Optical Scentsibilities: the Kiss by the Piano or The History of the Tabu Vintage Perfume Ads

Who hasn't been swept by the passion of the old Tabu by Dana perfume advertisements showing a female pianist passionately embraced and kissed by a male violinist? "Tabu, the forbidden fragrance" ("un parfum de puta", as per the fragrance brief to perfumer Jean Carles, no less) recounted to the reader that "Things  don't happen the way they used to. But they still happen." Kinda Fabbio-jacket cover dreamy, eh? In fact more artistic than initially thought of, so a great subject for our Optical Scentsibilities feature exploring the connection between art history & perfume images.

Tabu the fragrance, coming out in 1932, isn't that far removed from the painting that actually inspired the iconography of this advertisement, which is The Kreutzer Sonata painting by René François Xavier Prinet in 1901. (Itself inspired by the homonymous Leo Tolstoy novella which dramatizes a husband's jealous rage over a wife's "animal excesses" and making a case for sexual abstinence, the literary artwork itself referencing Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, originally dedicated to the violinist George Bridgetower who by insulting the morals of a woman in Beethoven's admired list lost the dedication to his peer, Kreutzer. Talk about meta-galore and war of the sexes on this one!)

via wikipedia commons

The specific advertisement depicted on the top is only one generation ahead of the original perfume launch (please note all the ancillary products mentioned at the bottom, such as soap, dusting powder and lipstick the Tabu brand has under its belt), but boy, how had mores changed in the interim!

Tabu continued on the path of the "painting like" advertisements and has a pleiad of vintage perfume ads (as shown on a dedicated blog from 2009). Among my favorites is this one, showing a woman in front of the iconic painting, cleverly referenced in the background, reading "When Tabu becomes a part of you, you become apart from all others". (ain't that the truth!)

Finally Tabu reprised the violinist with a nude male model posing for a 1990s fashions-clad woman painter (what a genius meta-meta-comment on Dana's part!)

The transcription of the values and tropes of oil paintings into perfume advertising in particular is stunning, straddling the contradictory notions of wealth and spirituality. Using the work of art as a quote acts as a potent sign of cultural authority; in a way it confirms the wisdom and appraisal ability of the viewer and acts as a reminder of being a cultured European (or a cultured partaker of the European values of aesthetics, at the very least)

This post today brings me nicely to the observation that I had made in a previous installement of the Optical Scentsibilities articles exploring the ties of perfume advertising and art history that sometimes the image you see is not only "inspired" by a painting/iconic photo (such as "Las Meninas" did for Paco Rabanne pour Homme or the Madame de Pompadour painting by Francois bouchet did for countless "reclining" poses in recent perfume ads) but it accurately reproduces the art work down to the smallest detail, as was the case with The Divers (utilized by Guy Laroche for Horizon). or Watteau's "The Swing" reprised in 1999 by Estee Lauder for Pleasures perfume featuring their model at the time Liz Hurley.

via ebay

via wikimedia commons

A timely reminder that perfume imagery isn't as frivolous and low-brow as initially thought of.

Optical Scentsibilities: Genie Blue with Stopper Red, Hooved it Twice and Then it Bled

Sometimes a genius idea is the result of a coup de foudre; a lighting crashes and you get that little bulb light over your head, like Benjamin Franklin. Sometimes a genius idea is the result of knowing where to "steal" from; all creative people are magpies, amassing an inordinate amount of data, processing it in the brain, sometimes even losing track of the reference as the idea matures and gains wings. The bottle of Cacharel Loulou, a potent 1980s fragrance, quite the success in its day, is a magnificent case in point.

via

The extrait de parfum bottle was designed by artist designer Annegret Beier. According to lore "she wanted it to look like Aladdin's magic lamp and chose 2 totally unexpected colors for bottle and cap", to make it more eye-catching. (Yes, it is.)

