(*100*)
Few fragrances – or objects, for that matter – carry as a lot symbolism as Chanel No 5. What began as the distillation of Gabrielle Chanel’s spirit has advanced right into a cultural icon: it was the scent of Marilyn Monroe, evocative of energy and seduction; its immediately recognisable glass bottle was immortalised by Andy Warhol; and it stays a bestseller for the home, regardless of the ever-changing notes of the perfume world. This yr marks the one centesimal anniversary of No 5, and to rejoice this milestone the maison is uniting two of Chanel’s passions with a high-jewellery assortment impressed by the perfume. It is audacious, in true Chanel spirit, but there’s an attention-grabbing synergy between jewels and fragrance – each are intimate and intensely private, each are worn on the pores and skin and sometimes take on the particular person scent or patina of the wearer, and each assume a task that may be a combine of private pleasure and attraction.Patrice Leguéreau, director of the Chanel Fine Jewellery Creation Studio, has dreamt of making a set round No 5 since he joined the firm in 2009. “I knew that 2021 was an necessary yr, an opportunity to rejoice the fragrance, and so it was a pure transfer for me to develop the idea of this assortment. With every new high-jewellery assortment I wish to open up the Chanel universe, and the story of No 5 is so wealthy, so mysterious and engaging.”
Valerie wears Chanel High Jewellery white-gold, yellow-gold and diamond Grasse Jasmine asymmetrical earrings, POA, a part of the No 5 assortment. Wolford cotton Colorado physique, £166 © Ezra Petronio
Akon wears Chanel High Jewellery yellow-gold, platinum, diamond, yellow sapphire and spessartite garnet Golden Sillage earrings, and yellow-gold, diamond and yellow beryl No 5 Drop necklace, each POA, a part of the No 5 assortment. Chanel leather-based trench coat, £10,925 © Ezra Petronio
The precise beginnings of No 5 are shrouded in thriller. According to Lisa Chaney’s biography, Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life, Chanel had collaborated along with her shut pal Misia Sert to create a bottle for an essence that was half beauty, half perfume, and based mostly on a formulation apparently made for Catherine de’ Medici, queen consort of France from 1547-59. This foray into perfume might effectively have given impetus to Chanel’s concept of making a signature scent; at the time, it was uncommon for couturiers to create fragrances, which was the province of established fragrance homes.Chanel was probably launched to Ernest Beaux, the Russia-born French perfumer who created No 5, in 1920. For her first perfume, Chanel, a recidivist rule-breaker, rejected the typical “soliflore” fragrance, which was derived from a single flower. She informed Beaux that she wished “a man-made perfume like a gown, one thing crafted. I’m a seamstress. I don’t need rose or lily of the valley, I need a composed perfume.” She additionally wished to seize the multilayered complexity of the fashionable lady. Beaux got here up with bouquets of various floral elements, concoctions recognized by numbers. He is claimed to have warned Chanel that his use of uncommon and valuable elements, significantly jasmine, could be very pricey. Coco responded by telling him to add extra of them – she wished to create the most costly fragrance in the world. She was on a mission to revolutionise perfume, simply as she turned vogue and jewelry guidelines on their head. She wished a fragrance that may accessorise her garments and specific her imaginative and prescient of latest luxurious.
A 1923 cartoon depicting Chanel on a No 5 bottle © Chanel
Gabrielle Chanel in her suite at the Paris Ritz in a 1937 commercial © Francois Kollar © Ministère de la tradition – Médiathèque du Patrimoine, Dist rmn
An commercial for No 5 from the Seventies © Courtesy of The Advertising Archives
Among the concoctions, it was quantity 5 – composed of 80 elements, together with vetiver, jasmine, sandalwood and neroli – that stood out. Chanel was madly superstitious: 5 was her fortunate quantity, an alchemical image for the universe and she or he confirmed her collections on 5 May (the fifth month), so it was maybe inevitable that this might be the one. She referred to as it, merely, No 5: the epitome of the low-key magnificence she favoured, and likewise the absolute reverse of typical fragrances with their unique names. And, whether or not it was to do with luck or not, Chanel struck on a successful formulation: No 5 continues to be one in all the world’s top-selling perfumes, and it paved the method for the home’s broader perfume and wonder division, which at present accounts for round one third of the home’s $12.27bn annual income.Embarking on his jewelry venture, in the summer season of 2018, Leguéreau hung out imbibing the story, travelling to Grasse with Olivier Polge, Chanel’s perfumer since 2015, and considering of the way to translate the perfume into jewelry. Rather than a literal illustration, he wished to seize its seductive sensuality and the feelings it arouses. He painted free-form photos of the bottle, the quantity 5 and the golden amber of the fragrance, conjuring shapes and types into floating fluidity. “I actually felt free to discover this summary course. I didn’t consider jewelry at all at the begin, simply emotions. The extra I entered into the thriller of No 5, the extra impressed I grew to become, the extra I adopted my intuition, decoding what the perfume evokes for me. No 5 is such a timeless creation. I wished to take it into the subsequent century.”
