Chanel No. 31 c1920 and Mademoiselle Chanel 31 rue Cambon c1945

Chanel No. 31: launched around 1921, created by Ernest Beaux.

Chanel No 31: possibly relaunched in 1933.

On Thursday, March 04, 1948, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for MADEMOISELLE CHANEL 31 RUE CAMBON by Chanel, Inc., NEW YORK.

First Use Anywhere: 2/17/1948
First Use In Commerce: 2/17/1948

The USPTO has given the MADEMOISELLE CHANEL 31 RUE CAMBON trademark serial number of 71551168 in 1950. The federal status of this trademark filing expired in 1992.

Mademoiselle Chanel No. 31 rue Cambon: launched in 1945. Became Coco Chanel's signature scent following the split from the Wertheimer's.

Unhappy with the quality of the perfumes that the Wertheimers were selling in her name through their newly minted Chanel, Inc. company in the USA, in 1945, Gabrielle took matters into her own hands.

After finding a small perfumer in Switzerland to produce her new perfumes using the last of her raw materials, she started a new perfume line on her own and began making a line of competitive perfumes, based on the originals. She named them "Mademoiselle Chanel No.5", , “Mademoiselle Chanel 31 rue Cambon”. The perfumer also made new versions of Ernest Beaux’s creations and renamed them “Mademoiselle Chanel Bois des Iles” and “Mademoiselle Chanel Cuir de Russie.”

Gabrielle Chanel gave lawyer, Rene de Chambrun several tiny bottles to give to his wife. She then asked if it were possible that she could make these up from her own home, and Chambrun declared that she could, provided that she could only give them as “gifts”. Chambrun’s wife enjoyed the perfume and a Russian “nose” also agreed and they both deemed the perfume “exquisite”. A Swiss perfumer was instructed by Gabrielle to make up a hundred bottles of her various perfumes.

To get around the trademark for the bottle design, she used cylindrical bottles with sloping shoulder and topped with disk shaped, ground glass stoppers adorned with a red circular label bearing a large C for Chanel. These same bottles (sans Chanel labels) were also used by D’Orsay for several of their perfumes. To decorate the bottles Gabrielle used a eye catching red label with white lettering, in a simplistic font, true to her style of minimalism.

She then started selling the perfumes in her boutique. Chambrun mistakenly believed that she was permitted to do so in her contract with the Wertheimers. The Wertheimers disagreed and claimed she was counterfeiting their product of which they owned the trademark names. In 1946, a lawsuit between her and the Wertheimers ensued. They came to her boutique and seized all of her bottles labeled "Mademoiselle Chanel No. 5". A new settlement was reached and, she was allowed to sell perfumes under the name "Mademoiselle Chanel" but was not allowed to use the number 5 in conjunction with any of her perfumes.

Keeping her promise to Chambrun and Maitre Chresteil, president of the French Bar Association, she prefixed each perfume with “Mademoiselle Chanel” and sent them as gifts to her friends, Hollywood’s own Samuel Goldwyn and owners of the two most prolific department stores in New York Neiman Marcus and Bernard Gimbel.

She ceased the production of these perfumes in 1947. Who was the Swiss perfumer? No one knows. Gabrielle never revealed his name publicly.

So what does it smell like? Notes of oakmoss, jasmine and roses. This was later reformulated by Henri Robert and christened Chanel No. 19 and launched in 1970 as a tribute to Coco Chanel on the occasion of her birthday.

This is a different perfume than the newly made 31 rue Cambon: created in 2007 by Jacques Polge and Christopher Sheldrake. Notes: Iris, rose, jasmine, sandalwood, bergamot, black pepper, patchouli, citrus, labdanum

The Best French Short Stories of ... and the Yearbook of the ... - Page 23, 1923:

"They were like that cursed perfume — mixture No. 31, which he got from Chanel's — which always floated round Gerard. . . . Ah, what a nuisance!"

Photo from Elysium.

Photo from Elysium.

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Jasmin de Chanel c1933

Jasmin by Chanel: launched in 1933, created by Ernest Beaux.

Info on Chanel Perfume Bottles

Chanel perfume bottles...

• All Chanel perfumes appear in the signature Chanel bottle based on the original Sem design. 
• All Chanel bottles have been made by Verreries Brosse and usually the bases will be embossed with a VB or BR logo. 
• From the 1920s until 1951, the small O used in any perfume beginning with No. (number), will have a dot underneath it, after 1951, the dot disappears. 
• From 1970-1987, all Chanel's pure parfums will be marked with the word Perfume underneath the fragrance's name. Starting in 1988, we see the word Parfum used instead.
• Starting in 1987, the words Paris/New York are added to Eau de Parfums.
• Black striped boxes used up until 1958.
• The words "New York Distributor" was used from the late 1940s and into the 1950s.
• The familiar black and gold cologne sprays were introduced in 1958, they were metered to expel 800 sprays in each bottle. Light and sturdy, designed by Chanel for the age of air travel.
• Cologne and talc was used from 1939 - onwards

Decipher the numbers found on the extrait boxes:

