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More than 100 years ago, in May 1921, Coco Chanel launched the scent that was destined to become the world\u2019s most famous \u2013 Chanel No 5. She had chosen it a year earlier, when she sniffed the contents of several small glass bottles that held different perfume samples. When she put the fifth one down, so the story goes, she turned to the man who had made them and said: \u201cLe voil\u00e0!\u201d And so history was made.<\/p>\n
Chanel had wanted to launch a perfume that was new and different. The scents then worn by smart women were pure flower essences such as gardenia, rose and jasmine, which were light and fresh \u2013 and quickly wore off. Only the cocottes (prostitutes) wore more sensual, longer-lasting perfumes, based on musk and civet, that added to their sexual allure.<\/p>\n
But Chanel believed that, three years after the end of the First World War<\/a>, a more liberated generation of women would welcome what their demi-mondaine sisters found so successful. Her chance to achieve this came about through one of her lovers, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, who introduced her to a master parfumeur \u2013 hence the glass phials.<\/p>\n On the podcast | Anne de Courcy discusses Coco Chanel, and some other famous faces who graced the French Riviera, during the interwar years and the era of Nazi occupation:<\/strong><\/p>\n