The Number

To mark N°5’s one hundred years of celebrity, High Jewellery and fragrance meet for the first time—two stars of the CHANEL universe conjoined under the elusive number. “When I began this collection, I started with the graphic number five,” says Patrice Leguéreau, Director of the Fine Jewellery Creation Studio. “Rather than draw with pencil in my sketch book, I worked with a large brush and paper, and using black paint, I created the number with bold, energetic strokes.”

On 5 May, 1921, Gabrielle Chanel launched a fragrance she called N°5. Although perceived by many as not a name at all, Mademoiselle desired a moniker that need not be translated yet have universal meaning: in numerology, the number five happens to mean freedom. In 2021, a 5.21-carat emerald-cut stone fashioned as a shimmering stopper has been notably cut to this N°5 launch date. “I didn’t just wish to translate the fragrance, but to write the N°5 story in High Jewellery,” says Patrice Leguéreau, “imbuing the fabled number throughout the collection in form, but also in spirit.”

In form, the number five is a study in contradictions: a bold, geometric top on a languidly looping base, allowing for playful interpretation. At the hand of the High Jewellery artisans, the sumptuous fluidity of a couture ribbon forms the iconic symbol, made malleable and weightless with remarkable savoir-faire. In homage, but also for luck, Patrice Leguéreau has imagined the mystic number in five High Jewellery motifs, the spirit of nonconformity echoing throughout.