The Secret of Chanel No. 5

"This is a brilliant idea of the author’s, to do a biography not of a person or an event, but to look at the 20th century through the prism of this one very special perfume. It’s the biography of “Chanel No. 5” and its creators, Coco Chanel and the two brothers, Pierre and Paul Wertheimer, who bought the licence to make it. And the perfumer who actually created it for Coco Chanel. It’s about Coco Chanel’s rise from an impoverished village existence, it’s a partial history of World War II , it’s a history of perfume and its golden era. It’s a brilliant arc of the 20th century. It’s about how the perfume went from being just something women dabbed behind their ears to a symbol of impossible luxury and glamour. Catherine Deneuve as the face of “Chanel No. 5” created a mystique around it. It was brilliant to have her as the iconic face of this iconic perfume. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . One of the most fascinating things for me about the book was that when World War II broke out and the Nazis marched into Paris, the two Wertheimer brothers, who were Jewish, fled with their families to New York. They were the ones who had the licence to produce “Chanel No. 5”, but the flower fields where they got their raw materials were in Europe. They sent emissaries to infiltrate back into France, go to the producers in Grasse, buy five or six years’ worth of raw material supplies, whisk them out of occupied Europe and smuggle them to New York. For a while, “Chanel No. 5” was made in New Jersey. They were able to continue producing it more or less the way it was produced before the war. It’s a tale of seduction and betrayal. Coco Chanel was sleeping with a Nazi officer and was clearly a collaborator. During the war the Chanel boutique stayed open, and there’s no way that could have happened if she hadn’t had the approval of the Nazis. Then when the Allies liberated Paris, the one thing the servicemen could buy to send back to their wives and girlfriends was a bottle of perfume, the symbol of French luxury. The dollar was very strong in depressed post-war Europe, so they brought it back and the cult of “Chanel No. 5” spread to America. It was all of those things. There were many other perfumes that were wonderful, but this is the one that stuck. For many reasons. Because Coco Chanel was a personality. Because she had been a club singer, and lived a louche life for the time. She knew a lot of courtesans who wore rich, musky essences that went along with their trade. Back in the days when Coco Chanel was young, it was not proper for women to smell musky and spicy and darkly sweet. What was accepted for young women was to put on a little rose or lavender water, to smell sweet and innocent. Coco Chanel incorporated musk and heavier spices into a floral base. That was very new for the time. She did not do it herself, she was not a perfumer. But she was friends with Ernest Beaux, one of the great perfumers of the 20th century. He created “Chanel No. 5” for her. There’s a long story of how he presented her with different samples – numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and the one she picked was number 5. It was actually inspired by another perfume that Ernest Beaux and one of his fellow perfumers had created earlier. It was the right thing at the right time. Coco Chanel wore it herself, she gave it to her friends and to customers who bought Coco Chanel couture. It spread by word of mouth, and wealthy women wanted it because it was hard to get. She was very clever in her marketing of it. Initially it was the exclusivity of it – the idea that it was a very sophisticated scent that had a whiff of the boudoir and the courtesan in it. Now it has become a luxury product that transcends perfume. If you say “Chanel No. 5” everyone knows what it smells like. It’s got this rich opulence, of France, of Paris, of haute couture. It’s like elixir in a bottle. It’s the perfect example of how perfume can go beyond what it smells like."