Chanel No. 5 is the world’s best selling perfume- and has
been for decades. It’s been so popular for so long, in fact, that it’s actually
become a sort of cultural icon- a symbol of luxury, capable of being recognized
by the bottle shape, even by those who have never smelled the juice inside.
This book is the ‘biography’ of No. 5.
I have a great interest in perfume, so I had high hopes for
this book. As I made my way through it, though, I kept feeling like I’d read it
before. I hadn’t, but I had read a biography of Coco Chanel a number of years
ago. Unlike many modern fragrances which are created by committee (independent
niche perfumes excepted), the story of No. 5 is closely tied to Chanel’s life. The
majority of the story of No. 5 IS the story of Gabrielle ‘Coco’
Chanel. It had great personal meaning for her; supposedly it combined scents
from her past- rich flowers from around the convent school she grew up in,
clean sheets, and the sweaty body of her great love, Boy Capel.
There are a great many myths out there about No. 5, and this
book lays them to rest. It wasn’t the first perfume to use synthetic
ingredients- not by a long shot. It wasn’t the first perfume to use aldehydes.
And it wasn’t even a new perfume- it was a remake of one made for Russian
royalty.
It’s an interesting story, how this one fragrance has held
up all these years, despite business infighting, world wars, lack of (and even
disappearance of) raw materials, terrible decisions, and changing tastes. But
the book is repetitious- the author repeats the same facts chapter after
chapter. It would have been a much better book had it been shorter. And it
really never does discover the final secret- what is it about this scent that
has made it survive so well?
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