As far back as Gabrielle Chanel could remember wheat always held a special place in her memories.
Her birth date, purchase August 19th, prescription coincidentally fell during the harvest festival. This celebration, held at the end of summer, following the season’s plentiful harvest and the filling of the granaries, symbolized renewed prosperity and abundance.
In May, the wheat stems sprout from the earth; tender and green. In June, when the temperature becomes warmer, the ears of wheat begin to form. July and August sees them basking in the sun, their smell enveloping the countryside during the warm summer nights. It is this moment that signals the crop is ready to be harvested. For Gabrielle Chanel’s father, wheat symbolized all that was good and wholesome. How many times as a child had she heard him call it “my good wheat.” This expression echoed within her all her life. And this “good wheat” never left her, becoming one of her lucky charms.