Chanel

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History of the house

Chanel's perfume activity began in 1921 in Paris (France), with the launch of Chanel N°5, the first fragrance commissioned by Gabrielle Chanel. The composition was entrusted to Ernest Beaux, a French perfumer born in Moscow and trained at the Russian house Rallet, who had been introduced to Gabrielle Chanel by Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich during her years in the Russian emigre circles of the early 1920s. The perfume was first sold from the couture boutique at 31 rue Cambon, in the 1st arrondissement of Paris.

In 1924, the dedicated company Les Parfums Chanel was created to manufacture and distribute the house's perfumes and cosmetics. The capital was divided between Pierre Wertheimer, owner of the cosmetics company Bourjois with 70 percent, Théophile Bader, founder of Galeries Lafayette with 20 percent, and Gabrielle Chanel with 10 percent. That legal structure, separate from the couture house, has anchored the perfume activity ever since.

Ernest Beaux signed several historic compositions for Chanel in the decade after N°5, including No 22 in 1922, Bois des Iles in 1926 and Cuir de Russie in 1927. He remained the in-house perfumer until his retirement. He was succeeded by Henri Robert, a French perfumer formerly at Coty, who took the role in the 1950s and signed Pour Monsieur in 1955 and Chanel No 19, launched in 1970.

In 1978, Jacques Polge, a French perfumer trained at Roure, succeeded Henri Robert as in-house perfumer. He held the role for thirty-seven years, until the end of 2014. For the house he signed Antaeus in 1981, Coco in 1984, Egoiste in 1990, Allure in 1996, Chance in 2002 and Les Exclusifs de Chanel, the niche collection of the house, launched in 2007. Two of its best known entries, Coromandel and 28 La Pausa, both appeared in 2007. Christopher Sheldrake joined Chanel as Director of Research and Development in 2005, and has co-signed several Exclusifs alongside the Polge family.

In 2013, Olivier Polge, son of Jacques Polge and a perfumer formerly at International Flavors and Fragrances, joined Les Parfums Chanel to prepare the transition. He took over as Director of Perfume Creation in early 2015. He signed Misia in 2015 and Boy in 2016 within Les Exclusifs, then Gabrielle Chanel in 2017, the first new feminine pillar of the house since Chance. Chanel is owned by Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, grandsons of Pierre Wertheimer, through the holding company Chanel Limited, based in London (United Kingdom). The house is not listed on any stock exchange.

Les Exclusifs de Chanel, the niche collection of Chanel

Launched in 2007, Les Exclusifs de Chanel is the confidential haute parfumerie collection of the house, set apart from the mainline pillars such as N°5, Coco and Chance. Conceived by Jacques Polge, then in-house perfumer, it gathered ten fragrances at launch and is sold only through Chanel boutiques, the official website and a tight selection of points of sale. That closed circuit places it among the most recognisable author collections produced by a major French house.

The collection blends two registers. It first reissues several historic compositions by Ernest Beaux, among them No 22 from 1922, Bois des Iles from 1926 and Cuir de Russie from 1927, long reserved for the house's own clientele. To these it adds new creations, each tied to a chapter of the Chanel story: an address, a date, a place dear to Gabrielle Chanel. The fragrances, first issued as eaux de toilette, have gradually been reformulated as eaux de parfum, in a sober clear flacon shared across the whole line.

Among the emblematic entries: Coromandel, a woody patchouli oriental, and 31 Rue Cambon, a mossless chypre, both from 2007, along with 28 La Pausa, an iris of the same year, and Bel Respiro. Several Exclusifs were co-signed by Christopher Sheldrake alongside the Polge family, including Coromandel. Sycomore, released in 2008, reworks a Chanel vetiver from the 1930s and stands as one of the reference vetivers of the segment, while 1932, inspired by Gabrielle Chanel's high jewelry collection, joined the series in 2013.

The olfactory direction of the collection follows that of the house. Jacques Polge signed its first wave from 2007 to 2014. Olivier Polge, his son and Director of Perfume Creation since 2015, took over and expanded it with Misia in 2015, Boy in 2016 and 1957 in 2019. Les Exclusifs remains the space where Chanel explores a freer, more material-driven perfumery, and it is through this collection that the house asserts its place in niche perfumery.

Notable perfumes

The Chanel perfume catalog spans more than a century and includes the mainline pillars, the masculines, and the confidential Les Exclusifs de Chanel collection launched in 2007. The eleven compositions below are historical anchors of the house, attributed to its four in-house perfumers across the period.

Olfactory signature

The olfactory signature of Chanel is historically defined by the use of aldehydes, synthetic molecules with a metallic and soapy character, dosed at unprecedented levels in Chanel N°5 from 1921. Ernest Beaux structured the composition with the C-10, C-11 and C-12 aldehydes as load-bearing pillars rather than discreet effects, which set the perfume apart from the figurative florals dominant at the time. The aldehydic gesture returned in No 22 and No 19, and remains a recognizable marker of the catalog.

Beyond the aldehydes, several material choices recur across a century of Chanel composition. Grasse jasmine and may rose hold a central place, with a long-term sourcing arrangement with the Mul family in Grasse (France) secured by the house since 1987. Iris, an expensive material, structures the powdery floral compositions such as No 19 and the Exclusif 28 La Pausa. The white floral bouquet, prominent in Gabrielle Chanel from 2017, remains a recurring territory of work for the in-house team.

Within the cartography of perfumery traditions, Chanel belongs to French perfumery and figures among the houses that fixed the floral aldehydic genre at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Les Exclusifs de Chanel collection, launched in 2007, extends that work in a confidential format distributed only through Chanel's own boutiques and selected channels. Christopher Sheldrake, R&D Director from 2005, played a structural role in the technical research that supports the collection.

Chanel structured the floral aldehydic genre with N°5 in 1921 and has held a single in-house perfumer line, from Ernest Beaux to Olivier Polge, across a century.

Key characteristics

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