Few scents conjure up pure unbridled glamour quite like Chanel No 5, and even fewer have done so without diminishing in popularity over the course of 100 years. Even more rare: it smells the same now as the very first Chanel No 5 did back in 1921, when Ernest Beaux handed Coco Chanel that first bottle that was signed off bearing Coco’s lucky number of 5.
Today, it’s probably the most well-known women’s perfume going, owing some of its fame to its sheer endurance and the rest of it to wearers who’ve declared it their favourite, most notably Marilyn Monroe, who in 1960 confirmed in an interview with Marie Claire that it was all she wore to bed.
