Aesthetic inspiration[edit]
Traditionally, fragrance worn by women had adhered to two basic categories: respectable women favored the pure essence of a single garden flower, and sexually provocative perfumes heavy with animal musk or jasmine were associated with women of the demi-monde, prostitutes or courtesans.[2] Chanel felt the time was right for the debut of a scent that would epitomize the flapper and would speak to the liberated spirit of the 1920s.[citation needed]
Iconography of the No. 5 name[edit]
At the age of twelve, Chanel was handed over to the care of nuns, and for the next six years spent a stark, disciplined existence in a convent orphanage, Aubazine, founded by Cistercians in the 12th century.[3] From her earliest days there, the number five had potent associations for her. For Chanel, the number five was especially esteemed as signifying the pure embodiment of a thing, its spirit, its mystic meaning. The paths that led Chanel to the cathedral for daily prayer were laid out in circular patterns repeating the number five.[4]
Her affinity for the number five co-mingled with the abbey gardens, and by extension the lush surrounding hillsides abounding with cistus, a five-petal rose.[5]
In 1920, when presented with small glass vials containing sample scent compositions numbered 1 to 5 and 20 to 24 for her assessment, she chose the fifth vial. Chanel told her master perfumer, Ernest Beaux, whom she had commissioned to develop a fragrance with modern innovations: "I present my dress collections on the fifth of May, the fifth month of the year and so we will let this sample number five keep the name it has already, it will bring good luck."[6]
Design of the bottle[edit]
Chanel envisioned a design that would be an antidote for the over-elaborate, precious fussiness of the crystal fragrance bottles then in fashion popularized by Lalique and Baccarat. Her bottle would be "pure transparency ...an invisible bottle." It is generally considered that the bottle design was inspired by the rectangular beveled lines of the Charvet toiletry bottles, which, outfitted in a leather traveling case, were favored by her lover, Arthur "Boy" Capel.[7] Some say it was the whiskey decanter he used that she admired and wished to reproduce in "exquisite, expensive, delicate glass."[8]
The first bottle produced in 1919 differed from the Chanel No.5 bottle known today. The original container had small, delicate, rounded shoulders and was sold only in Chanel boutiques to select clients. In 1924, when "Parfums Chanel" incorporated, the glass proved too thin to sustain shipping and distribution. This is the point in time when the only significant design change took place. The bottle was modified with square, faceted corners.[9]
In a marketing brochure issued in 1924, "Parfums Chanel" described the vessel, which contained the fragrance: "the perfection of the product forbids dressing it in the customary artifices. Why rely on the art of the glassmaker ...Mademoiselle is proud to present simple bottles adorned only by ...precious teardrops of perfume of incomparable quality, unique in composition, revealing the artistic personality of their creator."[9]
Unlike the bottle, which has remained the same since redesigned in 1924, the stopper has gone through numerous modifications. The original stopper was a small glass plug. The octagonal stopper, which became a brand signature, was instituted in 1924 when the bottle shape was changed. The 1950s gave the stopper a bevel cut and a larger, thicker silhouette. In the 1970s the stopper became even more prominent, but in 1986 it was re-proportioned so its size was more harmonious with the scale of the bottle.[10]
The "pocket flacon" devised to be carried in the purse was introduced in 1934. The price point and container size were developed to appeal to a broader customer base. It represented an aspirational purchase, to appease the desire for a taste of exclusivity in those who found the cost of the larger bottle prohibitive.[11]
The bottle, over decades, has itself become an identifiable cultural artifact, so much so that Andy Warhol chose to commemorate its iconic status in the mid-1980s with his pop art, silk-screen, Ads: Chanel.[12]
Battle for control of Parfums Chanel[edit]
In 1924, Chanel made an agreement with the Wertheimer brothers, Pierre and Paul, directors of the eminent perfume house Bourjois since 1917, creating a corporate entity, "Parfums Chanel." The Wertheimers agreed to provide full financing for production, marketing and distribution of Chanel No. 5. The Wertheimers would receive a seventy percent share of the company, and Théophile Bader, founder of the Paris department store, Galeries Lafayette, would receive twenty percent. Bader had been instrumental in brokering the business connection by introducing Chanel to Pierre Wertheimer at the Longchamps races in 1922.[13] For ten percent of the stock, Chanel licensed her name to "Parfums Chanel" and removed herself from involvement in all business operations.[14] Displeased with the arrangement, Chanel worked for more than twenty years to gain full control of "Parfums Chanel." She proclaimed that Pierre Wertheimer was "the bandit who screwed me." [15]
World War II brought with it the Nazi seizure of all Jewish owned property and business enterprises, providing Chanel with the opportunity to gain the full monetary fortune generated by "Parfums Chanel" and its most profitable product, Chanel No. 5. The directors of "Parfums Chanel," the Wertheimers, were Jewish, and Chanel used her position as an "Aryan" to petition German officials to legalize her right to sole ownership.