via

Behold nevertheless the original inspiration behind that magical elixir Loulou bottle from our younger days (both memorable and a little kitschy fabulous), Le Debut Bleu by Richard Hudnut, a perfume from the 1920s, discontinued and very rare today, but which managed to surface on Australian Ebay all the same a while ago. The similarities are more than apparent, maybe a case of tacenda.

via ebay.com.au

via

I suppose this post is reprising the Optical Scentsibilities articles, a PerfumeShrine.com feature exploring art history and the images of perfumes as well as that of perfume design, that I had started back in November 2007 (wow! I just now realize how long this was an obsession with me) and which can be viewed in the link linked (If you're having trouble going back to the second page with older posts, after scrolling the first, visit this link and the third page of even older results can be found here)

Optical Scentsibilities: The Imaginative Vintage Perfume Presentation

The enrobing of a perfume in a glass mantle is analogous to the draping of fabric around a beautifully formed body. The outer presentation should complement the interior magnificence. It was just a few years ago that only the lower end of the fragrance market had flamboyant and over-gilded bottles to balance the cheap impression left by the low price asked and the less luxurious smelling experience. The chic stuff circulated in architectural bottles with relatively sparse lines, like with Chanel. But then niche perfumery boomed aiming at a more discerning customer.

Captivating not only the aficionado, who dreams in perfume and can have their beloved elixir dispensed even in a milk carton for all it's worth, but also the loaded purchaser, who views perfume as a precious fashion accessory that completes their luxurious lifestyle or as a gift to be given with the desire to please the eye as much as the nose. Ergo fancier bottle styles have become desirable and coveted again, ranging from the extravagant, like the crystal creations by Agonist or the Swarovski crystal containing Hedonist by Viktoria Minya, to the artistically hand-made such as the Martine Micallef bottles or the glamor of the 1001 Nights of Amouage. But back in time, the imagination of the fragrance bottle designers run into patterns which remind us more of Limoges and Lladro porcelain figures (or in the case of drugstore items of Barbie playthings) than of perfume bottles.
Everyone recalls the model dummy for Schiaparelli's Shocking, reprised by Jean Paul Gaultier in the 1990s. But I have unearthed a few more vintage examples on Ebay to share with you on a rainy day. Here they are.

                   

                 Vintage Novelty Windmill for "Devon Violets" Perfume by Delavelle

                         

                        Vintage Novelty Harp "Heavenscent" Perfume by Nikki de Paris.

             "The Perfume for Heavenly Times" as tagged on the box, depicting a taking aim cupid.

               Vintage Spray Perfume "Malibu Musk" Bottle Palm Tree 1980s

Do you know of any fanciful shaped vintage perfume bottles you'd like to add? Feel free to share in the comments.

Venus, Mars and the Devil's Weed (Datura): a Scented Love Story for Valentine's Day

Officially Sandro Botticell's painting "Venus and Mars" is a story which recounts the omnipotence of love that conquers even the most powerful war. However, new research suggests a daring reading: that behind the image of the blessed love, may in fact be hiding the display of sexuality of plant hallucinogens!

The art historians had overlooked one detail, and it was David Beligkcham, director of the Institute of Art at Sotheby's house who zoomed on it. Looking closely at the satyr on the bottom right part of the painting (click to enlarge), he recognized a fruit that belongs to the species Datura Stramonioum known as "devil's weed" or "devil's trumpet", a plant with a history of hallucinogenicy which induces men and women to take off their clothes and frolick away. The hallucinogenic effects are recorded in ancient Greek texts hence the use of Datura either as an aphrodisiac or as a poison.

