Fifteen years after its last major perfume, an iconic French fashion house finds inspiration in its founder and offers her an olfactory ode.
It all started with Chanel No 5, a fragrance as modern, unpretentious and revolutionary as the clothes Coco Chanel made. Known for its groundbreaking flacon—sleek, minimal, almost androgynous—and its unusual juice, the scent was a rebel in the roaring 1920s. Not conforming to the overtly floral, powdery concoctions that were the norm of the decade, No 5 was a floral-aldehyde, the first of its kind. By incorporating a synthetic component (aldehyde) to accompany and lend complexity to the floral notes of rose and jasmine, the fragrance gave birth to a whole new genre of perfumery. Today, the heady floral that was catapulted to iconic status by Marilyn Monroe is arguably the most identifiable, indelible scent of all times, sold somewhere in the world every 30 seconds.
This story is from the September 2017 edition of VOGUE India.
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This story is from the September 2017 edition of VOGUE India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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