Which actress famously said she wore only Chanel No. 5 to bed?

Marilyn Monroe is the actress famously associated with wearing only Chanel No. 5 to bed.

The remark came from a 1952 interview in which Monroe was asked what she wore when sleeping. Her playful answer—“just a few drops of Chanel No. 5”—became one of the perfume’s most enduring pieces of publicity. The quotation is often shortened to “I wear nothing but Chanel No. 5,” but both versions point to Monroe.

Chanel No. 5 was created by perfumer Ernest Beaux for Coco Chanel and launched in 1921. Its use of aldehydes, alongside floral notes such as jasmine and rose, helped give it a modern, abstract character rather than the single-flower scents then common. Monroe’s comment linked that modern fragrance to her glamorous public image.

A common mix-up is attributing the line to another Chanel-associated actress, especially Audrey Hepburn. Hepburn later became the face of Chanel No. 5, but Monroe is the canonical answer to this famous quotation. In 2013, Chanel used archival images of Monroe in a No. 5 campaign, further cementing the association.