Dolce Eau de Parfum by Dolce & Gabbana: fragrance review

One could be excused for getting all dreamy eyed and nostalgic à la Nuovo Cinema Paradiso upon watching the latest commercial by Dolce & Gabbana for their feminine fragrance launch, Dolce eau de parfum. They could be excused for erupting in twirly pirouettes filled with longing at the sight of the super pretty bottle, its flower cap, its grosgrain bow, its retro typeface. But what one can't possibly excuse is getting worked up over the fragrance of Dolce by Dolce & Gabbana itself, because, frankly, it's so programmatically "not"-so-many-things that it gets very hard to describe it.

It's not really floral, despite the ad copy and the images of orange groves in full bloom. Not indolic-smelling, which comes hand in hand with white flower fragrances. Not woody either. Nor citrusy. Not particularly feminine if your notion of femininity is not terribly challenged by a particular philosophic system of which I am not accountable for. Not anything special in the fresh fragrance slot. Not distinctive, not unique by any stretch of the imagination. Not offensive either, but that's damning it with faint praise.

"Neroli leaves" (come again?), papaya flower, white amaryllis, narcissus, white water lily, sandalwood. Where are all these things?

A clean, lightly aqueous neroli scent with a faint musky underpinning that won't get you noticed even if your life depended on it, Dolce eau de parfum projects "meh-shampoo" in a me-too-pool of similar scents for women afraid to use fragrance with any conviction. It could just be the perfect culmination of a product that looks like a perfume but doesn't perform like one for our crazy times. Even if destined to the very young or the very inexperienced, there is nothing in Dolce eau de parfum of the flush of daring and defiance that a truant teenager might indulge into, swiftly exchanging her smart pants and sweater for a cut off blouse and heels in secret at the ante-room of her house to go out with the hip crowd of her school. It's also so faint for an eau de parfum to make one seriously doubt their nose. If this gets released in eau de toilette there will be someone doing a cartoonish, evil laugh all the way to the bank, because they might as well be selling plain water for all the dilution.

So why am I even bothering to review it, you ask?

Simple. It's the first original release by the Italian brand that is not a flanker or re-issue in what feels like eons. I'm susceptible. I love Italian style.

Additionally, I can be excused for feeling a pang of what Swedes call 'smultronställe' , literally a wild strawberry patch, but figuratively a sentimentally laden spot returned to for solace, an escape from sadness.  Sicily is Dolce & Gabbana's spot. My own smultronställe has been orange groves in full bloom from my childhood like the ones shown in the romantic commercial for Dolce eau de parfum. I might be excused for seeking them into a bottle of fragrance advertised with exactly those images in neorealist style and nostalgic color saturation…

A really wasted chance, if you ask me. Bring back Sicily. 

Dolce & Gabbana pour Femme & pour Homme: fragrance videos

A social media promoted campaign with a new video presentation of the best-selling and (by now classic) fragrances in the Italian brand's portfolio is launched to capture the attention of a new demographic. Naturally, this is will be spread via print later on as well. The aesthetic ~which incidentally captures my own vacation holiday spirit perfectly!~ compliments the autumn-winter 2012 collection campaign look (starring former D&G fragrance face Monica Bellucci, seen here) which capitalizes on Italian (and specifically Sicilian) heritage.

 

 This new black-and-white video stars French model, actress and the Dolce & Gabbana Pour Femme current ambassador Laetitia Casta as she recalls time spent with a lover and debates whether or not to leave everything behind for him. Her love interest is played by American model and actor Noah Mills while the song is “Città Vuota” by Mina. The commercial was shot on location in Sicily, Italy, at the baroque village of Erice and the beach of La Riserva Naturale dello Zingaro by Mario Testino.

According to reportage at Luxury Daily: “Dolce & Gabbana is trying to make the fragrance sexy, provocative and exotic – emphasis on the sexy – to a younger demographic that relies on social media for information about new products, and aspires to the carefree, glamorous and uninhibited life of the characters featured in the video,” said John Casey, founder of Freshfluff, New York [non affiliated with the brand].

And just for the heck of it, for memory's sake, I'm reminding you of the IMHO magnificent Giuseppe Tornatore directed classic commercials (reminiscent of his work at Malena) for the now ~bafflingly~ discontinued aldehydic floral Sicily fragrance by Dolce & Gabbana and the steadier selling duo of Pour Femme and Pour Homme, starring the voluptuous Monica Bellucci circa 1994 (and the chiseled Chistian Monzon for Sicily).

Market news, luxury and tendencies July '09

The intricasies of the luxury market as attested through the beauty sector are unraveled into high-shine offices at corporate buildings. Yet, here at Perfume Shrine from time to time, we comment on those developments as a brief finger on the pulse of market tendencies, cautioning our readers on what to expect later on.

