For many, the first whiff of Chanel Nº5 is an introduction—even before a sense of the fancy flights of jewellery or haute couture—to a world of beauty, sophistication and elegance. The fragrance has a famous story, of course. Gabrielle Chanel, a believer in numerological superstition, used to hold her haute couture presentations on the fifth day of the fifth month of the year; when she created her first handbag, it was in the year 1955. And when it came to selecting the first fragrance for her maison, created by Ernest Beaux, she picked the fifth bottle and named it thus.
So it’s no surprise that the number five has tremendous significance at the house of Chanel. Considered a pinnacle of the maison’s codes, the number embodies the success and power of a modern woman as Gabrielle Chanel envisioned her, a woman who she once said must be “a part of what is to come”.
That spirit is suffused, naturally, in Collection Nº5, a line of fine jewellery dedicated to this enduring symbol. As jewellery, Chanel has transformed the number five and its associated scent into precious creations in gold and diamonds.
Nº5 the perfume was revolutionary in its time for an abstracted and unique scent profile. Beaux, the nose behind it, sought painstakingly and unrelentingly for the finest ingredients to compose the parfum: the lushness of Grasse rose tinged with raspberry notes, the indolic richness of jasmine and voluptuousness of ylang-ylang that is sweet yet bright, and through it all modernist aldehydes that sparkle and blend the notes into an abstracted bouquet. The result is that Nº5 is a scent you recognise as much by how it smells as the number that symbolises it.
This combination of sensuality and structure is expressed in Collection Nº5 fine jewellery through several details. The lucky number is shaped and curved like ribbons of gold, adorned or cradled in its curve with diamonds that recall the sparkling character of the scent. Diamond-set drop motifs evoke the rich amber liquid of the perfume, almost as if applied with a dab on the skin. And the famous rectangular bottle of the perfume, with its octagonal stopper that recalls Place Vendôme, is reflected in bevelled and mirror-polished edges on the numeral.
This year, the house of Chanel is introducing a new style to the collection. Dubbed the Eternal Nº5 Diamond Line, these designs are marked by a string of round diamonds and feature the signature diamond-set five and drop motifs. There is a necklace which can be worn either on a short length or as a choker, offered in beige, yellow and white gold, and which is set with a GIA-certified 0.30-carat diamond. There is also a version of the design as a bracelet, which features an invisible turning clasp on the number five motif that turns to unlock, as that other house icon, the 2.55 handbag, does.
The May 2025 ‘Sonder’ issue of Vogue Singapore is available online and on newsstands.