The table set out to describe the painting by Boticelli in the National Gallery of England bears the following description: "It is a scene of adultery, since Venus was the wife of Hephaestus, the God of Fire, but it contains a moral message: the power of love to win and to civilize." Beligkcham on the other hand believes that the message is more subversive. "The fruit is offered to the viewer, so it is important intentionally," quoted in The Times. "The Botticelli is keen on plants with symbolic significance. For example, in the back there are laurels, which are references to his supporters, the Medici family whose emblem is the laurel. The Datoura known in America as "a hallucinogen of the poor" reveals the symptoms in the male figure. Inhibit the natural functions and induce excitement, so it makes you want to get undressed. It also makes you swoon. "

Toloache. Náatumush. Datura wrightii. Angel’s trumpet. Devil’s weed. Names in Nahuatl, Luiseño, Latin, and English, respectively, for the sacred datura plant. A plant to make one swoon out of erotic excitement, therefore, perhaps the sexiest Valentine's Day scent of them all!  

There are a few perfumes which are directly inspired by and incorporating datura in their composition: Perfumer Ineke Ruhland makes a sweet and mysterious datura fragrance called Evening Edged in Gold and Serge Lutens also proposes Datura Noir for a more tropical and suede-laced take. Maître Parfumeur et Gantier has Secrète Datura in their line-up, a powdery, elegant take of the herbal tinge of datura allied tovanilla-smelling heliotrope. Other fragrances include Keiko Mecheri's Datura Blanche, White Datura by lluminum Perfume and Green Datura by Voluspa.

The theory regarding the Botticelli painting goes even further as Beligkcham suggests the two figures in the table 15th century painting are not even Mars and Venus, but Adam and Eve, while the plant is none other than a stem from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, the very thing that caused their expulsion from Eden; although often referred to as an apple, in the Bible it is not specified exactly. Is datura the elusive element into something even further? You shall be the judge of that.


Datura pic via Deborah Small

Optical Scentsibilities: When Perfume Becomes... Foundation

Homage or "clopyright"? [This is a pun from the Greek, from "κλοπή/clopy" -pronounced clo-PEE- which means...theft]. You be the judge, what do you think?

Optical Scentsibilities: For External Use Only

Perfume can be delicious to the point of wanting to drink it. Or so would the perfume industry want us to believe. Recently the ad material of Romano Ricci's Not a Perfume by his niche line Juliette has a Gun introduced a visual that is fitting that concept; and it fits the anti-perfume name as well of course! One could say it is its whole raison d'être. (What's up with anti-perfumes lately, haven't Lutens and Geza Schoen exhausted the experiment yet?) We will come on board on our next post with a review on the unreleased yet Not a Perfume and a lucky draw for a decant, but in the meantime, the image reminded me of something.
Something which was so memorable (and so innovative at the time) that has stuck... Can you see the similarities?



The perfume ad above is for Franco Moschino's original eponymous Moschino perfume from the 1980s. (Incidentally, good juice!)


pics via the moodie report and parfums de pub

L'Air du Temps is Rocking: New Design by Phillipe Starck

Celebrated French designer Philippe Starck has given L’Air du Temps, the classic Nina Ricci fragrance which the 61-year-old admits to wearing himself, a new look.
The design is unusual, very sleekened and gadgetry-like, yet not linear. The famous doves that denoted world peace after the end of WWII when the perfume was introduced take a new tougher, silhouetted line that is "rock n'roll". One could argue that the new design is distanced from everything which historically and emotionally we have come to associate with L'Air du Temps: The open wings of the doves in flight are stylised yet they're still kissing (see their beaks unite at the very very top), but one could almost see a cattle skull in profile, a boomerang or a shark's fin at one side's point.
According to Osmoz, the limited-edition item has two goals: "offering collectors an exceptional bottle, and proving that more than 60 years after its launch, the fragrance is still modern and… totally in “l’air du temps” (i.e. the zeitgeist, or the spirit of the times)".
L’Air du Temps by Starck, 1.5 oz/45ml.: 69 euros. Available from mid-October.

Then again, like a proper classic, L'Air du Temps, the flagship of Nina Ricci, at least optically has always been on the vanguard, offering myriads of permutations to reflect the times: Watch some of them on this previous Perfume Shrine article.

photo via buybuy

Optical Scentsibilities: Beyonce chanelling Cindy Crawford?

