A Scents of History
Beyond a simple scent, Chanel No 5 is an experience. Created as “a woman’s perfume with a woman’s scent,” floral notes are layered over a deeper, woody base to create a complex fragrance; one that feels feminine, intimate and timeless.
To mark the celebrated perfume’s centenary, creative director Patrice Leguéreau has created a high jewellery collection inspired by the fragrance. The first of its kind, it aims not only to serve as a tribute to the perfume, but also to be an embodiment of it.
Collection No 5 features 123 pieces of high jewellery, each inspired both by the notes within the fragrance as well the architectural features of the bottle. Itself a work of art, the Chanel No 5 bottle joined a permanent collection at the Museum of Metropolitan Art in New York in 1959. Five key components are reflected in the collection, including the stopper, the bottle, the sillage, the number and the flowers. These five elements are recreated in elaborate, ornate arrangements of gemstones.
Inspired by the sillage—the trail a spritz of perfume leaves on the body—the Golden Burst contains 350 carats of imperial topaz, recreating the gentle shimmer left behind by the perfume droplets. Other pieces in the collection include the Diamond Sillage necklace, a 10-carat flawless stone surrounded by smaller gems, creating a ‘ricochet’ effect and sense of movement, while the Blushing Sillage set features the delicate pairing of diamonds with rubies, garnets, yellow sapphires and pink and red spinels, the colours serving as a nod to the perfume’s amber hue.
Embodying the perfume’s signature olfactory experience, other pieces in the collection pay homage to the jasmine, ylang ylang and may rose notes. The Absolu No 5 Plastron set is decorated in an asymmetrical bouquet of white flowers set with diamonds.
The collection’s undeniable showstopping centrepiece is the 55.55-carat diamond necklace. Designed to be reminiscent of the bottle’s signature rectangular shape, and topped with a cabochon gemstone depicting the stopper, the D-flawless, emerald-cut diamond is encased in an 18-karat white gold bezel and embellished with round- and baguette-cut diamonds.