Making Of A Classic

What does it take for a perfume to transcend time? Unique ingredients? A legendary name? Gabrielle by Chanel has both.

- Antigone Schilling

Classic, did you say classic? In perfumery, a classic, inescapably, transcends time. It becomes a point of reference held in high regard for its pure finish, for the coming together of all its components directed by a gifted hand. It registers very well with its own time, it either jostles with it or, on the contrary, merges with it completely. Thanks to its intrinsic qualities, it can do nothing else but become relevant on a quasiuniversal dimension. A signature perfume, it is recognisable by its own personal, unique scent. And after, there either is or isn’t a transformation in its relationship with its era before it becomes timeless.

Each decade brings with is certain classics, that sometime slip into a slumber and leave our minds for brief moment. Some are continually visible through the passage of time and to them a brief disappearance is almost fatal. Chanel N°5 has remained the classic. This quasi centenary composition has continued to be the most famous in the world. “To create a perfume which is successful and that would also probably last,” says flacon designer, Pierre Dinand, “is like sitting at a slot machine in a casino and waiting as it will only dole the money out if all the four cherries or bananas align.” The fragrance, the name, the flacon and the message represent those four elements in this case.

The name

The original name, Gabrielle, nurtured the infancy and accompanied the adolescence of the couturier before Coco could invent and forge an audacious and out of the ordinary personality.