N°19

Chanel unveiled N°19 in 1970. Henri Robert, the house’s perfumer, is its author; the number recalls Gabrielle Chanel’s date of birth, August 19, 1883, and the house calls it the last fragrance she launched and wore.

The other great number

Chanel recounts that the idea of a new women’s fragrance met with the reluctance of Gabrielle Chanel’s entourage, who did not believe a new scent could coexist with N°5. Stubborn, she commissioned from Henri Robert a composition with a stance as strong, in an entirely different spirit: a contrasting accord of green and powdery notes.

Gabrielle Chanel died in January 1971, a few months after the launch. Victoria, of Bois de Jasmin, dismisses the legend of a personal fragrance worn for years: the composition dates only from 1970, less than a year before her death.

What the house says

Chanel today presents N°19 as a bold fragrance with an assertive character, where the green, bursting notes of galbanum meet the powdery notes of iris pallida: a floral-woody-green that plays with contrasts, a rich, creamy floral variation in which the accord of rose and neroli is magnified.

The house reads in it an uncompromising composition, in the image of its creator, and takes up her line about being irreplaceable, which demands being different. The eau de parfum is sold in 100 ml, alongside the eau de toilette and N°19 Poudré, the variation by Jacques Polge launched in 2011.