Chanel No. 19 Chanel No. 19 Chanel No. 19 perfume was first marketed in 1971. The number 19 was chosen to commemorate Coco Chanel's birthday, 19 August. The perfume was launched a year before she died. The scent was created by Henri Robert. No. 19 is a balsamic-green scent, compared to the aldehydic Chanel No. 5, the floral Chanel No. 22 and ambrette-green Chanel No. 18. The pure perfume and eau de parfum have a slight greenish tint, and the eau de toilette is pale green. In a recent (c.2000) revamp of No. 19, Chanel has drastically reduced the products available: in the
Coco Chanel In 1939, at the beginning of World War II, Chanel closed her shops, maintaining her apartment situated above the couture house at 31 Rue de Cambon. She said that it was not a time for fashion; as a result of her action, 4,000 female employees lost their jobs. Her biographer Vaughan suggests that Chanel used the outbreak of war as an opportunity to retaliate against those workers who, lobbying for higher wages and shorter work hours, had closed her business operation against her will during a general labor strike in France in 1936. In closing her couture house, Chanel made