Today is the Five Five. May Fifth. 05.05. These days only happen twelve times a year. So you see, they seem sort of special. You know, in July it is the seventh, in March, the third. And on.
Yes, the Five Five.
I think one smart woman took advantage of this date. That was Coco Channel.
Back in 1920, she released her new perfume — the tantalizing Channel No. 5 on May 5th. Five on five, five.
But while we are on it, I don’t know if it is tantalizing or not. I have never smelled Channel No. 5, not one little whiff. It could smell like donkey turds for all I know.
But droves of people seem to have liked it over the years, so I’m guessing it is somehow pleasing to the nose. Coco, from a distance, seemed pretty savvy to me. Enough so, to make some nice perfume on this good date.
First of all, let us forgive her. She was French. Her full name was Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel. She was born unto this world on August 19, 1883, and left again some 87 years later on January 10, 1971. She was born to a dirt-poor family. Her parents were nomadic, traveling from town to town as street vendors. Her mother died young. Somehow, she overcame all those challenges and became one of the world’s most successful fashion designers and businesswoman.
She was the founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, which wasn’t easy to do in the early 1900s. People loved the “look” she created. It was sort of a “sporty, casual chic” as the brand new feminine standard of style.
Instead of women being all pent up in the old “corseted” hourglass, she brought on a more free and easy style. But she didn’t stop with clothing. She moved on to jewelry, handbags, and fragrance. So there it is.
There always seems to be a chink in the armor, though, with anyone wearing said armor. With her, it began with rumors arose about her activities during the German occupation of France during World War II. That did not fly so well with her fellow countrymen of France.
Coco was criticized for being too close to the Germans to boost her career. The one, in particular, was with a German diplomat. His name was Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage.
You heard me. Dincklage. It sounds like something from a Mel Brooks film.
Anyway, after the war, Coco was interrogated about her relationship with von Dincklage. But guess who stepped in and kept her from being charged for collaborating with the Dinck? Winston Churchill himself intervened.
Even still, she spent several years in Switzerland after the war before she felt it was okay to return to Paris. How does the old saying go? Out of sight, out of mind. So when she returned, she revived her fashion house.
But here is the thing. In 2011, a man named Hal Vaughan got a hold of a lot of newly declassified documents. Those papers revealed that Coco Chanel had collaborated directly with the Nazi intelligence service, the Sicherheitsdienst. Vaughan wrote a book about the activities, I’m told.
Anyway, it is five, five, for Chanel No. 5.
I don’t have room for all her life stories here, but it ended sadly. Coco Chanel had become tyrannical and extremely lonely in her later years. Then in 1971, at the age of 87, she was no longer feeling at the top of her game. Ailing, in ways.
One day, she went out for a drive. January 9, it was. Shortly into the drive, she began feeling ill, came home, and went to bed early. She looked at her maid and told her, “You see, this is how you die.” Those would be her final words.
Coco Chanel died the next morning at the Hotel Ritz, where she had resided for more than 30 years. Sometimes the purpose of things evades me. Other times, it is perfectly clear. And so it goes.
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If you enjoy the fragrance of a rose, you must accept the thorns which it bears.
— Isaac Hayes
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Even if the flower is no more, still, the fragrance can be.
— Jaggi Vasudev
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My life didn’t please me, so I created my life.
— Coco Chanel
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Five. Five. Five. Smell it.
