In 1921, Coco Chanel transformed the perfume world forever with the launch of Chanel No. 5. Created in partnership with perfumer Ernest Beaux, it was the first perfume to use lab-made ingredients rather than natural flower oils. The result? A complex fragrance that smelled like a real woman, rather than a rose, violet, or lily-of-the-valley.
A blueprint for the future, Coco was also the first to put her own name on a perfume bottle. Louis Vuitton hueres d’Absence, Miss Dior, and Gucci No. 1 soon followed – but the history of the fashion house fragrances began with Chanel.
