Elle India – July 2019

ELLE.IN 123 JULY

The May rose aka rosa centifolia

is peculiar to the Grasse region and is

central to the powdery-floral notes of

N^0 5. “It’s like making wine, each rose

will smell different depending on

the soil and climate. It’s important

to us that this scent stays the same,”

Polge says of the distinctive honeyed

sweetness of these roses.

For Mul’s team, it’s a race against

time to extract the essence before the

flowers wilt in the heat. He gives me

a handful of flowers and asks me to

press them in my fist—the sweetness

gave way to a subtle spice within minutes. And for this

reason, every hour, a truck delivers freshly harvested

flowers to a processing factory down the road. Here,

300 kg of flowers are loaded into a giant steel vat, triple

washed with an industrial solvent and mixed into a wax

(called concrete) that holds all the scents of the flowers.

The dense, amber-toned concrete is then locked away

like valuable treasure in large steel containers. The

math is simple: it takes 400kg of roses to produce one kg

of concrete, which yields 600gm of rose absolute. And

it’s this absolute that finds its way into a bottle on No5.

“We have a special bond with our raw materials,” says

Polge. “It’s these beautiful ingredients that make Chanel

so special.”

—MAMTA MODY

O

n a damp morning in May, Joseph Mul is

standing in the middle of his six hectare rose

field in Pégomas, France talking about the

correct way to handpick the May rose. He

selects the perfect bloom, and explains, “Put

one finger over, one under. Pinch

the calyx, then with a twist of your

wrist...snap.” I tried attempting it,

while being wary that the delicate

petals would crumble in my hand,

but Mul urges me with a gentle

smile, probably losing patience

with my sluggish speed. Just a few

meters away a team of 70 women are

swiftly moving through the bushes,

meticulously picking any rose that

had blossomed that morning. Each

year, they must hand pick 37 tonnes

of roses while they are in bloom in

the first three weeks of May.

Close to the world’s fragrance

captial Grasse, these fields aren’t

marked on any tourist map. The

farm has been a part of the Mul

family estate for five generations,

and for the past three decades it has

been exclusively cultivating flowers

for Chanel fragrances. In 1987, the

fashion house struck this partnership

when real-estate developers started

buying land around Grasse,

where the Muls grow the precious

flowers. “We have to preserve the

elements that are important to the

N^0 5 heritage,” says Olivier Polge,

Chanel’s head perfumer. Besides

the May rose, the Muls also grow

jasmine, iris, geranium and tuberose

for fragrances.

N

0

5 is almost 100 years

old but it’s still relevant. As

time passes it becomes even

more original because it

smells unlike anything else

— OLIVIER POLGE,

CHANEL’S HEAD PERFUMER

When Gabrielle Chanel

commissioned Ernest Beaux

to create a fragrance with the

most special raw ingredients,

he came to Grasse in search

of the perfect flowers

“

“

Olivier Polge (centre) with

Joseph Mul (right) and

Jean-François Vieille

Rosa centifolia

means the hundred

petalled rose

Gatherers fill their apron

pockets with fresh blooms

The powdery-floral

fragrance is the

quintessence

of femininity

The fragrant amber-

toned concrete