Takashimaya: Bad News Ahead

WWD revealed that elegant Japanese department store Takashimaya which occupies more than 37,000 square feet for retail and office space on New York City's posh Fifth Avenue will close its flagship store in June. The building is owned and controlled by Takashimaya Fifth Avenue Corp. and Takashimaya Singapore Ltd. "Takashimaya said it plans to sell the real estate and dedicate the proceeds to faster growing markets in Asia," the paper reports in a short blurb. [source]

Somehow this reminds me of what I had said (a propos LVMH expanding into new markets via Tony Blair's consulting, scroll the article to the last paragraphs) in regards to the move of western companies into the Asian expansion being the only solution right now. Hermes as we had reported a while ago is even launching an exclusively Chinese line called Shang Xia!

The current issue of WWD reveals that the Takashimaya closing will be effective come 10th of June 2010. "This June, the company will shutter its New York flagship at 693 Fifth Ave., between East 54th and East 55th streets. It has been at the building, which it owns and plans to sell, since 1993, though its first store on the gilded Fifth Avenue strip opened in 1958" [source] while WWD mentioned that the store "will no longer be merging with H2O Retailing Corp., parent company of Hankyu and Hanshin department stores". Apparently not only is the Fifth Avenue store closing but another 6 stores have already closed in Japan. The reason isn't hard to see: Low sales have given the kiss of death. Given that they recently announced carrying the elusive (and unjustly underrated) Mona di Orio line, let's hope it didn't jinx it. (This is only a joke, folks!)
On the whole it was a matter of time before the hen that lays the golden eggs, namely the sector of niche fragrances, becomes oversaturated and confuses the consumer who cannot be fooled into paying, especially in this economy, for triple-the-price concoctions which are made the same way as mainstream fragrances but circulate in a je ne sais quoi way supposed to make them more "luxurious" and "exclusive"...

If interested to follow my thoughts on this track, I had posted an article wondering How Much Will the Niche Market Bear? on this link and recently discussed Niche Degeneration on that link on the Perfumism website.

Pic of Takashimaya New York via Atherton Bartelby

Paco Rabanne Calandre: Fragrance Review

"Imagine its spring. A rich young man arrives in his E-type Jaguar to pick up his girlfriend. Imagine the scent of fast air, speed and leather seats. He takes the girl for a ride along the seaside. He stops in a forest. There he makes love to her on the bonnet of the car."
~Marcel Carles recalling Paco Rabanne's brief for what became Calandre.

I was browsing one of the blogs I enjoy, namely Perfume Posse, the other day, when I came up upon a post by Patty in which amidst other musings (such as her antipathy for my beloved Fille en Aiguilles, how can this be I ask you?), she was crestfallen about the discontinuation of Calandre, a floral aldehydic that comes from 1969 (composed by perfumer Michel Hy) and which is just about one of the friendliest rose aldehydics in existence.

This Rabanne is also respendid with interesting trivia: It has rose oxides which give a slight "metallic" tinge to the flower, supposedly to translate the notion of "calandre" into scent, it being the car's radiator grille in French. Actually the first perfume "draft" was too reminiscent of a hot car (Spanish-born Paco Rabanne's brief) which made it rather unwearable, so back to the sketch board it went! The bottle, designed by Pierre Dinand, was sparse, with metal overlays in brushed silver finish which gave a high-tech look about 20 years before this would become the norm.

Calandre has been special to me personally for two reasons: First, it was given to me as a gift as a young teenager (we're talking about 13 here) by my sophisticated grandmother. I cherished my little bottle and had it alongside my other precious gems for years ~Anais Anais, Chanel No.5 (you read this correctly), Tosca and 4711 by Muelhens and Opium (you read this correctly too, I've said my piece before) alongside several minis I snatched up every chance I got.
Secondly, in the face of the deterioration of Rive Gauche by the oversexed, modernisating Tom Ford stint as creativer director of Yves Saint Laurent Parfums, Calandre remained more faithful to the former's idea of what I call its spirit of frosty allure, "what KGB agents would have worn to seduce James Bond"; almost the way "black pudding" is the faithful reminder of our primeval, barbaric and needy of ready nutrients nature.
The comparison between Rive Gauche and Calandre of course is the very antithesis of cognitive dissonance: Perfume lore wants Jacques Polge to have been instructed by the people at Yves Saint Laurent to produce something similar to the ~at the time~ avant-garde Calandre which had been issued the previous year. The result came in the market in 1971 in a striking blue and silver metal aluminum can and with the passage of years managed to eclipse the pulchritude of the original: Yves Saint Laurent with his flamboyant colours, rustic decadence and matchless tailoring became all the rage in the 1970s, while the futuristic Rabanne sewing with pliers and a blowtorch on his space-age plastic chain-mail Barbarellas had become a little less relevant to the zeitgeist; only Mylene Farmer continues to evoke the futuristic extravagances today. Overall Calandre is more American than Rive Gauche and it pre-emptied the trend of American-style fragrances that followed (White Linen etc)

