Sandra‘s Closet

FRAGMENTS OF A DISCOURSE ON OLFACTION
It is a lover of N°5 who speaks and says…

The facts speak for themselves.
1921: Gabrielle Chanel is surrounded by perfume samples. There is one, the fifth… In its wake, an idea starts to take shape.
An idea… but what does it smell like?
Perfumer Ernest Beaux tells her. He says there is rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, and a few other notes. That is all well and good, except that N°5 performs a sort of magic trick. It evokes nothing that can be picked out.
At once, she thinks: what it truly smells like – only women can teach us.

And so, Gabrielle Chanel gives a few friends some very simple bottles containing this mysterious elixir. She says to them, ‘You’ll tell me’.
‘Tell me how people react’.
And reactions there are. Everyone asks, ‘What is your perfume?’ Everyone is intrigued, captivated, caught. Everyone is in love. What does it smell like? No one can say.
Gabrielle Chanel hears this and smiles. She was right from the start: this N°5 is not just a mystery perfume whose name will soon be revealed. It is as indecipherable and elusive as love and women.

It is said: ‘It is the first abstract perfume’. But it remains to be uttered that this abstraction is something women want, quite concretely, on their skin.
It is said: ‘There are aldehydes’. No one knows what that means, and that is perfect. Jasmine, the heart note, is completely transformed by them.
It is said: ‘It smells like possibility’, ‘It smells like an encounter’, ‘It smells like elegance’. All of it is true.
It is said: ‘It smells clean’. That too is true.
It is said: ‘It smells of fine clothes’, clothes that Gabrielle Chanel would one day perfume before her haute couture shows.
It is said: ‘It smells of beauty’ and, at the same time, ‘it smells of modernity’.

N°5 is the first perfume that smells like whatever each person wants. Those who love rose will find it in there. Those who love jasmine, likewise. Those who love ideas, those evaporations of the mind, will find them there too.
N°5 is universal – it is the essence of the times.

Times, in this respect, that walk down the runway
A star looking for a stylish way out of an indiscreet question? N°5.
Catherine Deneuve likes to be swift in her speech? N°5.
Whenever a woman truly has something to say, in any situation: N°5.
This is what they call ‘charisma’.
Styles of dress come and go, but N°5 outlives them all.
It plays a dizzying role in women’s lives.
The first abstract perfume takes shape like no other.

2026: The perfumer creator says, ‘The originality of N°5 grows with each passing year’.
What if we proved it? What if we packaged N°5 Eau de Toilette in its original bottle – the absolute essence of simplicity?
As one returns to a blank page.
As one returns to the flasks Chanel loved.
And once again, we would see the reactions.

And reactions there are.
‘What does it smell like?’ Again. Again and again.
The spirit of the times replies:
‘It smells of freedom’, the freedom to be whoever one wants to be.
‘It smells universal’. Because an idea has no borders.
‘It smells of the essence of an allure’. Because, now more than ever, beauty is something one creates.
‘It smells of self-confidence’. Because it makes us stand tall.
‘It smells of dance’. Because we’re going out tonight.
‘It smells of connection.’ That bond, a treasure to be cherished, a century after the birth of N°5.
It smells, once again, of perpetual transformation.

Today, who is charismatic and multifaceted enough to be the new face of N°5? Margot Robbie.
A woman who always looks as though she always has something up her sleeve.
A natural woman – effortless and bright.
A woman that seems so close to us, that we dare to ask her:
‘What is your perfume?’ Even if it is self-evident. Even if we already have the answer…

« N°5 Eau de Toilette is a modern, abstract floral composition distinguished by its subtly woody facet. The fragrance asserts itself through its elegance and complexity. »
Olivier Polge CHANEL In-House Perfumer-Creator

A warm and vibrant interpretation of the original fragrance launched by Gabrielle Chanel in 1921, N°5 Eau de Toilette opens with a floral bouquet of rose, jasmine, and ylang-ylang, enhanced by aldehydes, while sandalwood and vetiver lend depth and texture to the scent.

N°5 EAU DE TOILETTE
Creation date: 1924
Perfumer: Ernest Beaux
OLFACTORY SIGNATURE
Aldehydes, rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang.
OLFACTORY IMPRESSION
Abstract floral with woody facets.
BOTTLE
Square, softly contoured bottle with a cylindrical cap.
No label, minimalist. N°5 screen-printed in black.

