Ernest Beaux - Controversies

Controversies

Since Coco Chanel's breakthrough as couturier only took place in 1925 with her design of the Little black dress, she felt taken advantage of by Wertheimer, and after World War II fought with Beaux against her own perfumes in creating competitive fragrances under her own name, for instance »Mademoiselle Chanel Nº 1« (1946), sold exclusively in her own shops. In France this was prohibited by judicial action for counterfeiting, but Saks Fifth Avenue in New York and Neiman Marcus in Texas kept distributing, and when customers reacted puzzled, Wertheimer gave in and raised Coco Chanels share in the company. In 1947, Wertheimer and Chanel made peace, and when Chanel wanted to resurrect her couture house, he even backed her up financially. "Although she made a fortune on the perfume, throughout her lifetime she was convinced that the deal had been heavily weighted in favor of the perfumer and that she had been cheated out of a huge sum of money,"

His former employer Chiris was not happy to Beaux leave with the formula to Perfumes Chanel, and thus asked Vincent Roubert, who had replaced Beaux at Chiris, to make in 1926 and own adaptation of the »Bouquet de Catherine«, which actually was going back even to Rallet Perfumes. The result was »L' Aimant« (Coty, 1926), which initially indeed threatened the success of »Chanel Nº 5«. »L' Aimant« (Coty, 1926) was a near copy of »Chanel Nº 5«, but Perfumes Chanel revenched in hiring Jean Helleau, the designer of the first »L' Aimant« bottle, and in copying his design for the flacon of »Chanel Nº 5«.

"Pepper and salt don't taste pleasantly when taken alone, but they enhance the taste of a dish," Beaux said in an 1953 interview with Time. The article continued: "Beaux gives each essence the nose test because some scents will last after a week of exposure, while others, for some unknown reason, will last only a few hours. When he is creating a new perfume he does no sniffing, simply jots down a formula, claims he knows exactly what the final result will smell like. Says Beaux: “It is like writing music. Each component has a definite tonal value ... I can compose a waltz or a funeral march.” At the time of the interview, Beaux was not working on any new perfumes, according to the head of the Chanel fragrance house, Pierre Wertheimer.

Another famous quote from Ernest Beaux highlights the importance of synthetic perfumery raw materials: “The future of perfumery is in the hands of chemists,” he said. "We'll have to rely on the chemists to find new chemicals if we are to make new and original accords.”