Beyonce is directed into emulating Cindy Crawford (and a crop of other top models who appeared in George Michael's Freedom along with the heat and fire visuals) in this commercial for her first celebrity fragrance, Heat by Beyonce.
Compare with the original video-clip below (especially around 2:58 and onwards) and...go have a lie down.

Flou artistique: new ad for Chanel No.5 with Audrey Tautou

The new print ads for Chanel No.5 with its latest face are starting to spread over the glossies. Audrey Tautou, the French actress who stars as the young Gabrielle Chanel herself in the film "Coco before Chanel", of which we talked in detail here, divulged: “The feature film enabled me to learn a lot more about Coco Chanel. She was an innovator, ahead of her era. The fact that she created a fragrance in the 1920s that could just as easily have been created yesterday reflects the standard of excellence that applied to everything she did in her life. By playing Coco and getting to know her, I understood, even more, just how unique N°5 really is.”

The film commercial for No.5 with Tautou has been a resounding success ( Watch it here if you haven't yet). Can the new print ad compete with the previous representations? It all depends...

In discussing the visual style of the advertisement with my collaborator AlbertCan, we zeroed in the shots of Krzysztof Kieslowski's flou artistique in "La double vie de Veronique" (1991). The other references are there too if we take into consideration the commercial for No.5: The window pane, the missing element, the deja vu impressions, even the beauty ideal that Audrey Tautou and Irène Jacob both represent (not implying they're doppelgänger): elfin, dark, delicate but thoughtful. After all, as I had written in the past (scroll for "Perfumes in Dialogue with One Another"), there is a thing called intertextuality, which is none the less brightly running through the course of perfumery and the visual arts that accompany it.

The focal point in La double vie de Veronique was the existential question of free will or fate. Without resorting to such elaborate and antithetical to the premise of luxurious abandon that perfume should evoke, isn't Chanel No.5 winking at us through its commercials and advertisments, as well as their egeries, that there is a reason behind every choice we make and the choice has but one name, that of Chanel?

Audrey Tautou redefines the new path that the Chanel No.5 woman is travelling, a younger, less haute and less poised one ~away from the couture of Kidman or the world-wise beauty of Deneuve. Alone, with the inner reflection of herself, a point of departure for a journey to the inner side, the one which wants to be reunited with the past and the future. Her eyes, looking at us through the hazy contours of the window reflection, seem to speak to us of the above. The luxury we have come to expect from Chanel is there, in the form of the diamond starfish hanging from Audrey's neck, but her tousled hair, the emblematic little black dress taking an almost casual air on her and her expressive mien, speak of an effort on the part of the new direction of Chanel to speak in a language that is audible to a new clientele. This new introspection is the reflexes of a quick-pulsed team who monitor the recessive perfume market and are replying by a more modest but perhaps also more esoteric approach to the visualisation of what in essence is but a dream...that of perfume!
And perhaps to further the thought that cinematically started my musings "Each of us is matched somewhere in the world, by our exact double - someone who shares our thoughts and dreams". Perhaps one of you is that someone who shares those thoughts and dreams through No.5?

Pics frill.com and thestylophile.blogspot.com

Optical Scentsibilities:In a Suspender State of Mind (the new Chanel Coco Mademoiselle ad)

The new advertising images for the best-seller and much copied Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel saw the light of day on Fashionising.com. The site offers that it is "a gorgeous Keira a sheer white blouse, Chanel pearls, and braces" (what other nations call suspenders ~personally I associate braces with teeth!). Backseatcuddler.com is also enthusiastic, calling it "very retro Coco Chanel look". Indeed the black and white juxtaposition signals Chanel even before you can lisp Coco.

