Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Perfume Advertising Champions: Guerlain again...through the years




"Perfume mocks the passage of time..."

This beautiful historically-centered perfume ad by Guerlain appeared on Ebay. Though it certainly doesn't encompass all Guerlain classics it certainly does some of their most famous up to 1970: Jicky, L'Heure Bleue, Mitsouko, Shalimar, Chant d'Aromes, Chamade... A joy to look at and a fashion & advertising history lesson for those with a sharp eye.

8 comments:

  1. Love it. I follow several of your Pinterest boards and always enjoy the vintage perfume ads you share :)

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  2. Love it too!!!
    Especially the dashing Jicky girl!

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  3. Very interesting, as usual. Of course then one is immediately led to ask oneself whether the perfume corresponds to the image. Interesting that the fougere Jicky is presented with a horse rider. The dreamy HB with a more traditional fin de siecle mise, while Mitsouko a more austere look. Shalimar is perhaps the one whose association is less obvious to modern noses. But then nothing in Guerlain seems to define the era, unlike, say, Caron. I haven't smelled Chant to decide whether it fits the post-war, back-home, pre-sixties aesthetic. And the look seem a bit too aggressive for Chamade, Nahema seems more like it.

    cacio

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  4. R,

    :-)

    Thanks for following. Glad you enjoy.

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  5. M,

    they're pretty great, aren't they?

    Jicky comes straight from Guerlain iconography. (not for Jicky itself, but used for Guerlinade launch, from vintage illustrations):
    http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.gr/2009/09/history-of-guerlinade-accord-original.html


    Horsewomen had captured the collective unconscious before, as Elizabeth Arden ads show (and not for Blue Grass please note!):http://c.hprints.net/m/25/25258-elizabeth-arden-cosmetics-1937-horsewoman-hprints-com.jpg
    As well as several other paradigms, as in Shore's Caprice by Guerlain (relevant article posted a few days previously), etc.

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  6. M,

    like I said to Lady Jicky above, the Jicky horsewoman is more drawn from other sources (Guerlain itself as well as other "images") than from a straight Jicky ad existing previously.

    Shalimar is the classic flapper; it does blend in with the myth of the orient as an indulgence and a forbidden abode of the senses (contrary to the Zen perception we have of it today). I think that's the angle. ;-)

    Agree on Chamade (more romantic than blatantly sexual) and please allow me to remedy the Chant d'Aromes lack of olfactory reference :-)
    (I find Chant a very underrated perfume and also one which has one with the more interesting iconography amongst all Guerlains)

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  7. Lovely. I feel inspired to wear some Shalimar today!

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  8. Liz,

    by all means, I hope you did!! :-)
    What an unexpected and nice way to be inspired.

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