On 5 May 1941, Chanel wrote to the government administrator charged with ruling on the disposition of Jewish financial assets. Her grounds for proprietary ownership were based on the claim that "Parfums Chanel" "is still the property of Jews" and had been legally "abandoned" by the owners.[16]
"I have, an indisputable right of priority ...the profits that I have received from my creations since the foundation of this business ...are disproportionate ...[and] you can help to repair in part the prejudices I have suffered in the course of these seventeen years."[17]
Chanel was not aware that the Wertheimers, anticipating the forthcoming Nazi mandates against Jews had, in May 1940, legally turned control of "Parfums Chanel" over to a Christian, French businessman and industrialist Felix Amiot. At the end of World War II, Amiot turned "Parfums Chanel" back into the hands of the Wertheimers.[18][19]
Chanel maneuvers for control[edit]
Coco Chanel, 1920
By the mid-1940s, the worldwide sale of Chanel No. 5 amounted to nine million dollars annually; some two hundred forty million dollars a year in twenty-first century valuation. The monetary stakes were high and Chanel was determined to wrest control of "Parfums Chanel" from the Wertheimers. Chanel’s plan was to destroy customer confidence in the brand, tarnish the image, crippling its marketing and distribution. She let it be known that Chanel No.5 was no longer the original fragrance as created by "Mademoiselle Chanel," it was no longer being compounded according to her standards and what was now being offered to the public was an inferior product, one she could no longer endorse. Further, Chanel announced she would be making available an authentic Chanel No. 5, to be named "Mademoiselle Chanel No.5," [20] offered to a group of select clients.[21] Chanel possibly was unaware that the Wertheimers, who had fled from France to New York in 1940, had instituted a process whereby the quality of Chanel No. 5 would not be compromised. In America the Wertheimers had recruited H. Gregory Thomas as European emissary for "Parfums Chanel." Thomas’ mission was to establish the mechanisms required to maintain the quality of the Chanel products, particularly its most profitable fragrance, Chanel No. 5. Thomas worked to ensure that the supply of key components, the oils of jasmine and tuberose, obtained exclusively in the French town of Grasse, remain uninterrupted by warfare. Thomas was later promoted to position as president of Chanel US, a distinction he held for thirty-two years.[20]
Chanel escalated her game plan by instigating a lawsuit against "Parfums Chanel" and the Wertheimers. The legal battle garnered wide publicity. The New York Times reported on 3 June 1946:
"The suit asks that the French parent concern [Les Parfums Chanel] be ordered to cease manufacture and sale of all products bearing the name and restore to her the ownership and sole rights over the products, formulas and manufacturing process," on grounds of "’inferior quality.’" [21]
The Wertheimers were cognizant of Chanel’s far from exemplary social entanglements and conduct during the Nazi occupation. The progress of legal proceedings would of necessity lead to revelations best kept from public scrutiny. Forbes magazine summarized the Wertheimer’s dilemma: [it is Pierre Wertheimer’s worry] how "a legal fight might illuminate Chanel’s wartime activities and wreck her image—and his business." [22]
Ultimately, the Wertheimers and Chanel came to an accommodation, re-negotiating the original 1924 contract. On 17 May 1947, Chanel received wartime profits of Chanel No. 5 in an amount equivalent to some nine million dollars in twenty-first century valuation, and in the future her share would be two percent of all Chanel No. 5 sales worldwide. The financial benefit to her would be enormous. Her earnings would be in the vicinity of twenty-five million dollars a year, making her at the time one of the richest women in the world.[23] The new arrangement also gave Chanel the freedom to create new scents, which would be independent of "Parfums Chanel," with the proviso that none would contain the appellation number "5" —she never acted on this opportunity.[20]
Advertising and marketing[edit]
1920s and 1930s[edit]
Chanel’s initial marketing