N°5 EAU DE TOILETTE NEW EDITION Vaporisateur 75 ml CHF 175.-
N°5 EAU DE TOILETTE NEW EDITION Vaporisateur 150 ml CHF 240.-

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © CHANEL @chanel.beauty #N5 #N5IsTheAnswer #CHANELFragrance
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To celebrate the 100th year of the N°5 perfume’s fame, Patrice Leguéreau, Director of the CHANEL Fine Jewelry Creation Studio, has imagined the «Collection N°5», the first High Jewelry collection ever to be dedicated to a perfume.

A first in the history of High Jewelry, this collection showcases all the facets of a perfume, interpreting the eternal mystery of the N°5 perfume with virtuosity. From the bottle to the sillage, one hundred and twenty-three extraordinary pieces express the different facets of the perfume. With its hundred years of fame, only a perfume as mysterious and iconic as the N°5 perfume could inspire such a majestic High Jewelry collection.

In 1921, the first «perfume for women with the scent of a woman» composed by Ernest Beaux and Gabrielle Chanel made a commotion. With the absolute modernity of the fragrance, the purity of the bottle and the mystery of the name, the N°5 perfume was nothing short of a revolution. In 1932, Mademoiselle shattered the codes of French High Jewelry with her one and only collection in platinum and diamonds. These «Bijoux de Diamants» introduced new ways of wearing and took jewelry into another realm… that of allure. In 2021, Patrice Leguéreau decided to bring these two domains together with the «Collection N°5».

«Gabrielle Chanel approached these two universes with the same visionary values, focusing on audacity and the quest for excellence. I wanted to rediscover that creative gesture with this collection, which has been conceived like a journey through the meanderings of the N°5 perfume’s soul, from the architecture of the bottle to the olfactive explosion of the fragrance.»

The zenith of this precious collection is the extraordinary 55.55 necklace that expresses all the codes of the fragrance which radiate through an exceptional gemstone crafted in its honour, a 55.55-carat custom-cut diamond.

«This is an unprecedented approach» observes Patrice Leguéreau. «We started with a rough diamond that we had cut, not to make the biggest stone possible, but to obtain a perfect octagonal diamond weighing 55.55 carats.»

The harmonious shape, in an emerald cut, the symbolic weight of 55.55 carats, the D Flawless quality of this stone and the 18-carat white gold bezel set with 104 round diamonds and 42 baguette diamonds testify to CHANEL’s perfectionism and exceptional levels of creation and technical mastery. The profile of the stopper, the silhouette of the bottle, the fastener shaped like the lucky number, and the cascading of pear-shaped diamonds in different sizes, cut one by one, mould this piece into an ultimate tribute to the perfume.

Figurative as much as it is abstract, the 55.55 necklace goes further than an exercise in style. It symbolizes the embrace between the spirit of the N°5 perfume and the most exceptional jewelry making. With an incomparable suppleness, this fascinating and eternal item of jewelry adds its own stone to the story of CHANEL’s first perfume, which has become a myth.

But the tale does not stop here because CHANEL has chosen to keep the necklace 55.55 in its Patrimoine. Thus, this extraordinary piece will forever be a part of the history of CHANEL’s High Jewelry and the symbol of the unbreakable ties that unite place Vendôme with the N°5 perfume.

Stunning, beautiful – an iconic piece that has already made history.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © CHANEL

I am N°5, an abstract perfume by Gabrielle Chanel, which she created in 1921 with Ernest Beaux, perfumer to the tsars.

This year, the best-known perfume in the world of the world CHANEL N°5 celebrates its 100th anniversary. Its name is universally renowned. Its wake, a revolution. Its bottle, an unmatched masterpiece.

I am the avant-garde, emerging at the same time as cubism, dadaism, and surrealism. I am their olfactory counterpart, and like them, I break the codes; like them, I write a new language and invent a collage of scents. I am the first abstract perfume.

Created in 1921, N°5 threw habits and conventions to the wind from the start. At the beginning of the 1920s, Gabrielle Chanel had already changed people’s views on fashion by suggesting a new allure. Her first perfume is consistent with her pioneering designs, simple yet well thought through.
Revolutionary in its composition, N°5 is also the first perfume imagined by a woman for women.

I am a manifesto, that of modernity, a dazzling bouquet. Mademoiselle boosted the jasmine, the ylang-ylang, and the rose, yet no single identifiable note is left in my wake. Thanks to the magical alchemy of the aldehydes, I throw people off the scent, not evoking any one flower, to become «a woman’s fragrance with the woman scent».

Whether it be Marilyn Monroe turning it into a myth by confessing she only wore a few drops in
bed, or Andy Warhol screen printing it as a pop art icon, over time N°5 has acquired the status
of a global cultural phenomenon.