Catherine Deneuve in a Seventies journal advert for No 5 © Courtesy of The Advertising Archives
Chanel’s 2004 marketing campaign for No 5, that includes Nicole Kidman, performed on the concept of the perfume as a jewel © Courtesy of The Advertising Archives
Leguéreau did this with 5 completely different “chapters”, every suite of jewels representing an important component of the No 5 story. The architectural, nearly scientific form of the bottle – which was in stark distinction to the figurative flacons of its day – is a recurring image. The stopper, which echoes the octagonal define of the Place Vendôme, is translated as a graphic motif in diamonds, colored gem stones and rock crystal. It can also be the focus of the 55.55 necklace, the centrepiece of the assortment that’s targeted on a superlative diamond, D-flawless and kind IIa (the purest chemically, so with extraordinary limpidity), weighing exactly 55.55 carats. It just isn’t on the market and can stay in Chanel’s archive.
Chanel No 5 High Jewellery white-gold and diamond 55.55 necklace (not on the market)
The quantity 5 additionally turns into a voluptuous, curvaceous characteristic. The Eternal No 5 choker consists of a string of diamonds that path the neck and discover the quantity, which additionally detaches as a brooch, set jauntily off-centre. Then there are the flowers, the valuable elements of the secret formulation: jasmine, May rose and ylang ylang. Here, Leguéreau has discovered the good hyperlink to the cosmic themes of Chanel’s 1932 diamond assortment, which was created towards the grain of vogue and through the Great Depression, and represented an about-turn on her personal revolutionary advocacy of fake or costume jewelry. The jasmine is likened to a five-pointed star, the May rose corresponds to the moon, and ylang ylang to the solar – a aromatic constellation.
Klara wears Chanel High Jewellery yellow-gold, platinum, diamond, spessartite garnet and yellow sapphire Golden Sillage necklace, POA, a part of the No 5 assortment. Chanel leather-based skirt (worn as high), £5,070 © Ezra Petronio
Kim wears Chanel High Jewellery white-gold, diamond, rock crystal and onyx Ribbon Stopper earrings, necklace and ring, all POA, half of the No 5 assortment. Chanel viscose gown, £2,195 © Ezra Petronio
Finally, the most summary and stylised group evokes the “sillage” – the floating waft of perfume a girl leaves in her wake – starring the dramatic Diamond Sillage, which resembles a constellation of stars.
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“The color side was crucial,” explains Leguéreau. White diamonds pay homage to the 1932 assortment, whereas a palette of golden-toned gems – yellow sapphires, yellow diamonds, gems with nuances of orange – symbolize the amber fragrance. The Golden Burst necklace, with its baroque really feel, captures the hue with a near-incandescent array of 350 carats of imperial topaz. Meanwhile, purple spinels and rubies nod to a different recurring Chanel motif – there was a particular Red Edition of No 5, to not point out the home’s well-known make-up packaging.Perhaps most of all Leguéreau wished to convey the freedom that was so valuable to Chanel, which she counted as the final luxurious and mark of modernity. And, explains Leguéreau, the important classicism of the assortment is a tribute to this most traditional of fragrances, and the reality the maison at present nonetheless upholds Gabrielle’s values and embodies her spirit. “In Gabrielle Chanel, a real visionary, now we have the likelihood to interpret what she imagined. She knew her type was the future. We proceed what she began.” Top picture: Jade wears Chanel High Jewellery gold, diamond and beryl No 5 Drop earrings and white- and yellow-gold and diamond Grasse Jasmine necklace, all POA, from the No 5 assortment. Chanel tweed vest, £4,300.Models, Valerie (*5*) at Women Paris, Kim Schell at Viva London, Akon Changkou at Women 360 Management Paris, Klara Kristin at Elite Paris. Casting, Julia Lange. Hair, David Delicourt at Calliste Agency. Make-up, Tom Pecheux at Safe Management utilizing Yves Saint Laurent Beauté. Manicure, Charlene Coquard. Photographer’s assistants, Mathieu Boutang and Nicolas Despis. Digital operator, Yann Gauthier. Stylist’s assistant, Yann Steiner. Special due to Lana Petrusevych
