In 1921 Gabrielle Chanel was handed a row of numbered sample vials and asked to choose. She picked the fifth. That scent became Chanel No. 5, and the number stayed as the name.
The formula was the work of Ernest Beaux, a French-Russian perfumer who built it around aldehydes, the sparkling synthetic materials that gave No. 5 its abstract, soapy-clean lift. It did not copy a single flower, and that was the point. The perfume helped start the modern era of scent.
Chanel then did something few fashion houses managed. It kept making perfumes that lasted. For that you can thank two men named Polge. Jacques Polge ran the house's fragrance studio from 1978 to 2015. He made Coco Mademoiselle in 2001, the bright patchouli and orange that became a default gift for a whole generation, and Bleu de Chanel in 2010, the woody-aromatic that has sat near the top of the men's charts ever since.
When Jacques stepped down in 2015, his son Olivier Polge took the chair. The house passed, in effect, from father to son, which is rare in an industry that swaps perfumers like football managers.
One thing the adverts leave out. The people who make these scents buy from the same materials houses as everyone else. Bleu de Chanel is a fine woody-aromatic, but its shape, bergamot and pink pepper on top, cedar and a clean amber underneath, is not a magic trick. A skilled lab can follow it very closely, and plenty do.
You can wear that DNA for a fraction of the counter price. Bleu Royale is our take on Bleu de Chanel and KOKO our take on Coco Mademoiselle, both UK-made at 35% concentration. See the full Chanel collection, or read the best Bleu de Chanel dupes in the UK.
