“There is no possibility of perfection without perfume”, says Gabrielle Chanel, creator of the iconic Chanel Nº5, which this year celebrates its centenary, a fragment of what was declared unconditional Marilyn Monroe and the image of actress Marion Cotillard.
When the protagonist of “Los caballeros las prefieren rubias”, a match with the question of a periodical about which to use dormir, Marilyn Monroe con contested a pícaro: “Unas gotas de Chanel Nº 5”. From here, the perfume, created by Ernest Beaux in 1921, passed into the mythical category for more reasons than his composition.
That’s why we’ve been converted into the first perfume to enter a museum -form part of the Museum of Contemporary Art of New York (MOMA) – much to the genius of its creator.
Cristina de Catalina, director of development at the Academy of Perfume Foundation, defined Coco Chanel as “a visionary creator and audacity that revolutionized her era”, within the cycle of virtual conferences organized by the Academy of Perfume on mythical characters of history perfume.
Gabrielle Chanel only declares “it has no elegant elegance without perfume. It is the perfect accessory that does not have, that does not have olvida, the most important”.
Rocío Capel, Director of Training at Chanel Iberia, stated that the French designer was the first female designer to create her own perfume, and that she also qualified as a “visionary, who considers that perfume can express itself in style” and that supo interpret the fashion to work through, an “insolent” project for the era.
Connoisseur al perfumista de los zares, Ernest Beaux, en 1920, y lo acabó acaparando para la “maison” francesa, la meje manera de mantener la exclusivad de la formula, como luego continuo haciendo con las otras “narices” que han creaa los aromas of the firm like Henri Robert, Jacques Polge -which more fragile have created for the house- or the last to incorporate, his hijo Olivier.
Chanel has some very clear directories for the creation of Nº5, as it does not go into detail about its time, that it tosses together temporal and abstract notes, that it does not tend to be in trend, even if it has a “huge” creative freedom in perfumery, that in water currently investigating with the aldehydes, facilitators of aroma durability.
“A perfume that nobody loves has the moment”, is the maximum, Corelbora Capel, an aroma with many facets and contradictions, a perfume that is lukewarm and seductive to the woman.
A different essence, with exceptional excellent materials, with, different from the epoch of a floral note, a floral bouquet that includes more than 80 ingredients, presented in a phrase, necklace, ornaments, laboratory cases and incorporated in its source a hilo of pearl lacrado, “to avoid evaporating its fragrance”.
The name of this centenary perfume keeps some mystery. One has to explain -explains Capel- with the hecho of that Ernest Beaux the proposed variety series in the designer, all with a number, and it because the decision was made by the Nº5, although it was actually “disconnected” if more the taste or support in other factors.
“The fifth was Gabrielle Chanel’s grief,” Capel assured. Relationships with its astrological sign, the fifth of the zodiac, with the five dedos of the man, with the five points of a star, also with the five good of happiness, the five cents, the five caves -only now six- .
A superstition that llevaba to his parades, his collection always salia the fifth, at the techo of one of the dwellings of his house lucía a crystal lamp in which the institution interprets the “C” of the logo, the G of its number and the number five.
Casually, almost now, he has been following the reinterpretations of Nº5 and since the beginning of this year, the 20th century, he has five.
Coco Chanel has always argued that with this number being the pomposidad of the numbers of the perfumes of that era, it was easy to record, not necessary to be translated and “its important residence in its interior”.
Without embarrassment, to be able to trust in its potential, Chanel -an advanced also in this aspect- did not use the publicity for promotion and she was the protagonist of a campaign, in 1937, in the American magazine Harpper’s Bazaar in United States , the place where the first triumphant, reflecting a sophisticated image of a female gender of the same name.
But if there is a detached campaign for Rocío Capel it is the protagonist by Nicole Kidman, directed by Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge) who includes the three pillars of the company: high costume design, joys and perfumes.
“A picture of unity, seduction and audacity”, agrees with Chanel’s spirit, for a perfume that “has transcended time and fashion without becoming fascinated”, Capel concludes.