• No. 203 = 3 oz 
• No. 202 = 2 oz
• No. 201 = 1 oz
• No. 200 = 1/2 oz
• No. 210 = 1/4 oz
• No. 375 = 1 1/2 oz (Eau de Cologne, not extrait)

Decipher the letters on the boxes to determine size of bottles:

• T.T.P.M = 1/4 oz (Tres Tres Petit Modele/Very Very or Extra Extra Small)
• T.P.M. = 1/2 oz (Tres Petit Modele/Very or Extra Small)
• P.M. (Petit Modele/Small) = 1 oz 
• M.M. (Moyen Modele/Medium) = 2 oz
• G.M. (Grand Modele/Large) = 3 oz
• T.G.M. (Tres Grand Modele/Very or Extra Large) = 4 oz

To open the classic Chanel crystal parfum flacon, use the following tip provided by Parfums Chanel in 1963:

Remove cord and paper; with index finger as cushion, tap underneath sides of stopper lightly with glass object (glass on glass being the scientific method) while turning the bottle steadily between fingers, so that the stopper will be loosened evenly.

Real Bleu by Chanel vs. Fake Bleu by Chanel

So you want to by Bleu by Chanel...but you are afraid of buying a counterfeit...do yourself a favor and buy it at a Chanel's own website, a higher end department store, Sephora or Ulta. 

Ebay, flea markets, mall kiosks, craigslist, many online retailers and other retailers are known to sell counterfeits...save yourself the headache and doubts by buying at an authorized dealer only!!!

Or you already bought Bleu by Chanel...from eBay, a flea market, a mall kiosk,  website, craigslist, or some other retailer, or were given it as a gift ....and you have doubts as to its authenticity...well this tutorial will help you determine whether it is real or fake.


ebay member jmpassaniti wrote this:

"It appears the sales of counterfeit Bleu de Chanel are now epidemic on eBay.  I have encountered dozens of listings, most showing either a slightly faded box cover or a generic Chanel image that sell almost hourly on here.  After sharing notes with several buyers, including myself, it's a safe bet they are almost ALL fake counterfeits.

These are being sold by sellers in Michigan, New York, and California, and by some who have nearly 100% positive feedback, but the fragrance is undeniably a weak fake. Considering almost all of these auctions net the seller between $40-50 a bottle, with multiple sales a day this is quite a haul.

The cellophane wrap and box seem convincing enough.  The logo is raised, the box bottom has what appears to be a four digit lot or serial number embossed on the box, and the earlier counterfeit problems of spelling errors and unclean packaging appear to be resolved by the offshore manufacturer.  The real story doesn't become clear until you open the box and look at the bottle itself.

It has got a hazy film all over it, smudges and smears of what could be fragrance or fingerprint oil, and tiny fine scratch swirls that become evident in bright sunlight. The top shows a diagonal seam and the bottom is slightly irregular -- the sign of a cheap glass bottle manufacturing process. These bottles have been around, and not in a good way.

The bottle cap will be the ultimate test of real vs. fake.  Real Bleu de Chanel has a cap that holds in place with a magnet.  The phonies have a small seam line inside the cap which, by forcing the cap down, holds it in place.  If you set your cap on top of a real Chanel bottle, the magnets do all the work and the cap will automatically be held in place -AND- most important of all, the Chanel logo on top of the bottle will always spin into perfect alignment with the front/back of the bottle. You can see a demonstration of that on YouTube.  Just search for "Real vs. Fake Bleu de Chanel."

If your bottle cap doesn't do this, it's a fake/counterfeit.  The fakers sometimes use magnets, but the bottle caps don't align properly.  The most recent ones on eBay don't even bother with that -- they simply require the owner to press them down to hold them in place.

Ignore the Made in France vs. USA tips from around a year ago.  Legitimate Chanel fragrance can come from either their U.S. factory in New Jersey or from France.  Most of the fakes will say France just because people assume Chanel = France.

If you have a phony, don't even bother to spray it on yourself.  You have no idea what is in there, and would you spray a crime ring's fragrance on your skin?

Instead, file complaints.  The feedback system on eBay is notoriously poor for identifying fakes.  People are just happy to have received something in the mail quick for a good price that resembles the product they want.  Most have no idea they bought a phony.

Sellers promise refunds and some encourage you don't blow the whistle on their fake sales.  Occasionally, some are unwitting dupes themselves.

Chanel is among the most frequently counterfeited fragrances because of the high demand and the manufacturer's near-obsessive inventory control.  They destroy leftovers, old stock, and irregulars -- they don't sell it at wholesaler auctions.  I'd suspect the only real bottles of Chanel on here are those sold by individuals who have a single leftover bottle they don't like, one inherited from a family member who passed, or got one as a gift.  The ones selling a near-endless supply (check those feedbacks to see what they sold in the past) are immediately suspect, especially if they are selling in the $40-50 range for a 3.4oz bottle.

Yes, you'll pay $79 for an authentic bottle of this at the local department store, but for twice the price you'll actually get the real product.  The 1.7oz costs $59 -- around what you'll pay for the fake and the return postage to send it back (not to mention the time and hassle)."

 

View this YouTube tutorial:


Also this YouTube tutorial can be helpful: