Chanel No. 5: Scenting a New Era

The creation of Chanel No. 5 in 1921 marked Chanel's expansion beyond clothing into what would now be called lifestyle branding. Working with Ernest Beaux, a Russian-French perfumer, she developed a scent that broke every rule of traditional perfumery. Where other fragrances tried to replicate single flowers, No. 5 was abstract, synthetic, and complex—a composition rather than an imitation.

The development process revealed Chanel's perfectionism and her modernist sensibilities. Beaux presented her with a series of samples numbered one through five and twenty through twenty-four. She chose the fifth, partly for its scent but also, characteristically, for superstitious reasons—five was her lucky number. She launched it on the fifth day of the fifth month, establishing a mystique around the perfume that enhanced its appeal.

The bottle design was equally revolutionary. Rejecting the ornate flacons typical of the period, Chanel chose a simple rectangular form inspired by the whiskey decanter in Boy Capel's traveling case. The minimalist design, with its clean lines and simple black-and-white label, looked like a modernist sculpture. It proclaimed that the contents, not the container, were what mattered—though the container itself became iconic.

Marketing No. 5 required similar innovation. Rather than selling it through traditional perfumeries, Chanel introduced it at her rue Cambon boutique, spraying the fitting rooms and giving samples to her best clients. This strategy of creating desire through exclusivity would become a template for luxury marketing. She understood that women would want what other women coveted, that scarcity created value.

The perfume's success was phenomenal, eventually generating more revenue than her clothing. But it also led to one of Chanel's greatest business mistakes. In 1924, she signed a deal with Pierre and Paul Wertheimer, giving them 70% of the perfume company in exchange for their financing and distribution networks. She retained only 10%, with the remaining 20% going to a friend who brokered the deal. This arrangement, which she would battle for decades to change, taught her a harsh lesson about maintaining control of her creations.