Hidden beneath an industrial foundation, Hoboken’s hulking manufacturing heritage has concealed its sizable mark on the face of American fashion. Today, many appreciate the new cosmetics and glamor industry blossoming in Hoboken, but few recognize the deep history that has contoured America’s beauty industry more broadly. Here in Hoboken, for example, Hazel Bishop concocted the first “stay-all-day” lipstick. What’s more, viewers watching the drama surrounding Coco Chanel and Christian Dior on Apple TV+’s most recent hit show, The New Look, may have recognized a familiar name drop. In the depths of World War II, Coco discovers the scandalous news involving her most famous fragrance, Chanel No. 5: “It is monstrous…They produced it in Hoboken!” Read on for more about Hoboken’s connection to this iconic fragrance.
The New Look TV Series
Apple TV+’s The New Look has excited fashionistas all across the globe as it details the salacious and intriguing wartime story of designers Christian Dior and Coco Chanel. Halfway through the series, Episode 5 drops a bombshell. No, not that Christian finally launches his own couture house. No, not that Coco has fled to Switzerland. Not that Coco’s former business partners were profiting from the sale of Chanel No. 5. No, the wartime bombshell was much more bombastic. It was that Chanel No. 5 was being produced out of…(gasp) Hoboken! Of course, the story is more complicated than that, so let’s back it up.
Read More: The Modern-Day Zipper Was Invented Right Here in Hoboken
Something Smells Fishy
Having made a name for herself in the world of fashion, Chanel No. 5 was designer Coco Chanel’s first foray into fragrance, and she was a bit out of her element. In 1924, she partnered with the brothers Pierre and Paul Wertheimer — of the esteemed and established perfume house, Bourjois — which allowed Coco’s fragrance to take off quickly by tapping into Wertheimer’s vast knowledge and infrastructure within the perfume industry.
Establishing the corporate entity Parfums Chanel in 1924, Coco agreed that the Wertheimers would oversee the production, marketing, and distribution of 70% share of the company, while she would lend her name. In the following decades, Chanel No. 5’s accelerating popularity and incredible profits made Coco bristle under the constraints of her former agreement and she increasingly felt cheated.
When the Nazis invaded France and came to power, Coco used the new levers of the antisemitic government against her Jewish partners, the Wertheimers, revealing Coco’s ruthlessness as a powerful, yet “complicated” businesswoman — “complicated”, of course, being the polite, modern term for a historical figure whose moral failures have been proven utterly reprehensible and despicable today.
In short, Coco attempted to use antisemitic, Nazi legislation and her status as an “Aryan” to claim ownership of the Wertheimers’ assets. In a horrifically ironic display of cognitive dissidence, Coco petitioned the Nazi administration, decrying the “prejudices I have suffered”. (Mazzeo, Tilar J. The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Biography of a Scent. New York: HarperCollins, 2010, 152-3).
Savvy businessmen themselves, the Wertheimers had transferred their shares to a Christian, French confidant, Felix Amit, who at the end of Nazi control returned Parfums Chanel to the Jewish brothers.
In 1940, as Coco plotted her takeover, the Wertheimers were forced to flee France for New York, where they’d diligently taken steps to maintain the supply chain, production, and quality of their most profitable moneymaker, Chanel No. 5. This included finding a factory, and they looked to none other than…(drumroll)…Hoboken!
A Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet: Chanel No. 5 in Hoboken
Arriving as Jewish refugees in New York, the Wertheimer Brothers needed to find a way to produce their fragrance and keep their livelihood. As luck would have it, their friend, Arnold van Ameringen, was dating an up-and-coming perfumer, Ester Lauter — later known to the world as Estée Lauder. (Mazzeo, Tilar J. The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Biography of a Scent. New York: HarperCollins, 2010, 141). Perhaps it was Estée’s own Jewish heritage that induced her to help the Wertheimers, but help them she did and the brothers found a factory in Hoboken willing to produce their fragrance.
The Wertheimer Brothers took painstaking care that all the materials for Chanel No. 5 be sourced from France — which was not an easy task as the United States and Nazi-occupied France were at war.
Although the Wertheimers maintained the quality of their product when Coco found out, she exclaimed what has become a famous quote, shrieking: “It is monstrous…They produced it in Hoboken!” (Mazzeo, Tilar J. The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Biography of a Scent. New York: HarperCollins, 2010, 167).
Trying to Place That Smell
Shrewd businessmen and savvy advertisers, the Wertheimers concealed any links between Chanel and Hoboken, recognizing French perfume’s prestige and value in the worldwide cosmetics market. They hid Chanel No. 5’s Hoboken production so well that trying to locate the precise manufacturing plant today is nearly impossible. All New Jersey Industrial Directories from World War II omit the name Chanel Inc. or Bourjois Inc. — the corporate entities under which the scent was manufactured. Still, some clues may help place the mysterious location. World War II rations hit the perfume and cosmetics industries especially hard, according to The Industrial Directory of New Jersey. Eight toiletry companies operated in Hoboken before the war (1938), yet after the war (in 1946), only two cosmetic plants remained: the Shulton Company and the Lightfoot Company. One of these two companies likely produced the Chanel fragrance in 1946 because the Wertheimer Brothers and Coco did not reconcile until 1947.
