Monday, January 12, 2009

News, news.....

Worthy of mention: Denyse had a pre-sniff of the new Vanille Galante by Hermès, the one which excludes synthetic vanillin but includes ylang ylang, and is enthusiastic about it: "With Vanille Galante, Ellena has managed a double tour de force: not only has he washed away vanilla’s triteness by signing it, its clichéd yumminess, but he has also managed to stretch out the headiness and heaviness of sweet, exotic materials into an almost impalpable substance" You can read the rest here.

(Le Critique de Parfum is less enthusiastic ~in French)
Other presentations/semi-reviews: Glamourparis.com (which puts the launch date in February and not in January as I had originally reported on my analysis of what to expect of it), and Vogue.fr.

The characteristic leather-clad bottle of the Hermessences looks mighty elegant in white, does it not?
To be exclusively available through Hermès boutiques.

And Octavian Coifan is leaping into the vast perfume market with his own fragrance: check this link!

15 comments:

  1. Anonymous17:46

    Helg,

    I was going to discuss how this fit into the Hermes 2009 collections but I sort of ran out of time this weekend. (I got the SS 2009 Ready-to-Wear and scarf collections already.) Anyhow, the theme this year is travel: my Hermes SA doesn't remember the full French title but she is very, very sure.

    So I am quite certain that Six's comments about the islands/Antilles/Marie-Galante angle is 99% correct. We'll see.

    A

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  2. Anonymous17:50

    Oops...typed the words too fast. Catalogue, I meant catalogues for the collections and not the real things. I don't have troves of new Hermes goods in my house no matter how interesting the idea might be.

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  3. A,

    I think it would be eminently fitting that you did discuss how it fits and I would hop over your venue to read with much interest!

    Travel is always nice. After all we have made a biz out of it ;-)

    PS.yeah, pity, it would have been very nice for them to be those lovely true things! *dreaming of more scarves and bracelets in enamel*

    ReplyDelete
  4. *imagines A surrounded by orange boxes with all scarves, ties, belts, and saddles*

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yet more exciting news an Ellena Vanilla for Hermes. I am very fond of a vanilla and Mr Ellena's work and am intrigued about this... in some ways vanilla has been so covered but I imagine or I hope he will make it seem brand new

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous09:32

    Indeed, I think Vanille Galante is utterly predictable and quite disappointing.

    I thought the Hermessence collection was about "matières" (hence their names Ambre, Poivre, Vétiver etc...) I thought this collection was NOT about Ellena's trademarked transparent style.

    I guess I was wrong.

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  7. Wow, is Octavian starting his own brand, sounds interesting.

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  8. J,

    yeah, wouldn't that be a sight!

    ReplyDelete
  9. K,

    exactly: vanilla is such a cliché. Let's see!

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  10. E,

    "utterly predictable and quite disappointing" is what I inferred by your post myself and this is why I am presenting the other side of the coin (all opinions are respected of course).

    My personal interpretation of the Hermessences line is that it tries to bypass the commonly viewed for the uncommonly treatment through the lens of Jean Claude's aesthetic and particular style: the Amber isn't really an amber, it's more of a rich dessert with a whiff of tobacco; the Poivre is mostly ISO-E Super and not pepper (yet smells kinda peppery, kinda upbeat, kinda tingling); the Vetiver isn't really vetiver because smell this in comparison to others and see how unique it is; Brin de Reglisse isn't about lavender nor liquorice but kinda in between, a no man's land (even if it's not my personal preference); Osmanthe Yunnan isn't really about Osmanthus either, it has the tea-like aspects more pronounced; Rose Ikebana is rather grapefruity and with a watery aspect to it that is not in tandem with the traditional liquor or powdery treatment of roses; even Paprika Brasil as much as I don't care for it is different than what one would expect from a paprika treatment. Dans cette cadre, it makes perfect sense that JCE and Hermes wouldn't go for a patiserrie vanilla. I don't think Hermes began the series and then thought of in-house-nose Ellena, I think the two concepts went hand in hand.

    Hope I'm making sense? (I guess when I receive my own shortly I will know for sure)

    ReplyDelete
  11. L,

    I do hope Octavian thinks of us when he publicly launches!

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  12. Helg, your analysis of the Hermessence seems very well put (and clear) to me: the materials are, in a way, only the jumping off point for JCE's brand of "simplexity" (to reprise Luca T.'s word). Deceptively simple accords with unexpected facets shown off through the match...
    I, for one (guess it shows in my review) think that Ellena took the *surprising* route with vanilla, underlining its spicy, smoky greenness and creaminess rather than sweet and/or boozy qualities.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thank you Denyse for saying so *pheww* It's sometimes difficult to understand if we make sense ourselves.

    I would be terribly bored with another "yummy" vanilla, personally.

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  14. Anonymous20:15

    There's quite a spectrum between a yummy vanilla and a breath of fresh air ;)

    ReplyDelete
  15. You're right in that regard, of course. Therefore I hold my judgement until I wear it myself and evaluate it after some thought.

    ReplyDelete

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