Chanel No. 5: Coalescing the Physical with the Effervescent

And, prey do tell, what is the purpose of a fragrance?  It is not to cleanse, but to adorn.  It is not to simplify, but to make lavish the simple.  It is not to separate the ordinary from the extraordinary, but to suffuse the ordinary with the extraordinary.  Such is the purpose of a fragrance.  

And, prey, do tell, how does Chanel No. 5 accomplish this?  

By showcasing the mundane:  Practically a lawyerly affair that outfit, a rigorous though dry enterprise.  An intelligence requiring profession though one lacking in colour and the lushness of springs and summers.  

Ah! But here you see, the mundane wrapped in the unabashed allure of a black cape and red lips.  There is a promise here.  And one must wonder, where shall this lead? 

To a dance upon the moon of course! (Can anyone say Bollywood next level?)

It’s a metaphorical embodiment of character, such a dance.  The woman who discards perfection (that dreary suit and those artificially lit, concrete avenues) as surmised by society (and societal expectations that cause to stop cold one’s blood flow, like a once free flowing river brought to a standstill by winter’s chill).   Instead she pursues, joyfully, the glitter and gold dust of dreams.  

She does not discard entirely what exists, for that which she seeks.  For even in the meditative, there is need for solidity to harness the flow of eternity.  Hence?

Choreography is crucial.

She knows that it is not a venture in pure madness, her pursuit of her dreams, but a carefully choreographed, though playful, endeavour.  An individual movement within an orchestral symphony.  And it is she who is the conductor.  For watch closely, she is the lead in this dance, Feminine and delicate.  Charming and in command.  Like a fine fragrance, neither understated nor overpowering. 

For a fine fragrance yields neither timidity nor audacity.  But instead offers…refinement.  Sophistication gracefully surrendering to the Self (with Chanel No. 5, not the other way around).  Consider, a gentleman frolicking and falling and dashing across the typography, yet a gentleman he remains.  A lady dancing to a tune all her own (sung in her very own voice), defying decorum, defining the dance. Yet a lady she remains.

And the night’s jewel, though burns with borrowed light, is powerful in its own right.  Commanding the tides by way of neither authority nor fear, but by magnetism.  Like our lady herein, in all her finery.  Like Chanel No. 5, and those who wear it, do not demand devotees.  And yet they gather them all the same. For you see: a fine fragrance commands by charisma.  

Pulls in the seeker by an unseen and unspoken allure.  But that which cannot be seen nor spoken, must be made known.  And so the allure takes on shape to ignite a quiet wonder:  bold lips; sparkling sequins; shining, flirtatious eyes, direct and coy by turns; a fairy voice distilled into an almost shimmering quality.  For a fragrance is an evocation of the ethereal. And how better to capture the ethereal than a gaze that settles only to alight; garments that capture and reflect light; and the breath of joy amidst sophistication.  All immersed in softened, glittering moonlight.

And that sweet ode, to which they dance?  As pristine as youth itself.  An ode to imperfection.  A blissful reprieve from the expectations of (dreary) grandeur commiserating on earth below.  

It is not glory this fragrance aspires to, but joy.  Culminating in the final moments, in an ascent, the coalescing of the physical with the effervescent.  

To adorn.  To make lavish the simple.  To suffuse the ordinary with the extraordinary.  Such is the purpose of Chanel No. 5.