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Chanel No.5

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INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL SETTINGS / DESIGNER CASE STUDY RESEARCH TASK

FASHION DESIGN

Fashion design - brand : CHANEL

History of Chanel No.5

Chanel No.5 is the first perfume launched by French couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel in 5 May, 1921. The chemical formula for the fragrance was compounded by French-Russian chemist and perfumer Ernest Beaux. The number 5 to Coco Chanel means good luck. She released this perfume on the 5th day of the 5th month and it's main sent is May rose and jasmine. Coco's famous quote on Chanel No.5 is

“what is very important in a fragrance, is that the fragrance has some kind of mystery”

The Chanel No.5 journey starts of in the fields of May roses at the Mul family's generations-old flower farm, in Pégomas, France. The weather is perfect for growing and picking roses: fresh and not too warm. Every single rose that goes into each bottle of No. 5 parfum is harvested by hand right there. A 30mL bottle of No. 5 parfum contains 1,000 jasmine flowers and 12 May roses - all from this same field.

On average, it takes an hour and 20 minutes for a flower to go from being plucked in the field to being processed in the factory. Workers gently place the roses in the pockets of their aprons and transfer them into big burlap sacks; once these sacks are full, they’re loaded onto flatbed trailers and pulled by tractor back to the plant.

Jean-Francois Vieille, a cousin of Joseph Mul’s, oversees operations at the prettily landscaped Sotraflor plant, which lies just down the road from where the flowers are grown. Workers empty the burlap sacks from the field onto metal trays in a massive cylindrical vat called an extractor; once the stacked trays contain approximately 250 kilos of May roses, the vat is shut and the blooms are treated with 2,000 litres of hexane solvent in a series of three “washings.” After six hours, the waxy substance that remains is called concrete, which is mixed with alcohol and chilled to -15°C to achieve the perfect scent base in a process that takes approximately three days. The solution is then sent to the Chanel laboratories to be turned into the fragrance and bottled.

Jacques Polge is known as the current nose of Chanel. After studying literature and English at university in Aix-en-Provence, Polge returned to Grasse to learn the art of perfumery. He was hired as the nose of Chanel in 1978—only its third, after Ernest Beaux and Henri Robert—and has since created some of its most popular fragrances, including Coco and Égoïste. “There is a mystery about 5. Nobody knows exactly what is the smell of 5,” he says.

Once The solution is mixed to perfection by Jacques Polge then it is sent to the Chanel laboratories to be bottled and shipped to hundreds of selected stores worldwide. The Chanel stores have been stocking Chanel no.5 since 1921 and now most retail stores sell this product. It's easy to believe that a bottle of the worlds most iconic perfume sells every thirty seconds.

Some say that the art deco 1920s perfume bottle was based on a toiletry bottle carried by her lover, Boy Capel. Others claim that the bottle’s design was inspired by a whiskey bottle, while some say that the inspiration was drawn from glass pharmaceutical vials. Whatever the case may be, it can be stated with some certainty that Coco Chanel, in choosing the design for her perfume’s bottle, was looking for something simple, even clinical, to stand apart from the overstated designs customarily seen on the perfume counter. What she ended up with was something understated, elegant and striking in it's simplicity and certainly very different to perfume bottles that came before it.

Although it may have been Chanel’s intention to create a practically “invisible” bottle that would allow her perfume to “speak for itself,” the minimalistic design of the Chanel No. 5 bottle speaks volumes. From its starkly faceted form to the single white label emblazoned with crisp, black sans-serif text. It is an object which exemplifies the growing modernity of it's time. At its finest. there is no denying that Chanel No.5 is much more than a simple scent, it’s a powerful symbol of beauty, elegance, modernity and timelessly classical.
Chanel perfume is made like most other perfumes, so here is a detailed description of the design process and the technology used in the design and production.