Photo Credit: Hoboken Historical Museum
The Lightfoot Company seems less likely to have produced Chanel No. 5 because while it produced cosmetics products at 1412-24 Park Avenue, its specialty was soap.
Photo Credit: Hoboken Historical Museum
It seems more likely that Shulton Inc. produced the fragrance because they specialized in producing fragrances such as Old Spice. In 1946, Shulton Inc. employed 300 men and 700 women at its factory located at 1500 Washington Street, today’s Hudson Tea Building.
The paramount irony is that the Wertheimers were so discrete that no evidence exists that Chanel was produced within a Hoboken factory at all. The only reason the public knows about Chanel’s manufacturing in Hoboken is because Coco threw such a fit that biographers took notice and recorded her now-famous quote: “It is monstrous…They produced it in Hoboken!”
A Repugnant Stench: The Fallout
Following World War II, the Wertheimers were ensnared in a Catch-22: on the one hand, they were aware of Coco’s Nazi sympathies and collaboration; on the other hand, a protracted legal battle would expose Coco’s Nazi partnerships and ruin her cultivated image — along with the Wertheimers’ business and livelihood. In 1947, the two parties renegotiated the original, 1924 agreement and resumed a business relationship, with Coco receiving the wartime profits of her namesake perfume along with 2% of all worldwide sales — a deal that made her one of the most affluent women alive.
The Wertheimer’s + Hoboken Come Out Smelling like Roses
By turning the other cheek, the Wertheimer Brothers ensured the enduring success of their company and lifeworks. Pierre continued perfuming, and became a renowned racehorse owner, though Paul died shortly after World War II. Today, Pierre’s grandsons continue to enjoy the fruits of the Wertheimer Brothers’ labors, for Alain and Gerard Wertheimer have a combined net worth of $96 billion and remain in control of Chanel (https://www.businessinsider.com/wertheimer-family-chanel-fortune-gerard-alain-vineyards-thoroughbred-net-worth-2019-2).
For its role in the story, Hoboken became a savior of Jewish refugees displaced by the Nazis, allowing Jewish families to keep their business, livelihood, and dignity at a time when those were being wrestled away under Nazi Occupation.
See More: The Designer of Montclair’s Old Lackawanna Plaza Was a Titanic Passenger
Special thanks to John Beekman and James Cox for their unparalleled help in locating fragrance and cosmetics plants in Hoboken. John Beekman is the Chief Librarian of the historical research center, The New Jersey Room, while James Cox manages the Special Collections of the Hoboken Public Library.
Meet fillir: Hoboken’s Newest Medspa on Washington Street
This article is sponsored by fillir.
As far as we’re concerned, Hoboken is the unofficial Beauty Capital of New Jersey — and the newest addition to Hoboken’s beauty scene is proving us right. Meet, an award-winning medspa now open at 720 Washington Street. With roots in Pittsburgh, fillir is providing Hoboken locals with all the skincare favorites, like Botox, fillers, laser hair removal, microneedling, and more. We stopped by recently and are already obsessed. Keep reading to learn more about Hoboken’s newest medspa, fillir.
The Backstory
fillir’s move to Hoboken marks its third location and first-ever in New Jersey (the first two are in Pittsburgh), with their official opening slated for January 6th. The medspa is led by a Double Board-Certified Physician and a team of expertly medically trained injectors, whose mission is to make aesthetic services approachable and welcoming to everyone.
The team takes a consultative approach, creating personalized treatment plans with clients to ensure that all services are specific to each person. It’s this individualized approach that has solidified fillir as a local Pittsburgh favorite: for two consecutive years, it’s been named Best Medspa by Pittsburgh Magazine. In 2023, fillir even scored a feature in Vogue.
“We believe enhancements aren’t one-size-fits-all,” shared the fillir team. “At fillir, we’re committed to delivering 100% quality and exceptional customer service every step of the way.”
Treatments Available
Non-invasive aesthetic treatments are fillir's specialty — and the team uses the latest + safest technologies. Here's what's on the menu:
- Botox + Dysport: helps reduce wrinkles, minimize sweat production, relax lip muscles, and provide TMJ + migraine relief.
- Fillers: Juvederm, Restalyne, and Revanesse fillers for facial and lip enhancement.
- Microneedling: tightens skin, reduces wrinkles, and improves texture with no downtime.
- Laser Hair Removal: safe and effective for all areas including the face, upper lip, chin, front/back of neck, jawline, cheeks, sideburns, arms, underarms, hands, etc.
- Skin Treatments: treatments that focus on hydration, anti-aging, and acne including targeted facials, chemical peels, microdermabrasion, and more.
fillir is located at 720 Washington Street in Hoboken.
Email [email protected] or visit the site to book an appointment or for more info.
fillir is also offering 10% off gift cards when you use code HOBOKEN10 and 20% off ALL services when you use code FILLIRHBK through 2/28/2025.