Calandre has a wonderful olfactory profile: citrusy, slightly sour top note which segues into both oily green hyacinth and a fresh (laundered, thanks to lily-of-the-valley) white rose, elements which peter out slowly into an undefinable vaguely herbal base with honey and light musk touches that is its own thing more than anything that morphs into the wearer. Compared to Rive Gauche, Calandre is less frosty aldehydic, more lemony and with a softer overall character but equally abstract like you can't really point your finger on what you're smelling: Is it iced linens off the fridge on a hot day in a tamer version of The Seven Year Itch heat-remedy? A florist's fridge when the flowers have long departed? Or the cool breeze through a vetiver-sewn canopy in a non-tropical climate? That's Calandre's charm!
Cue into the last few days: The news of a possible discontinuation of Calandre bombed. Smiles were wiped off faces. The official response from Paco Rabanne on the question on discontinuation luckily came through a POL member, Cubby:

"Thank you for your message and for your interest in Paco Rabanne. Further to your enquiry, the Calandre perfume is still available in our current collection. Could you please notify us of your residential area so that we could indicate you the details of your nearest stockist. We remain
at your disposal for any further information. Best regards,
Paco Rabanne Online"

So now you can rest easy! It's even available as an Eau de Toilette on Amazon still.

Notes for Paco Rabanne Calandre:
Top: Aldehydes, green notes, bergamot, lemon
Heart: Rose, lily of the valley, geranium, jasmine, ylang-ylang, orris root
Base: Vetiver, oakmoss, cedar, sandalwood, amber, musk

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Aldehydes, what are they and how do they smell?

Perfume ads via parfum De Pub. Pic of chainmail dress by Paco Rabanne via In Memory of All Things

What Sells? A Case Study

An astounding number of articles tackles the latest, apparently unexpected ~from what I deduce, since it makes such an impression~ phenomenon: Namely that a "celeboscent" really made it. (This term is short for "celebrity scent"; those fragrances eponymously launched by stars, supposedly inspired by their personalities and lifestyle, but in fact churned out by perfume producing companies with minimal involvement by the stars themselves). Trusted reportage says that this particular frag is selling like crazy! What is it? It's Heat by Beyoncé Knowles!

"At the recent Retail & Luxury Goods Conference at Harvard Business School, Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren revealed that its already made more than $3 million in worldwide sales since its launch" [NB We're talking 3 months here] while he said that in an meet-and-greet with the singer herself "72,000 bottles of her perfume were sold that in that hour". To convert this in monetary values, Women's Wear Daily reported that first day Macy's sales made $60,000. (Talk about WOW!!) All to the point that "trying to pick up a bottle of “Heat” at Macy’s.com estimates over a month before it ships" now. "This morning I woke up and they told me the fragrance is the number one fragrance in America,” Beyoncé told Access. “I had absolutely no idea.” We're clearly talking about a huge commercial blockbuster. That made me think...

So the question arises: I am wondering whether the success has to do with the bootilicious sexy appeal of the singer herself (surely overall a positive role-model in today's celebrity world which is filled with human trash) or with the fragrance style and its perfect top-to-bottom design (corresponding so well to the celebrity herself, I mean, as celebrity brand expansion). Certainly it's not a "bootichouli" fragrance like we had suggested and hoped for on a previous occasion, at least going by the description, in which "Heat blends a floral mix of magnolias, neroli, and red vanilla orchids with the scent of almond macaroon, honeysuckle, nectar, and crème de musk" composed by perfumers Claude Dir and Olivier Gillotin. March on Perfume Posse observes that "Heat smells like a thin veneer of canned peaches in syrup over the most powerful, intensely animalic stank of unwashed ladyparts that I have ever smelled in a perfume, and I don’t mean that in a good way." Robin at NST on the other hand pegs it a warm fruity musk adding "I don’t find it even slightly sexy, and it isn’t what I’d call memorable, but it doesn’t much matter: it’s by Beyoncé and it isn’t a complete mess". Others report that real human testers (in Miami) perceive it as a cotton candy and amaretto fragrance. Take your pick!

Whatever it is, it's definitely a case-study for the heads at Coty (the perpetrator), Parlux et al. and for marketers everywhere. Expect more of the same very, very soon! And if fashion designers are "only worth as much as [their] latest collection's success", then celebrities will soon be worth the amount of their celebrity scent sales. Mark my words!

The Perfumatic: Coin-Operated Perfume Dispenser

According to Susan Berberet, Assistant Curator of Collections at the Oklahooma History Center, the prevalent in the 50s and 60s coin-operated perfume spraying machine (the Perfumatic) found in ladies' rooms of posh hotels and restaurants was emitting such classics as Chanel No.5 and My Sin by Lanvin (Can you hear my jaw hitting the floor in amazement at the mention of the latter?).
Or as the recollection of those who have actually used some of them goes, perhaps copies of those two popular scents. It doesn't really matter for our purposes here. The machine used a thin dime coin and for just that price sprayed you with a healthy dose of perfume, in order to freshen up or just in case you neglected that height of grooming before going out. Sounds like a great idea, didn't it?
Older generations fondly remember the ritual in the States while these pastel machines, alongside others with actual vials attached existed for scenting your handkerchief; useful when those were the cotton & linen variety and not the disposable kind.

