"If No. 5 has become a myth, it is partly due to its name,"
warns Eugénie Briot, historian and program manager at the Givaudan School of Perfumery.
A simple number, neutral and abstract. ”
At the beginning of the 20th century, the names chosen by perfumers rather evoke the raw materials to better exist in the imagination of consumers.
These are Wood Violet, Ancient Amber or Crimson Clover.
But in 1921, the perfumer Ernest Beaux submitted to Gabrielle Chanel two lists of samples numbered from 1 to 5 and from 20 to 24.
“To the question:“ What name should we give it? ”, Mademoiselle Chanel replied. : “I present my collection of dresses on the 5th of May, the 5th of the year, so we will leave him the number he is wearing and this number 5 will bring him luck”,
told the perfumer in 1946.
To read also:
Gabrielle Chanel and Ernest Beaux: the terrible parents of N ° 5
"If it has a very positive symbolism in different cultures, in particular of perfection, and does not pose a problem of translation, the figure is above all transparent in terms
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