Chanel Nº 5 turns 100: Perfume

The scent of my "grandma"

Ironically, in the year in which I moved to the big city as a freshman student, my grandma moved to Meppen, into her first apartment of her own. My home visits increased even more as a result, I was able to report to Grandma at lunchtime even after a long sleep, and she said: "Come on for dinner," and then there were either heavenly meatballs or small, breaded schnitzel, which her grandchildren had like that popular was that she always carried one around in her handbag wrapped in aluminum foil and asked conspiratorially on the strangest occasions: "Do you want a schnitzel?" By the way, we always wanted to. My oppa wasn't a strict grandpa, but a strict husband, and for my grandmother, who had never left the Ruhr area and never forgot her slang (she was always "the grandma"),a new era began in Meppen: she went to eat with her friends, to the café, played bingo, they went on day trips to the North Sea islands and ate crabs from the cutter. My grandma suddenly indulged in luxurious clothes. And you could also give her luxurious things. So she also changed her scent: Chanel Nº 5. When I put my nose to her neck, I would sniff and smell this well-known scent. My mother had worn it for a while, but changed it again because it had become too heavy for her . My grandmother was not an educated woman, it was due to the war, the circumstances, and being a woman. She had briefly worked as a shoe seller and was otherwise a housewife for her entire life, but you could talk to her really well. About God (it was okay for her that I don't have one), about studying (she wanted to know everythingeven if she didn't know a lot), I gave her the first stories to read (I wouldn't have entrusted them to anyone else) and about love (she knew right away that my current boyfriend was the right one for me, just like she was with mine Oppa knew immediately). When my grandma died, my mother had her Chanel Nº 5 in her hand. She couldn't take it, so she gave it to me. The perfume smelled of Omma, I hardly ever wore it, but sometimes I picked up the bottle and sniffed. It smelled of the luxury my grandma was allowed to indulge in late in life. It smelled like my grandma's first apartment of her own. It smelled of loss.that he was the right one for me, just like she had known immediately with my oppa). When my grandma died, my mother had her Chanel Nº 5 in her hand. She couldn't take it, so she gave it to me. The perfume smelled of Omma, I hardly ever wore it, but sometimes I picked up the bottle and sniffed. It smelled of the luxury my grandma was allowed to indulge in late in life. It smelled like my grandma's first apartment of her own. It smelled of loss.that he was the right one for me, just like she had known immediately with my oppa). When my grandma died, my mother had her Chanel Nº 5 in her hand. She couldn't take it, so she gave it to me. The perfume smelled of Omma, I hardly ever wore it, but sometimes I picked up the bottle and sniffed. It smelled of the luxury my grandma was allowed to indulge in late in life. It smelled like my grandma's first apartment of her own. It smelled of loss.that my grandma was allowed to indulge in late in her life. It smelled like my grandma's first apartment of her own. It smelled of loss.that my grandma was allowed to indulge in late in her life. It smelled like my grandma's first apartment of her own. It smelled of loss.

Against the post-emergence depression

Chanel Nº 5 will always be associated with Trang. Her sister got the trial in the luxury perfumery in the small Brandenburg town where we went to school. In chemistry class, while the others bent carefully over bubbling flasks, we sniffed the tube. What emerged from it was unlike anything on the shelves of the drugstores we usually strolled through. It was soft but radiant, warm but not cute. In our ignorance of the classroom, we missed the irony that the aldehydes that got up our noses were the result of the highest level of chemistry. For us, perfume became the holy grail of fragrances, it smelled of luxury and the big city and independence, of everything we could only dream of between post-war depression and unemployment.Trang moved west with her family in ninth grade. On the last day she gave me the perfume sample. At some point it broke in the backpack, and my pens smelled of ylang-ylang and iris for weeks, I would have liked to bathe in them. Years later, I was in Paris for an interview, had a few hours before the train returned, and bought the fragrance in a bottle. It was intended as a trophy, as a sign of having overcome the post-reunification depression. It became my winter scent, which is now associated with the image of the snow-covered roofs in the Marais and the glittering lights of the Champs-Élysées. How the aldehydes can still smell so modern even after a hundred years remains a mystery to Chanel. I hope Trang has a bottle in her bathroom too.On the last day she gave me the perfume sample. At some point it broke in the backpack, and my pens smelled of ylang-ylang and iris for weeks, I would have liked to bathe in them. Years later, I was in Paris for an interview, had a few hours before the train returned, and bought the fragrance in a bottle. It was intended as a trophy, as a sign of having overcome the post-reunification depression. It became my winter scent, which is now associated with the image of the snow-covered roofs in the Marais and the glittering lights of the Champs-Élysées. How the aldehydes can still smell so modern even after a hundred years remains a mystery to Chanel. I hope Trang has a bottle in her bathroom too.On the last day she gave me the perfume sample. At some point it broke in the backpack, and my pens smelled of ylang-ylang and iris for weeks, I would have liked to bathe in them. Years later, I was in Paris for an interview, had a few hours before the train returned, and bought the fragrance in a bottle. It was intended as a trophy, as a sign of having overcome the post-reunification depression. It became my winter scent, which is now associated with the image of the snow-covered roofs in the Marais and the glittering lights of the Champs-Élysées. How the aldehydes can still smell so modern even after a hundred years remains a mystery to Chanel. I hope Trang has a bottle in her bathroom too.Years later, I was in Paris for an interview, had a few hours before the train returned, and bought the fragrance in a bottle. It was intended as a trophy, as a sign of having overcome the post-reunification depression. It became my winter scent, which is now associated with the image of the snow-covered roofs in the Marais and the glittering lights of the Champs-Élysées. How the aldehydes can still smell so modern even after a hundred years remains a mystery to Chanel. I hope Trang has a bottle in her bathroom too.Years later, I was in Paris for an interview, had a few hours before the train returned, and bought the fragrance in a bottle. It was intended as a trophy, as a sign of having overcome the post-reunification depression. It became my winter scent, which is now associated with the image of the snow-covered roofs in the Marais and the glittering lights of the Champs-Élysées. How the aldehydes can still smell so modern even after a hundred years remains a mystery to Chanel. I hope Trang has a bottle in her bathroom too.which is now associated with the image of the snow-covered roofs in the Marais and the glittering lights of the Champs-Élysées. How the aldehydes can still smell so modern even after a hundred years remains a mystery to Chanel. I hope Trang has a bottle in her bathroom too.which is now associated with the image of the snow-covered roofs in the Marais and the glittering lights of the Champs-Élysées. How the aldehydes can still smell so modern even after a hundred years remains a mystery to Chanel. I hope Trang has a bottle in her bathroom too.