Personally I find that the previous bowler-hat-hiding-invisible-breasts and leaving elongated limps to view was not as naughty as it wanted to be, although the commercial was positively divine. In comparison the newest is looking like it goes for a little more coverage, yet still with the subtle tittilation that Coco Mademoiselle stands for in the Chanel portfolio (and which must have accounted for a large portion of the younger clientele following). The look is mature and erotic to the degree that the audience can take it. The need for a masculine touch, as androgyne is so tempting visually, is presented through rose-tinted glasses: The sheer blouse covers just so (you can still see outlines) and the flowing effect contrasts well with the stricter line of the suspenders, which appear like whips on flesh we only visualise and never see. But it's also a fashion nod to the gangster of the 20s, the era in which Chanel solidified the look that would make her the stuff of legend and the long pearls necklace depicted is also a nod to the jewellery she helped immortalise. Suspenders also remind us of garters, their erotic significance never far in the mind of the viewer: the promise of something that will loosen, that will unbotton...
What is odd is that despite its timelessness (I've worn the look myself), this look was very 2006: it even trickled down to Miss Selfridges and American Apparel!
Keira has already been photographed for Interview magazine with this look, perhaps to more outright sexy vibes, while Victoria Beckham also presented her own boyish but conservative version in Christian Dior (or rather the stylist's vision) on an Elle cover recently.

None of them however can surpass the sheer power that is emitted through that cougar that is Charlotte Rampling and her ambiguous character in The Night Porter. Keira is pretty and has that angular look that helped Rampling cut the silver screen like a scimitar, but her own raw erotic power is not of the same calibre.
My personal gripe however with the new print advertisement for Coco Mademoiselle is with hair and makeup: The shade of Keira's nicely coiffed a la 40s noir heroines hair looks like it has been two-toned horizontally (as if she is growing out her natural shade), which puts a much darker frame around the face; perhaps an intended choice, given the unusually shaded makeup which sculpts her already sculpted cheekbones and gives supposedly mysterious depth to her eye sockets. The finger on the mouth apart from acting as a further sucking innuendo also elongates the line of the cheekbone to the point that it becomes almost Garboesque. A heavy load on Keira's tiny shoulders....

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Optical Scentsibilities, Chanel news and reviews, Chanel Les Exclusifs.

Ad brought to my attention by AlbertCAN (thanks!). Pics: foreveramber.typepad.com, fashioning.com, fashionfrappe.blogspot.com, fashioncopious.typepad.com

Optical Scentsibilities: Faces, faces, what's in a face?

Perfumery is 70% image, 20% sex and only 10% composition, a fact scientifically proven at the Research Institute of Elena's Holy Shrine on mount Hymettus. I am pulling your leg of course, trying to inject a funny note in what is something that has always impressed me as signigicant in actually having the desire to actually sample a fragrance that is fronted by it. I had admired the Clinique approach of highlighting only the product in the ad for quite a long time (right till Happy that is). Certain faces have the potential to deter us, rather than entice...



Case in point, for me, the English actress Sienna Miller for the launch of Boss Orange, a new feminine fragrance for the German collossus which is launching this July.






Sienna is cute and possibly a nice person if you get to know her (not that I stay awake with that thought, mind you) but she has gained more popularity for having gained popularity via the tabloids than anything she has acted in! Then again I haven't been impressed with a Boss fragrance yet, so this is small potatoes in my personal universe. Might I also add that the bottle looks really, heinously ugly??

On another multi-European juncture, the Italian designer Alberta Ferretti has enlisted the help of benign giantess Claudia Schiffer for the launch of her first eponymous perfume (seriously a dent in the fragrance cosmos?) and it will be her face that will adorn the ads and launch a thousand ships....eh, bottles.

Frankly, Claudia (like Heidi Klum) has never done anything for me and in more intimate moments I call her The German Frankfurter for her spiciness and sheer zinginess on the palate! But perhaps a lot of other people might disagree with me and I have to admit she photographs well, most of the time. I really miss her kittenish Guess by George Marciano photographs that launched her career all those years ago though...

