Chanel N°5

Chanel N°5.

That was the one, and only, fragrance available in the opulent dressing area just off the Founders Room in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. During its cinematic heyday, it was here that the Academy Awards were held for nearly three decades. When Hollywood starlets emerged from the dressing area having had their hair and makeup fine-tuned, a bottle of Chanel N°5 sat waiting for them on the sideboard. 

Chanel N°5, the brainchild of Coco Chanel, was launched on the fifth day of the fifth month in 1921. It was an immediate sensation, foregoing the traditional single-flower formulations used by most fragrances of its time.. Famously worn by Marilyn Monroe, the brand has been represented by such luminaries as Catherine Deneuve, Nicole Kidman, and most recently, Margot Robbie.

While on a recent tour of the Pavilion, a docent told me of the ubiquitous presence of Chanel at the Oscars. But there is a more complicated story underneath all that glitz and glamour. The founder's legacy also includes an affair with a Nazi agent and evidence of antisemitic leanings. In an ironic twist, Chanel, later shepherded by Karl Lagerfeld and now owned by the Wertheimer family, recently made a multi-million-dollar donation towards humanitarian efforts for Israel following the attack on October 7, 2023. 

During a week in which we mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, it's important to remember that all kinds of masks, perfume and otherwise, hide, but do not erase, what lies beneath. 

"Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides." — Andre Malraux, novelist and member of the French Resistance