New by Chanel: No.19's Flanker (2010), No.5 Dons Smart Garbs {Fragrance News} {New Perfume}
Rather discreetly one must say, yet there it is, Chanel have launched a new flanker to the classic No. 19 created originally by perfumer Henri Robert in 1970-1971, a year before or so Gabrielle Chanel (1883-1971) chose to pass away. This year in 2010, officially a new eau de parfum concentration has been put together. But it is more than a put-together as the brand specifies to their French customers (but not their American ones), that it goes beyond a mere, higher concentration of essences that were bottled this time...
"The Eau de Parfum for the No. 19 is not just a simple change in concentration but an olfactory reinterpretation which remains faithful to the spirit and the scented trail of the original composition."
From the original French on the brand's website:
"L'Eau de Parfum N°19 n'est pas simplement un changement de concentration mais une réinterprétation olfactive qui reste fidèle à l'esprit et au sillage de la composition d'origine."
I smelled the edp version but without wearing it and it evoked without difficulty for me the No. 19 of the past. It is a qualitative reinterpretation. I would need to study it to be able to say more about the nuances of the reformulation. I call it a flanker but please note that Chanel is more vague and ambiguous about the status of the new perfume. It is definitely not however, shall we call it, a "creative flanker" such as Cristalle Eau Verte, which takes poetic license with the original.
• You can take above a better look at the new conditioning for the No.5 Eau de Toilette, which we announced earlier on, with fuller details. It stands as an attempt at bridging the worlds of Les Exclusifs and mainstream Chanel via a hint at material luxury (the sensual pleasure of the Chanel Exclusif click!)
• The house has also released new purse sprays for the No.5 for your nomadic needs.
I think the Chanel website means that the edp is a reinterpretation of the parfum extrait, not a reinterpration of the edp created in 1980's. Just as N°5 smells different in every concentration... No?
Hmm, I'd need to research this further. If you look at Chanel No. 5, each concentration offers a different balance of facets, thus changing the personality of the scent more than if it smelled just more intense or less intense. This is what their comment means in the first place.
Theoretically and classically, perfumers consider/ed the extrait as the original embodiment of a formula, but I wonder if it is always true these days and I would guess most probably not as marketing would have them be finely tuning the reach of a scent vs. imposing it as a portable oeuvre d'art or luxury item for an elite.
I am suddenly realizing that, for some reason, I did not pay attention to the edp in the past. I wore it in the summer and it was always the edt. When I discovered its smell in the 80s in a tropical country and got to wear it later, it was the edt.
But you're right, even the US market got the EDP version in the 80s (just saw a 1989 ad introducing it.)