Pics via elleuk, zimbio and djanecouture.wordpress.com

Chanel No.5 Through the Years

The renewed interest in Chanel No.5, due to the new advertising campaign with Audrey Tautou, reaffirms what has been a shared secret: "The powers that be at Chanel claim that a product bearing its name (be it in the form of scent, soap or bath oil) is sold every six seconds". And that the production, shot before the unfolding of the current economic crisis spared no costs: "A crew of 25 people reportedly worked on it for three weeks last May, filming everywhere from Paris to Limoges and, of course, Turkey". [source: Independent]

The new commercial {presented here} is a more haunting version with a nod to traditional values compared to the all dancing, outright-glamour-and-paparazzi-escaping of the one with Nikole Kidman some years ago. Shot by Baz Lurhman the fiary tale "I'm a dancer" routine was a modern, upbeat version ~with more thigh shown~ of the Roman Holiday scenario: VIP who finds true love at the side of a mere mortal, if you recall your Audrey Hepburn collection correctly. Funnily enough, Kidman looks nothing like Audrey Hepburn in her super-tall frame and attenuated blonde features, although Tautou does bear a passing resemblance thanks to the immense doe-eyes of both brunettes.
The current No.5 commercial reprises the romantic scenario "feminine classique" with a nod to the story-telling fantasy unconventional style of the OVNI, aka an anything-goes-style in which a sense of parody might be injected or the fantasy materializes. The latest Jean Pierre Jeunet commercial for Chanel No.5 uses angle-shots, photography and editing style which err on the side of romanticism, rather than the parody he had exhibited in Delicatessen or the follow-the-pale-faced-gamine-with-doe-eyes of Amélie. The invocation of the bottle in the reflections of lights from the window panes of the Orient Express train however, the warm saturation of colours, the bird's eye angle at the end showing the protagonists hugging while the interlocking CCs are left to shine on the mosaics through the fade-out are all masterful choices of film direction. The final shot reminds me of the bird'eyes shot of the fateful couple shot by Francis Ford Coppola in his Dracula (a film full of intertextuality in itself).

Chanel always paid a lot of attention to how they presented No.5 to the world and I took the initiative to present a little retrospective through the years a propos the latest:

The first illustration for No.5 featured famous illustrator's Georges Goursat/Sem stylised silhouette of a flapper, the fashion for liberated women being to embrace the new fragrance; the flowing dress in typical 20s flapper style, the bobbed hair, the ecstatic hands in the air. This was not an advertisement nevertheless (Sem was known for satirizing Chanel in his previous attempts) but an acknowledgement of the popularity of the new scent to its intented audience: the fashion-conscious and the hip.

© ADAGP

Next Coco Chanel herself posed at the Ritz Hotel suite where she stayed to photographer François Kollard in 1937, the grandeur of the suite and the majestic fireplace echoing the luxury of the fragrance.

The tradition of pampering connected to No.5 persisted through the years through advertisements which hinted at the rapture and sense of luxury which its use provoked.


Marilyn Monroe ~although never chosen by Chanel herself as a spokeswoman for the fragrance~ became the best ambassadress and advertising vehicle of the brand in 1960. She revealed in an interview which asked her what she wore during her schedule that Chanel No.5 was her choice of bed attire. A indelible memory was scratched in the flummoxes of people's minds to this day and No.5 became legendary to people who had never thought of perfume before! Certainly not in those terms!

Ali Mc Graw and her more down-to-earth strong beauty took the torch in 1966 when she posed with her dark features as the face of Chanel No.5. The choice showed the emphasis which Chanel placed on their American audiences even then.


The 70s were scattered with print and TV ads of classically beautiful Catherine Deneuve (once upon a time face of Marianne, the French national emblem), the one who has been more closely related into people's minds with No.5. Ironically Deneueve was opting for Yves Saint Laurent for her clothes and for Guerlain for her perfumes! It doesn't matter: think of Chanel No.5 and some old ad depicting Catherine Deneuve is certain to pop up in your mind.


