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Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service.

Today we're marking 100 years since the launch of the world's most famous perfume, Chanel Number

5. Eleanor Dresch reports. Perfume, Chanel Number Five.

Eleanor Dresch reports.

It is the summer of 1921, the height of the jazz age, there is a new scent hanging in the air.

The war is over and young women are enjoying freedom like never before.

And leading the way with her short hair and boyish style

is Coco Chanel, the influential fashion designer

and inspiration for the flapper girl. a acknowledged as one of the great designers of her period.

By then she's already, to give you an idea, owns a villa in the south of France and drives a little blue rolls

Royce.

Tila Maso, who has written a book on Chanel Number Five.

Cocoa Chanel Number Five.

Cocoa Chanel was not only a successful businesswoman,

she was a party girl, a celebrity in 1920s France.

She would go to parties and drink a huge amount of champagne and dance and things like the Charleston

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