This perfume sample made for me in India in the last century, a copy of Chanel No5 with a very decent price, is today, after two decades, the .... original perfume. It contains those molecules which were changed, eliminated because they became forbidden or restricted in the last decade in Paris. The original combination of musks, the real sandalwood, the "poor" sweet molecules made after the original chemical procedure. No intention to be ART - molecules were made that way in India, no IFRA drastic rules, no REACH, no bureaucracy. Even the jasmine is better, the Grasse field is more for the press and the unmistakable scent of the French jasmine is more a souvenir inside the No5 formula produced today.
From an olfactory point of view, this humble bottle is 100 times better than the perfume sold today by the modern Chanel company in Europe. Who is owner of a perfume formula? Certainly not the company which makes changes until the odor is unrecognizable betraying the intention of the authors - Ernest Beaux and Gabrielle Chanel. The Museum preserves the copy - "The Art of Scent exhibition" presents the modern No5, not the 1921 formula - while the "original" is "free" somewhere else on this planet.
What was possible only in the world of art and metaphors becomes a reality in 2013. The Original versus Copy dilemma. This theme, the high quality original and the mass produced copy, is frequent in the Oriental Art.
Today we can consider Chanel No5, a bestseller, the most accurate expression of the mass market production in the capitalist world. It uses the attributes of real luxury to justify the production and the lack of precious materials which were once its identity. Fake plastic fur becomes the real fur for millions of consumers through mass-produced fashion. In Chanel No5 it is the real natural ingredients of animal origin which were completely removed. No drop of real MUSK, the ingredient which gave the special cachet in 1921. The real work of art, once carved in ivory, is now carved in "plastic". Ironically, the perfume copy with a plastic cap sent from India to me a long time ago has more life.
All women who used No5 in the past make me the same complaint today - Chanel lacks quelque chose - the forbidden natural ingredients - the "flesh". The elements which are the equivalent of the golden chain of the Chanel tailleur were removed from all the modern perfumes of the house.
The copy becomes the original expression of a perfume which is now dramatically removed from history, victim of its own mega-success. We can understand now why Gabrielle Chanel disliked prêt-à-porter. Bigger you are, more compromises you make.
Today we can consider Chanel No5, a bestseller, the most accurate expression of the mass market production in the capitalist world. It uses the attributes of real luxury to justify the production and the lack of precious materials which were once its identity. Fake plastic fur becomes the real fur for millions of consumers through mass-produced fashion. In Chanel No5 it is the real natural ingredients of animal origin which were completely removed. No drop of real MUSK, the ingredient which gave the special cachet in 1921. The real work of art, once carved in ivory, is now carved in "plastic". Ironically, the perfume copy with a plastic cap sent from India to me a long time ago has more life.
All women who used No5 in the past make me the same complaint today - Chanel lacks quelque chose - the forbidden natural ingredients - the "flesh". The elements which are the equivalent of the golden chain of the Chanel tailleur were removed from all the modern perfumes of the house.
The copy becomes the original expression of a perfume which is now dramatically removed from history, victim of its own mega-success. We can understand now why Gabrielle Chanel disliked prêt-à-porter. Bigger you are, more compromises you make.
Next week, those in Paris will have the chance to smell the missing ingredients from Chanel perfumes, the elements which were banned from the lab of the house. The announcement is scheduled for next week.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