The rose harvest takes place in May, usually over a span of 3 weeks. Flowers are picked by hand and extracted on site. The harvest is a very delicate process, each bag can only contain a certain number of flowers, so that they don’t crush one another and lose the oils.The next step is to extract the oils, which must take place immediately after picking. They start by putting layers of petals on a metal layered drum, ending up with layers of trays of flowers. The flowers are then immersed in a hexane solvent for five and a half hours in 30 degrees. Then the hexane is removed, and what is left over is a mushy floral wax made of the flowers oils. The oils are essential oils and fatty oils. The fatty oils need to be removed, so the wax is washed with ethanol leaving a material called absolute. This is the process for extraction of rose essence - the very same process is used for jasmine too. Distillation is also another way to get the scent from the flower, plant matter would be inside a big lambic in water and the vapour would rise up. You would then skim the oil off the top. Rose can be extracted or distilled. Rose water is what is left from the distillation process, as you lose some of the scent into the water. In absolute, which is made from the extraction process, you get all of the aromatic matter in the plant whereas in steam distillation, there is a lot left behind. A huge amount of plant matter is needed to get a small amount of essential oil, that is why perfume is so expensive. Floral essences are also very expensive because they are so labour intense and fragile, a drop of rose costs $1 and this price can fluctuate a lot depending on the harvest and demand.

In terms of ethics and social responsibility fashion has never had the best reputation. Chanel has recently "gone green" reportedly using eco-friendly materials and craftsmanship in many of the newer clothing pieces and accessories. Chanel had many charity events and fashion shows supporting a cause each year. The Chanel Pour Le Temps Charity Fashion Show is one one of the most anticipated events of the year. Chanel is more than just a luxury name, they have saved many Parisian ateliers from going bankrupt thanks to current head of Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld. Ethics in business maybe easy to define, but it can be hard to put into practice. Recently, Chanel No. 5 perfume has been reported as “not safe” by the Europe’s Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety. They found out three allergens in many of the brands fragrances including No.5 that can cause allergic reactions and skin conditions including eczema.

The glamour of Chanel No. 5 relies on clever brand marketing including wonderful fashion spectacles, evoking strong associations with luxury, refinement, sexual allure and mystery. It's a brand that never really goes out of fashion, even though it comes in an iconic bottle that is such a product of the 1920's Art Deco period.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

april, grace. "Chanel N°5 Chanel Perfume - A Fragrance For Women 1921". www.fragrantica.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 26 May 2016.

campbell, jude. "Chanel No 5: The Story Behind The Classic Perfume - BBC News". BBC News. N.p., 2016. Web. 26 May 2016.

chanel, coco. "CHANEL Official Website". CHANEL. N.p., 2016. Web. 26 May 2016.

dixon, joy. "Course:History 104/ Chanel No.5 - UBC Wiki". Wiki.ubc.ca. N.p., 2013. Web. 26 May 2016.

Helbig, Catherine. "Review Of Chanel No. 5 Perfume: Is It Worth The Hype?". About.com Style. N.p., 2013. Web. 26 May 2016.

otto, mara. "Chanel No. 5". Wikipedia. N.p., 2015. Web. 26 May 2016.

Raisbeck, Fiona. "Chanel No. 5: The Truth Behind The Iconic Fragrance". Marie Claire. N.p., 2013. Web. 26 May 2016.

reynolds, jordan. "Chanel S.A: Chapter 3: Ethics And Social Responsibility". Cocochanel05.blogspot.com.au. N.p., 2013. Web. 26 May 2016.

young, katy. "The History Of Chanel No.5 - Telegraph". Fashion.telegraph.co.uk. N.p., 2012. Web. 26 May 2016.

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Barthes, Roland (1977) Image-Music-Text.London: Fontana Press.

Bott, Danièle (2007) Chanel : collections and creations. London: Thames & Hudsons.

Bouvet, Vincent & Durozoi, Gérard (2010) Paris Between the Wars : Art, Style and
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