I am a magic number, the 5, her favorite number which had brought her luck ever since childhood. Mademoiselle is said to have chosen N°5 because it was the scent in the fifth sample, the one she preferred.

First perfume to be advertised on TV, it has inspired some of the greatest image masters — Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, Ridley Scott, Jean-Paul Goude or Baz Luhrmann to name a few — and become a visual symbol that has never lost touch with the contemporary creative scene.

I am the perfume of perfumes, embodied by the greatest celebrities.

Because the world’s most popular perfume of all time needs adequate representation, it has chosen muses who, throughout the world, embody elegance and seduction without undermining their own personality: Catherine Deneuve, Carole Bouquet, Nicole Kidman or currently Marion Cotillard are among the ambassadresses who, by their spirit and modernity, lift N°5 into the eternal feminine pantheon for posterity.

I am a symbol, which the G.I.s took back to America at the end of World War II as a souvenir of Paris and the taste of liberty, the badge of French chic, and the very essence of the CHANEL style.

Mythological status has never consigned N°5 to museum shelves, even though it has been part
of the permanent collections in the MoMA, New York, since 1954. Through its history, its image
and its very essence N°5 remains the backdrop to countless stories, even the most intimate. N°5
is made for those who, like Mademoiselle Chanel, choose who they want to be, and become it.
It is a perfume which, like a coat of invisible armor, gives the strength to face life. Backed with its
100 years of celebrity, N°5 will always be one step ahead.

I am a legend, timeless, continually reinventing myself, as in Verlaine’s «Familiar Dream»: I am «neither quite the same, nor altogether the other». From L’Extrait to L’Eau and from L’Eau to Parfum.

On the cusp of 2021, which is fully dedicated to N°5, the House of CHANEL presented me with this unparalleled coffret. Created in collaboration with the CHANEL Métiers d’Art and Baccarat, this restricted edition is reserved for friends of the Maison and contains five numbered objects. Four of CHANEL’s artisan partners have reinterpreted one of the emblematic aspects of N°5 in their own unique way. I am sure that you can imagine my excitement when I received this beautiful box.

1 The Medaillon Keychain by Desrues
Made of gold-plated brass, this medaillon keychain created by costume jeweler and accessory maker Desrues, is adorned with a black disc embossed with number 5. The inside of the number, the rim of the medaillon and the ring are all trimmed with a twisted braid.

2 The Paperweight by Baccarat
Designed and made in Baccarat‘s famous glass-making studio, this paperweight recalls the faceted edges of the N°5 bottle stopper, which was inspired by the Place Vendôme in Paris.

I am an emblem, a simple bottle in laboratory with sharp angles and crystalline transparency, and a stopper cut like a diamond evoking the Place Vendôme. The ultimate, universal reference in the history of scent bottles. The imprimatur of CHANEL’s triumph.

3 The 5 Patch by Lesage
The number 5 takes the form of a black and gold silk-spangled patch in this piece by the Maison Lesage. Woven in the same style as the iconic CHANEL tweeds and embroidered in sequins and lacquered bugle beads, it can be ironed on to clothing thanks to its heat-activated adhesive backing.

4 The Camellia by Lemarié
Inspired by Mademoiselle Chanel’s favorite flower, this camellia brooch was designed and crafted by the Maison Lemarié using the N°5 packaging. One by one, each petal is cut out using a special punch. The flower is then assembled by hand, a product of the feather and floral designer’s unique know-how.

I am an allegory of modernity, French elegance, and eternal femininity.

5 N°5 Eau de Parfum 100ml
While composing the Eau de Parfums in 1986, Jacques Polge declared that «N°5 challenges the ephemeral nature of things.» By adapting the characteristics of N°5 to the new concentrations used in modern perfumery, he successfully demonstrated the extent to which it is and always will be relevant. A work of style that never strayed from the aesthetics of the original Parfum, the Eau de Parfum became a worldwide success that was represented for nearly 10 years by the unforgettable Carole Bouquet.

The best is yet to come as an exceptional piece has found its way into Sandra’s Closet. A beautiful clutch bag reminiscent of the CHANEL N°5 packaging. A must-have that will always remind me of 100 years of the iconic fragrance. I cannot wait to finally sport it when everything is open again. Stay tuned for something very special coming up…

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © CHANEL and © Sandra Bauknecht
#N5 #CHANELFRAGRANCE #100YEARSOFCELEBRITY #CHANELOFFICIAL #INSIDECHANEL @chanelofficial