Unknown beauties were continuing to feature in advertisements or Chanel No.5 but the glamour and joie de vivre were always featured when the famous number was brought forth.


The last French face to front Chanel No.5 in the late 70s (in memorable Ridley Scott directed commercials) and all through the 80s, was Carole Bouquet. The French actress wasn't the most talented one to come out of the country but her beauty and chic radiated through the pages in classy sexiness.


It was the bottle itself which took center stage in the pop images reminiscent of the Andy Warhol technique before the Nicole Kidman contract in 1985. Actually Warhol never made any reproductions of the No.5 bottle: it was a gesture of homage.

Estella Warren, swimmer, model and actress, was the early 2000s face for Chanel No.5 in what was an unforgetable campaign of commercials filmed by Luc Besson reprising the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale in a most imaginative and creative melange. The print ads were visually striking, but not the same thing at all.


And then there was she who was at the height of her Hollywood career after worthy choices following an infamous divorce from Tom Cruise: Nicole Kidman had arrived and securing a contract to front Chanel No.5 was its apotheosis.

Please look at Perfume Shrine posts on Chanel No.5 commercial short-films through the years, clicking this link: Advertising Series part 1, I don't want to set the world on Fire.

Optical Scentsibilities: the Divers

On Optical Scentsibilities we often showcase similar visual concepts in fragrance advertising, comparing and contrasting as well as discussing sources of inspiration in the arts. But rarely does the homage present itself in such a glaring way!
First there was George Hoyningen Huene and his magnificently late 20s-mood-whispering of his famous black & white photograph "The Divers".



And then, there came Guy Laroche with his fragrance Horizon pour Homme to reprise the exact same photograph. Back of the heads, bodies poised in 90 degrees angle, gazing into the horizon and leading us to gaze through their eyes as well and dream a little...



Pics through parfumdepub and patriciasilva.files.wordpress

Optical Scentsibilities: Eve and the Forbidden Apple

The story of Eve, her defiance on munching the forbidden apple and the symbolism of poisonous apples standing as wisdom, knowledge and sin in fairy tales have inspired perfume advertising for decades. Today I present you with some of the most beautiful examples.

First there was Nina Ricci and her Fille d'Eve (daughter of Eve) from 1952.
optiChristian Dior exploited the symbolism cunningly from the very start for their Poison series of scents, starting with the very first ~and probably the one with the almost poisonous vapors of a good, true, proper tuberose (me likey!) in mind:


In Hypnotic Poison, the metamodern incarnation of the poisonous apple is fetishly-dressed in red rubberized material, completely in tune with a new audience and the model sports the novel makeup choices to match:


Pure Poison kept the shape of the bottle, but turning it into opalescent white it created a jarring contrast with the jet-black jewels, dress and hair of the model and the Alien-esque movements of the unidentifiable "creature" with which she competes with for:


Recently, after acquiring Monica Bellucci as their spokesmodel, the perfect tantalizing Eve, Dior reprinted their Hypnotic Poison ads with the symbolisms evidently in place, reptilians and all:



In the meantime, Joop had launched All about Eve in a frosted apple bottle in the 90s. Symbolism had gone away from the carnal and into the wholesome by then (in tandem with the concerns for lighter smells and "cleaner" living) and the scent was limpid, promoted with exposure of bare clean flesh.



Cacharel decided to feature Eve and the apple in a regression into the prelapsarian paradise of a garden pre-Greenhouse-effect where there is no hint of doom or decay; it was 1994 and the fragrance was Eden:



Lolita Lempicka is another fragrance who took the symbolism of the apple beyond its fresh, wholesome appeal into the realm of the unknown and the magical. Luckily, the scent resplendid in its bittersweet licorice gourmand overtones corresponds well to the ingenious promotion:


And finally Nina Ricci regresses into their archives to resurrect the apple, but featuring it in a candy-sweet gourmand with a previous fragrance's name, Nina. Hard to envision as either poisonous or sinful apart from its calorific load:

Clips originally uploaded on Youtube. Pics from perfumedistributor.com, parfum de pub, forget-flowers.co.uk and Elle publication.

