It’s a code name, a number that resonates within each of us. N°5 is as iconic as the brand that produces it. It overturned perfume-making last century and brought it into a new era; now through Chanel’s newest N°5, the perfume is allowed to bring together knock-offs and the real deal, flowers and aldehydes. After all, isn’t this what the Mademoiselle’s style was all about?
Just like her, N°5 exudes an eternally enigmatic aura. N°5 is not just a perfume, but an olfactory heritage – feminine but less than would seem, the scent brings in its wake an unparalleled chic, handed down from generation to generation. This founding fragrance in the Chanel dynasty was first released long ago – three years after the scent’s creation in 1924, nose Ernest Beaux turned it into an Eau de Toilette. Today, it’s perfumer Olivier Polge’s turn to get a hold of the essence of the day and turn it into N°5 L’Eau. The result? A perfume that’s here, now, and always.
With extreme finesse, Olivier Polge has created a new equilibrium and ideal of freshness – by opting for aldehydes for the scent of orange peel, the nose has left out more metallic scents. As if opening up the insides of a complex watch, he dissected the original formula to take on each of the notes that composed the iconic N°5. Augmenting its zesty vibrations and dusting off the base, invigorating the wooded notes and sprucing things up with ylang ylang, turning up the jasmine and turning down the vanilla… this is how Olivier Polge completely reinvented N°5 to turn it into L’Eau.
To incarnate this new scent, Chanel chose Lily-Rose Depp – a new spirit of her time, graciously captured by talented photographer Karim Sadli. To be continued in early September…
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