An expedition to Grasse, the heart of French perfumery, uncovers the secrets behind one of the world’s most-sought-after scents.
Spritz a fine mist of Chanel No. 5 and you won’t be reminded of a flower. Launched in 1921, the fragrance famously doesn’t evoke one. Rather, one might say it smells like abstract art — a composition beyond nature, a rebellion against the demure (and, frankly, dull) lily of the valley-centric zeitgeist of its time. Instead, it produces an intense hit of powdery, soapy cleanness, which is the result of a lavish dose of aldehydes.
To borrow Coco Chanel’s blunt brief to her genius perfumer, Ernest Beaux: It smells like the scent of a woman and nothing else. However, it’s not a contradiction to say that the fragrance couldn’t be what it is without flowers — most crucially its signature jasmine, and not from just anywhere.
As for how Chanel No. 5 is made, the parfum, exactly as it exists today, is only possible because of what blossoms under the cover of night on one very specific, inconspicuous 20-hectare farm — findable only if you know where to look — in the luminous village of Pégomas (population: around 8,000), in the arrondissement of Grasse, the world’s long-reigning perfume capital.
“This jasmine has a specific scent that cannot be reproduced elsewhere,” explains Joseph Mul, patriarch of the family-owned estate that has exclusively supplied Chanel for decades. A fourth-generation flower farmer, he exudes the enthusiasm you’d expect from someone who has spent his life nurturing delicate plants, encouraging us to lean in for a whiff even though the smooth, sweet notes are already perfuming the open air.
Of course, jasmine isn’t rare, and in the world of perfumery, Egypt and India cultivate the overwhelming majority. The exotic blooms, while lovely in their own right and cheaper to obtain, are wholly different from their Grassegrown…
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