subject was largely explained in the era. We discover how Coco Chanel was marketing minimalism and how Catherine de Medici inspired her logo (!) while the bottle might be the never-to-be-found first Rallet design. Of course, historians have a different opinion because there is a known designer behind the first square Chanel bottle and there are several very similar bottles from 1919 and 1921 (one by Lalique, the other by Baccarat) while the bottles inspired by Chanel were presented on this blog. The novel goes on when François Coty enters the scene with his Aimant in 1927, launched after he acquired Rallet (is it because a famous nose like Vincent Roubert could not duplicate the aldehydic perfume since 1921?). The success story of Chanel No5 is followed during the 30's when the perfume becomes a global star and later during the war. The very mysterious story of Mademoiselle No 1 and the other red label perfumes is unveiled to us. "Where was Ernest Beaux during WWII. His friend, Léon Givaudan -one of history's great innovators in the science of fragrance chemistry-was based in Zurich, Coco Chanel's home after the war, when she was filled with plans for those red labels." Léon Givaudan was dead since 1936 but I'm not sure if he was buried in Zurich. We discover how the mysterious Chanel 31 became after 1965 the masterpiece Chanel 19, created by Henri Robert. The great perfumer was probably lucky to find after 20 years a bottle of Chanel No 31 or a formula created when he was in New York (he entered Chanel in the early 50's), adding to this 20% Hedione (!). Leaving the historical fiction we enter the modern days and the subject of reformulations discovering the problems of nitromusks "based around molecules that were essentially explosive, they were chemically unstable, and this was true especially if they were exposed to sunlight, when they tended to degrade and react in ways that were sometimes neurologically toxic." In fact, I'm so happy every time I find a vintage bottle of fragrance with some unstable musk that holds the fragrance a week on the blotter allowing a beautiful diffusion. This week, right before I read this new novel about Chanel No 5, I had an enormous chance to find the Houbigant 1911 perfume that inspired Ernest Beaux for his Rallet creation. I opened the bottle and it was smelling 80% Rallet without any doubt (I later made the analysis). For me the mystery of Chanel No5 is solved. He was not duplicating the beautiful Quelques Fleurs and the "arctic note" is an older perfume idea perpetuated after the 1917 Revolution in a soviet perfume launched around 1929.Chandler Burr: “Mazzeo has written an account of the rarest of things-an international olfactory icon-that fairly rushes off the pages. Here is the life of one of the 20th century’s most interesting and deeply complicated women, a fascinating cultural history, and the story of an extraordinary perfume.”
The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World's Most Famous Perfume
(304 pages) is available on Amazon for 14.29 USD.I made a selection from my huge Chanel fashion archive with several model created in 1921 to see mood and the style she proposed. The bottle was plain but that was the year of heavy Russian embroideries in fashion for the evening. The first image I showed you several years ago is about a Chanel movie in 1921.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