Optical Scentsibilities: It's Not Just a Game!

Some things are destined to become classics:In more ways than one.
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), directed by Norman Jewison and starring Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen, is memorable for its tour-de-force of cinematography, split-scenes direction influenced by pioneer Canadian film In the Labyrinth and for being an all around high-class piece of entertainment. Not in its time though! Typical...
It also featured a masterful and infamous scene of chess-cum-seduction where chess pieces are used as metaphores, self-caresses as innuendos and the camera swirls around them in the longest kiss imaginable.



The advertisers of Hai Karate (you don't want to know how the name ties in) ~a popular aftershave product that was circulating on the cheap during the 60s and 70s in the US and UK~ got inspired.



If you can get past the bits of scatological humour and the wooden acting of Heather Graham, watch the Bond spoof Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Me for a hilarious spoof of the above scene too.

The Thomas Crown Affair chess scene clip originally uploaded by erectushomo, the Hai Karate commercial from the 70s by fishnchimps on Youtube.

Optical Scentsibilities: bottle design, part 2

Bottles get fairly often copied, er...*cough, cough*..."inspired" by other bottles it seems. After all we highlighted some on a previous post. Maybe the bottle designers/sculptors are just a handful (which they are, actually)and the rights for use are rather...liquid.

Witness these latest examples:



The scarce Japanese Y perfume has an elegant bottle that seems like a drop. Or a figurative swan's neck made of crystal, if you contort to a mental pretzel position for a bit.

Roughly evoking the similar bottle of bestseller Cashmere Mist by Donna Karan.
Jennifer Lopez is full of energy, producing not only twins and singing albums, but also fragrances to fill malls across America. Her latest is Deseo (desire in Spanish), which takes a novel approach of an irregular shape, bluish colour (not the usual choice for a passionate fragrance) and an offbeat cap.
Somehow I think we have seen this idea executed more competently in L by Lolita Lempicka. Another passion-potion in a blue-ish, irregularly shaped, vaguely heart-like bottle.

Balmain has Ambre Gris displayed everywhere in France. It just now made it to some online stores worldwide. Striking and hefty bottle, isn't it, with its big, sherical cap!


And guess who had made a similar bottle looooong ago? Coty for his seminar L'Origan.

Parfumerie Générale goes the way of niche: austere sturdy bottles, uniform design throughout the line, empasis on what's inside rather than frills, serious approach, emblematic labels.

Imagine one's surpise to find somethig similar enrobing the comparatively lowly Denim by Elidda Gibbs!

Then of course there is jewellers's brand Van Cleef & Arpels, who have issued many fragrances in jewel-like bottles. Féerie is their latest in an elaborate crystal flacon with silvery stems, shaped like a ripe fig.

If only Pierre Dinand hadn't already designed the lovely fig limited edition bottle for L'artisan Parfumeur's Premier Figuier...

Jessica Simpson tries hard with all the desperation of a has-been. So hard that she actually sanctions a quite pretty and expensive-looking bottle for her new perfume, Fancy (fancy that!)
Then again her target audience is 15-35 years old (nothing wrong with the upper end of the margin, plenty of wrong with the bottom end of it though: how could a modern 15-year-old get away in her entourage with anything elegant without atracting ridicule? To be answered in the hazy distant future).


Eerily reminiscent of the limited editions for the bell jars of the Serge Lutens fragrances for Le Palais Royal, like this one for Mandarine Mandarin.
Now cut it out, Jessica, please! This isn't funny!!

Pics via aedes, artcover, ausliebezumduft, ambregris, autour de serge, scentaddicts, luckyscent, parfumflacons.