CHANEL N°5’s first appearance in a commercial was in 1953.

Then, in 1969, under the impulse of Chanel’s artistic director Jacques Helleu, the first scripted TV film for N°5 was shot by Richard Avedon in New York. This was the beginning of Chanel’s long-standing tradition of exclusive film-quality commercials.

Actress Nicole Kidman reportedly earned US$12mil (RM42mil) for her three-minute Chanel N°5 advert in 2004

In the 1980s, Ridley Scott produced his version featuring wide open spaces and pared-down architecture. In 1993, Bettina Rheims turned to Carole Bouquet to front the fragrance. Other film directors that have worked on N°5 include Jean-Paul Goude, Gerard Corbiau, Luc Besson, Baz Lurhmann and now, Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

In conjunction with her success in the film industry, Nicole Kidman became the face of Chanel N°5 in 2004. She starred in a campaign for television and print ads with Rodrigo Santoro, directed by Moulin Rouge! director Luhrmann to promote the fragrance during the holiday season.

The three-minute commercial produced for Chanel N°5 was said to have made Kidman the record-holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor after she reportedly earned US$12mil (RM42mil) for the three-minute advert.

Other muses for the fragrance in the early years included Candice Bergen, Suzy Parker, Ali McGraw, Lauren Hutton, Jean Shrimpton, Cheryl Tiegs, Catherine Deneuve and Estella Warren.

The fragrance boasts ylang ylang, neroli, aldehydes in its top notes while may rose and jasmine from Grasse form the middle notes, which eventually rest on a base of sandalwood, bourbon vetiver and bourbon vanilla.

Estella Warren was the face of Chanel N°5 in 1999.

Through the years, the scent has been reinvented a few times and since the original Parfum by Ernest Beaux in 1921, there was the Eau de toilette by Ernest Beaux (1924), Eau de parfum by Jacques Polge (1986) and Eau Premiere by Jacques Polge (2004).

The N°5 flacon was considered a 20th century icon and added to the permanent collection at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1959.

Of course, the most memorable fragrance story would have to be when actress Marilyn Monroe was asked by a journalist in 1954 what she wore to bed, and she replied, “Just a few drops of N°5 ...”