The even more impressive info is that actually this goes far, far back; much further than imagined: "The first group to demand such on the spot purchases were the Greeks. The first mention of a coin-operated dispenser was in 215 B.C., by a mathematician and engineer named Heron (or Hero) of Alexandria [The one who also invented ύδραυλις/hydraulis, the precursor of the Organ]. His machine would accept a coin and then dispense a set amount of “holy water” in the Egyptian temples!" But Susan Berbet goes on to explain that it would only resurface in the Industrial Revolution age, when the technology to make this cheap and functional finally emerged.

But the idea isn't only an antiquated one. There are modern, aluminum-shiny examples with "perfume" and "cologne" in them to be sold still!
Perfumaniac, a New Orleans-based blogger blogging at Yesterday’s Perfume first published a photo of a perfume vending machine which sold perfume "nips" (small plastic "packets" like samples for perfume applying), in which she mentioned how such 20s popularities as Soir de Paris (Evening in Paris) by Bourjois or Arpege by Lanvin (again) were sold at the literal drop of a coin. Then Dr.Avery Gilbert took it over on his own blog, where he discussed about the idea of an olfactory museum. Can I just say I think there's good money to be made if this idea is ever materialised.

And to revert to the initial point of interest which made an impression on me, it does make you wonder which would fragrances would be chosen for today's market to be put in the ladies' room, if such a thing existed still. What do you think?

Read Berberet's article on this link ("Found in Collections" blog, Oklahoma History Center)

Thanks to Sillage for bringing this to my attention

Li Edelkoort, "Priestess of Trends", Predicts

Reading the credentials of Dutch-born, Parisian-living Li Edelkoort, sounds like an astounding pile of worthy accomplishements: Internationally acclaimed for pioneering the trend-setting concept, named by Time Magazine as one of the world's 25 most influential people in fashion and an unparalleled lifestyle expert, Li is president of Edelkoort Inc. but also of Trend Union Paris, Trend Union Japan, Studio Edelkoort and Edelkoort Editions. In short, if anyone is thinking of gauging what the market will bear, they only have to set their eyes on this meek-looking yet truly hypnotising and persuading woman with the piercing blue eyes code-named in the industry as "the oracle". As anyone who has met her knows well, she is able of persuading cows to buy milk!
So investigating about her views on upcoming beauty and lifestyles trends naturally interested me a lot and here are some thoughts worth sharing with you.

The whole notion of lifestyle is defined by Li Edelkoort as "an ensemble of ideas, attitudes, designs and aesthetics geared to celebrating life", the focus being enjoyment, deriving pleasure out of the process. But what made her become involved in it? Does she make the trends or does she read the trends? In her opinion trend-shaping happens by the public itself and by the environment. "Trends reside in the collective subconscious and in the unknown and can be detected by individuals who trust their intuition and are trained to detect signals at an early stage".

Reverting to the beauty and fragrance industry, reflecting upon the focus on wellness in the past decade, one is wondering what the evolution will be: Will there be a completely new concept or simply a recalibrating of the wellness ideal? According to Li, well-being will not cease to be important, verging not only to health and beauty but also to spirituality: "A more domestic way to look at household chores will ground us and make us appreciate life with simplicity. Sound, dance and music will be part of the well-being continuum".

For 2011 specifically the continuation of the "green" movement in the beauty industry and beyond and the reversion to the earth is looking like the main direction, especially in the realm of an economic crisis. In that regards she proposed grey as the transitionary colour. She hopes that a stronger bond between humans and animals will be generated, while the research for sustainable products as well as interesting new looks and moving fragrances will continue.

The opening of the new decade on the whole presents new challenges as the world is changing and after 30 years in the business, it comes as no surprise that Li is not only vaguely referencing a trend but putting a very specific context on it: Birds! I admit I was sceptical too, but hear her out please: "We believe that we will be moving in the next decade towards more community-oriented behavior. Our attitude will be one of respect for our environment and our species; this is the reason why we entitled our latest lifestyle & design forecast "we are family". Also, we were intrigued by birds and their social behavior for our new Trend Union autumn / winter 2011-12 fashion season, which we called "Taking Flight". Birds are a model of social connectivity and communal efficiency, as well as an incredible source of inspiration to develop rich color cards, fantasy fashion shapes, and nest-like weaves. Birds can also be a source for ideas in creative make-up, hair color, and hair styling".

Also worth reading, an article into the beginnings and confessions of Li Edelkoort on Wall Street Journal Magazine by Cecilie Rohwedder.

Li Edelkoort photo taken by Marie Taillefer