The latest news has Interparfums, makers of parfumes for Burberry, Lanvin and Christian Lacroix among others, announcing a 5% decline (amounting to 121,3 millions euros for the first semester of 2009 instead of the 273 millions anticipated for the whole year). A drop that is cutting the rise they had experienced in recent years. The case for Lacroix and his closing the house is of course well documented by now, with Bernard Krief Consulting a strong contestant till now and the recent Italian Borletti expressing a wish to buy it out. Even French minister Frédéric Mitterrand had expressed a desire to find a solution for the house, which during the 1980s had been one of the most influential in French fashion.

With that climate it makes for little surprise that there is a diminished interest in Lacroix perfumes; they were circulating through the Avon canal for a while, in a smart move to continue to be offered. Recent news however implicate Avon in letting go no less than 1200 employees, which bears ill forecasts on the future of Lacroix perfumes as well. Burberry represents 64% of the share of Interparfums and was looking relatively healthy till now, despite the 4% drop during the first trimester of 2009. They're even opening their biggest boutique in South-East Asia, the ION Orchard in Singapore, covering 815 square meters full of the British fashions of the historic brand.

Whatever the case is Interparfums and their head of affairs, Phillipe Benacin, are looking ahead at acquiring contracts with "well-known brands" and specializing at luxury. For some odd reason (or not so odd) the luxury market is withstanding the crisis, with Hermès opening their first boutique in Brazil next September, a project eagerly anticipated by the more affluent among the country's buyers. Then again, Hermès International has announced a turnover of even better than anticipated for the first semester of 2009! Their new Eau de Cologne collection is rekindling interest and they have salvaged their luxury image unscathed.
The succession of Jane Lauder, 36, of her father Ronald, 65 into the head administartion consulting of Estée Lauder and their successful Private Collection trio, of which the latest instalment, the lovely nouveau chypre Jasmine White Moss, is a commercial and artistic success, shows that the old American brand is trying to monitor their drop of 10% in the last trimester.

As we had previously discussed in our Luxury Market amidst the Recession article, the only way for something to survive in the middle-market is to change market-point and look upwards into the higher echelons and the raised prices. Jean Claude Ellena had said it succinctly: "If you want luxury, you either increase the price or increase the size" and it seems like the perfume market has embraced the concept.

Still, in an unprecedented turn of events, Dolce & Gabbana decided recently to down-market (so to speak) their upcoming autumn and winter collections, especially the more mainstream and Jeans lines, by supressing costs that would be trickled down to the consumer's benefit, reflected into the price. What remains to be seen is what happens with their perfumes line. The latest Tarot-inspired anthology although eagerly anticipated and publisized as the new "niche" line within a brand seemed to take a page off Chanel looks-wise, but didn't really ripple the waters smell-wise.

Fast-fowarding to the future of marketing for beauty and perfumes, the experts at Carlin International predict a greater meshing of the olfactive orientation, fusing elements of masculine and feminine not only in the composition of the jus itself but also in the wording used in advertising and the packaging of perfumes, as well as cosmetics. Natural tones and an urban feel will be the new direction with futuristic shapes: The curvacous and the straight will be manipulated into hybrids of andogyny in the design and packaging of products, new shapes that play with our perception (Is it a shaving brush or a pinceau for applying blusher? Is it a razor or a device to apply foundation?) to help market perfumes and beauty paraphernalia to what has become a wide, unisex market. A brave new world, indeed!

Dolce & Gabbana a la niche!

The Italian duo of Dolce & Gabbana are going the niche way: at least optically! Their new collection of scents, called Anthology, is dressed in simple, identical bottles, bearing names inspired by the Tarot card deck (now this is something we haven't seen before) and intended not to differentiate on age or gender prompting us to pick and choose according to taste.
The campaign will focus on supermodels of the 90s (apparently a very big trend lately): Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Eva Herzigova, posing in the nude, shot by photographer Mario Testino, along with male models Fernando Fernandes, Noah Mills and Tyson Ballou.

The scents will be:

Le Bateleur 1 (fronted by Tyson Ballou) is an aromatic aquatic woody focusing on cedar and vetiver.
L'Imperatrice 3 (Naomi Campbell) is a fruity with notes of kiwi,watermelon, cyclamen, rose and musk.
L'Amoureux 6 (Noah Mills), is a spicy aromatic with bergamot, juniper, pink pepper, cardamom, birch, iris and musk.
La Roue de la Fortune (Eva Herzigova and Fernando Fernandes), is a floriental with tuberose, gardenia, jasmine, benzoin and patchouli.
La Lune 18 (Claudia Schiffer) is a leathery floral with lily, tuberose, santalwood, musk, iris and leather.

The Anthology collection of fragrances by Dolce & Gabbana will launch in September 2009.
I am waiting to see how these will play out in a market that is full of collection of scents. So who hasn't yet launched such a set of "niche" scents, at least preening out from the big names? Hmmm, Yves Saint Laurent...

Pic L'express.