Chanel No. 5

Born in 1921, Chanel No. 5 has never stopped being seductive. For a century, it has resisted the whims of fashion and the passing of time, as if Coco Chanel had found the formula for eternal femininity. What is the secret to its success? A sensual amber blend that is still today considered a milestone in perfumery. But it’s also about that magnificent square bottle, a masterpiece of simplicity that inspired the work of avantgarde artists. It is exhibited at MoMA as a work of art, a timeless icon that conquered Dalí and Andy Warhol.The history of the most famous perfume in the world lives on in the pages of this illustrated book, starting with the liaison between Coco and a Russian prince and ending with today. It tells the story of how the legend of a fragrance entered the collective imagination thanks to the words of Marilyn Monroe: “What do I wear to bed? Five drops of Chanel No. 5 and nothing else.” From that moment on, Maison Chanel has always chosen gorgeous stars with innate class for the ads of their iconic perfume, which are made even more fascinating by the great photographers who shoot these faces. They are faithful, like millions of other women, to the law of Coco Chanel: “A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future.”

Chiara Pasqualetti Johnson is a Milan-based journalist with a degree in Art History, she writes about travel, art and lifestyle for major Italian publications. She has edited books and series about modern and contemporary art. In 2018, she published The Most Influential Women of Our Time, an illustrated volume dedicated to the most influential female figures of the twentieth century with White Star Publishers. It has been translated into eight languages. In 2020, Coco Chanel. Revolutionary Woman , an illustrated biography about the queen of fashion, was published. It has been translated into Italian, English and German.