Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Roger Vivier and Ines de la Fressange: 5 new fragrances

"After shoes and bags, Roger Vivier, part of the Tod’s Group, present their perfumes for Autumn 2010 to be sold exclusively in their boutiques". (Today we found the video accompanying the news via dailymotion, see below)

Five new fragrances in extrait developed by Rami Mekdachi, lined-up like a niche line based on raw materials (La Rose, Le Sandal, L'Iris, L'Ambre, Le Néroli) & identical-designed bottles which are presented by former Chanel model in the 1980s and French "Marianne", Inés de la Fressange. She wanted a sultry signature fragrance and she explains: “Our goal was a perfume with personality, style and quality, not just a huge launch with lots of ads,” she says, “so we used very precious and rare ingredients, just like a couture collection.”
According to Modelinia: "The model turned purveyor of Vivier style has been working with Rami Mekdachi to distinguish just what the brand smells like, and found it absolutely impossible to narrow that down to just one aroma. So she decided to go with five different perfumes: which are set to hit stores in the US in October, just in time to update your winter fragrances. Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that Inés has put her nose into the world of scents. She has her own eponymous perfume". [correction: had, I believe it's discontinued]
The new fragrances will retail at 195$ a bottle debuting at Fashion’s Night Out on Sept. 10 at the New York boutique (750 Madison Avenue), and will then be available at all Roger Vivier boutiques in October.

Isn't it endearing that she says has "an old lady trapped inside her" and "luxury is about not having to scent"?



photo of bottles by Travis Rathbone via New York Times

6 comments:

  1. E, when I come back I want to come back as Ines - she is so elegant, in a non-starchy way. And the older she gets, the more incredible she looks. How does she do that?

    Btw she has not one but TWO eponymous fragrances. The first is by Calice Becker and the second, which I prefer just a tad more because it is just so unapologetically HUGE, is by Alberto Morillas (that's the leaf bottle). Both are still available (I can't say where because I cannot remember - but I got both within the last year online).

    I look forward to these, though I think I might've preferred a bit of space in between releases, rather than all 5 at once. But what do I know?

    xo

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  2. Fiordiligi09:43

    Well, I love Roger Vivier shoes, and am also an admirer of the impossibly elegant Ines, so these are going to be worth a sniff. (Her shop in Paris was fab but everything seemed made for someone as tall and slender as she).

    I am, however, also a little fed up of these "groups" of perfume releases. It would be nicer to have them as staged releases during the year.

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  3. I'm curious when someone will get the idea that a handful of perfumes named Iris, Neroli and Whatever-else (or be it Morning, Lunch, Snack-time and Evening which smell of iris, neroli, sandalwood and burning rubber) is a bit boring. I long for a new fashion of compositions, please. Be it abstract (like that Morning etc. but a composition please, not another rose water) or evocative of something (say Pitcairn Island, Falklands, Madeira and Vanuatu) but something, well, more interesting.
    I love roses, I have a handful of rose perfumes, three, to be exact, and it's mainly because I couldn't afford a gallon of Shiseido's Blue Rose. I don't need another one. After all, umpteenth variation on neroli is just another variation on neroli unless the perfumer is a total genius and sorry, folks, that doesn't happen every day.

    I admit that in general, I like the simple bottles. So many fancy bottles are so fancy that they are bordering on ugly and when lined up on the shelf (doesn't happen in my place), it creates a rather messy display. (Alright, although I like simple bottles, I have a few pieces of my fave kitsch, think Garouste and Bonetti for Nina Ricci, and I have a very weak spot for moulded glass bottles from the 1920's.) But I would prefer some slight variation. Tinted glass, preferably.

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  4. Musette,

    ahhh, she's stellar and from what I hear from a connection a nice person to know to as well!

    I find her very elegant too, she seems like the kind of person who doesn't fret too much, you know? There's an element of allowing a bit of dishevelment, not too much and this is kinda appealing. I very much like how she ages: natural so far I should guess, without collapsing into a mess. It does help she's thin but with good cheek structure and a wide smile. And the hair...

    Thanks for the info!! I only knew of one (the Becker). I now must seek samples of the other one as well. How cool!
    I believe what is online is older stock, I see discontinued fragrances all the time, long after, probably because there is a lot of stuff they're not moving.

    ReplyDelete
  5. D,

    she's really something isn't she? I would love to have her style.

    Alas on the sizes: But style is possible in every size, I think. A bit more challenging, but doable.

    The "bring out a line of scents in identical bottles" reaffirms we're talking of niche, it seems (much as it's an tired by now concept): I suppose it's the optical part of ensuring that in the eye of the consumer. If they issued them well spaced apart, the similarity of the bottles would make them all mingle in our minds? Then they would have to have a different bottle design for each and that would be costly, etc etc. At least that's my theory. :-)

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  6. Liisa,

    you raise a good point. How much variation is possible within certain genres of that mould? How original can a neroli be? Yet I believe they might have composed full compositions, but placed the names focused on materials in order to establish themselves as niche ("everyone does it from Lutens to Guerlain down to Tom Ford, so why shouldn't we?")
    That remains to be seen of course! In the meantime, yes, original names, original concepts, original smells (I wouldn't mind a Snack Time scent if it would help me stay off the snacks! LOL) and please no more "exotic" escapist frags like Madeira, Vanuatu etc. Falklands might work though!! But I'm weird, I would be curious to try it out!

    As to bottles, I usually prefer sparse and elegant design, not ornamental, myself (love your 1920s specimens). Tinted glass sounds like a perfect idea which would allow differentiation for each scent (and a pretty effect when all lined-up): still costlier than all the same. ;-)

    ReplyDelete

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