MANILA, Philippines?The number five seemed to have a special place in Gabrielle ?Coco? Chanel?s heart. Aside from naming her signature fragrance Chanel No. 5, the legendary fashion icon and designer named her trademark black quilted bag the ?2.55.?

Why was Coco fixated with the number and how did it become associated with one of the world?s leading luxury brands? How does Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel?s equally iconic if a bit eccentric creative director, manage to continue to make the brand fresh and exciting for today?s current crop of fashionistas?

Stephanie Donnet-Couette, Chanel?s regional marketing manager for Asia and the Pacific, in a recent symposium in Bangkok dubbed as ?Chanel, the Spirit of a Living Brand,? discussed the significance of the number five as well as the brand?s other iconic emblems and how they add to its mystique and bottom line figures.

The event was in conjunction with Thailand?s first-ever ?Emporium World Fashion Showcase,? a gathering of high-end luxury brands in a series of fashion shows, talks and parties organized by the Emporium Shopping Complex.

?Gabrielle was a very superstitious woman,? said Donnet-Couette. ?She considered five a lucky number, and for a number of good reasons.?

Not another fragrance

When she turned her attention to fragrances in 1921, a few years after her non-traditional approaches in couture were warmly received by Paris? fashion cognoscenti, Coco declared that she didn?t want another perfume with a ?single-flower scent.? Rather, she wanted a composite woman?s fragrance, never mind if it was artificial, that smelled like, well, a woman.

?That was probably why she loved to spruce up her outfits with camellias, another Chanel icon,? said Donnet-Couette. ?The flower is beautiful, but doesn?t have any scent, which probably suited her, as it didn?t interfere with her perfume.?

Coco, the occasional singer?she got her nickname from enthusiastic fans during her salad days singing at neighborhood cafés?and former hat designer, wasn?t acting on pure whim. As the fashion designer who sunbathed (even before the tanned look became in) and freed women from constricting corsets by introducing them to more practical yet smart sportswear and tailored separates, she certainly knew what she was doing.

She lost no time commissioning leading perfumer Ernest Beaux to work on her dream fragrance. After several attempts, Beaux, as far as his headstrong client was concerned, got it right on his fifth try. He still had a few more combinations to explore, but Coco asked him to stop since she already got what she wanted.

She thus named the house?s signature fragrance, which to this day, said Donnet-Couette, has remained extremely saleable (one bottle every 30 seconds the world over!), Chanel No. 5 in honor of her favorite number, and because of the fact that it was literally created on the perfumer?s fifth attempt.

?Gabrielle was what we would call today ahead of her time,? said Donnet-Couette. ?Not only did she defy conventions, she sought inspirations from the most unlikely places and people.?

And that included, of course, her string of lovers such as Etienne Balsan (equestrienne-inspired outfits), Arthur ?Boy? Capel, the Duke of Westminster (tailored suits) and the Grand Duke Dimitri of Russia (multiple strands of pearls, both real and fake).

She also spent time with leading artistic luminaries of the day, collaborating with the likes of Cocteau and Picasso and providing financial support to Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Radiguet and Pierre Reverdy.

When the Paris-based Coco was much younger, she opened a second shop that sold hats in Deauville, a seaside resort town north of Paris. Imagine how shocked she was when she first saw young women hiding their beautiful bodies beneath layers of clothing and stifling corsets during summer.

?She noticed how they could hardly breathe,? said Donnet-Couette. ?She shocked them in return by sporting short hair and designing and wearing sportswear made of lightweight jersey, which, during that time, was only used as material for men?s underwear. Women, however, warmed up to the idea before long.?

Coco could swing both ways with ease, fashion-wise, that is. While she?s best known for women?s tweed jackets, sailing jumpers and embroidered or fur-lined coats with hints of masculine energy?no doubt influenced by either rummaging through or borrowing items from her lovers? closets?she also made her mark in fashion by introducing women to the little black dress.

Bright colors didn?t excite her as much as black and/or white did. Their beauty, she once declared, is absolute. She went on to say that the woman dressed in either black or white gets all the attention at a ball.

Countless versions

Perhaps, no one best understands her design sensibilities better than Lagerfeld himself, the imperious-looking sexagenarian (no one really knows his exact age) now behind the house. Not only has he successfully reinvented Coco?s classic tweed ensembles once too often, he has come up with countless and well-received black and white pieces season after season.

The Bangkok talk also included a documentary that showed Lagerfeld and his team at work. Although the film was in French, one couldn?t help but be amused as well as amazed at the power the old man wields over his subjects-cum-collaborators. It also showed how dedicated and tradition-bound he and his team are.

There was a poignant scene in the documentary reminiscent of Miranda Priestly, the haughty magazine editor in the film ?The Devil Wears Prada,? that left members of the audience either agape or in stitches.

As Lagerfeld, trailed by two assistants, makes his way to his top-floor office on rue Cambon, the building?s frantic telephone operator calls every department head to tell them ?Monsieur Lagerfeld is headed your way.? In short, be prepared!

For all his seeming attempts to appear aloof, Lagerfeld appears to be well liked by the staff. Or at least, they respect him enough to get things done the way he wanted. He sits down most of the time as he critiques a prototype he himself designed?draped not on a dress form, but on a living, breathing model!

Coco, like Lagerfeld today, proved to be both resilient and driven even during her senior years. In 1939, as World War II was knocking on Paris? doorstep, she decided to close her couture house only to reopen it in 1954 with a legendary fashion show.

The event generated a great deal of press, fueled, of course, by the clothes and the designer herself. (Some of the juicy tidbits below were, for obvious reasons, no longer part of Donnet-Couette?s presentation.)

Coco, then already 71, reportedly got tepid reviews from the French press who accused her, albeit in whispers, of ?collaborating? with the enemy during the war (she reportedly even lived in Germany for a time with a German military officer for a lover).

It took members of the American press to say it as it was: Coco?s clothes remained as wearable and as revolutionary as ever! It was the year she gave women the trimmed tweed suit?now better known as the Chanel suit?and, a year later, the 2.55 handbag. How did she arrive at such a seemingly clinical name?

?Well, simple. It was made in February 1955,? said Donnet-Couette. With the bag?s launching, an aging yet astute Coco, who passed away in 1971, again made history by being the first designer to put a shoulder strap on her bag to free its user?s hands. As always, another smart yet practical move from one of the 20th century?s most remarkable women.