Martin Margiela Untitled wins Grand Prix Strategies Design 2010

Maison Martin Margiela (MMM) won Le Grand Prix Stratégies du design 2010 on the 6th of October thanks to his new perfume release, Untitled (more info on the fragrance on our previous article). The prize includes accolades for both his dossier de press (press-kit) and the Wed design for the homonymous site. Apparently, Untitled is not to remain Unsung; that is for sure.

Mapping Scentscapes: How to Do it

"Perhaps the earliest attempt to make an urban smell map dates back to Paris in the 1790s, when new ideas about both political equality and hygiene combined to send physician Jean-Noël Hallé on a six-mile odor-recording expedition along the banks of the Seine. His map-making technology consisted of nothing more than a notebook and pencil -- and, of course, his nose."

Sissel Tolaas of course doesn't merely rely on antiquated methods. In her quest to olfactorily map urban landscapes (has already mapped Paris, New York City and Mexico City and is currently working on Kansas City). Tolaas however uses Living Flower Technology in situ: Dr. Braja Mookherjee, a scientist at IFF, one of the world's largest fragrance and flavor companies. Mookherjee was obsessed with capturing the exact odor you experience when you put your nose up to, say, a living jasmine flower, rather than relying on an extract, or "absolute," as it's called in the perfumery business. In a paper (pdf) published in 1990 -- the same year IFF trademarked Mookherjee's discovery as "IFF Living Flower Technology" -- Mookherjee described his dissatisfaction with natural oils and extracts"

Writer Nicola Twilley writes in an extensive (and informative) article in the Atlantic: "My scratch-and-sniff maps show how New Yorkers' smell, rather than what. To make them, I extrapolated data from the as-yet-unpublished results of an extensive study that tested the responses of four hundred New Yorkers to sixty-six different smells over a two-year period from March 2005. The experiment was conducted by Andreas Keller and Leslie B. Vosshall at the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, The Rockefeller University. "Our main goal was to try to find the difference between different variants in the DNA and different ways that people rank the smells on a seven-point scale from extremely unpleasant to extremely pleasant," Keller said. "We collected our subjects' demographic information just to control for those types of influences."
Nonetheless, that demographic information revealed some fascinating and significant differences in smell perception between men and women, young and old, and different ethnicities. For my map, I chose twelve of Vosshall and Keller's most interesting test smells, from complex natural extracts such as nutmeg and vanilla to single-note synthetic molecules such as octyl acetate, which is the basis for many artificial orange flavors as well as a key ingredient in Chanel No.5."

Read more on how to map a city scent-wise following the link above.

Releasing the Inner Beast...in Swarovski Crystals

I'm amazed by what ends up in my email inbox. Sometimes the products presented defy all possible logic.
This time it was a limited edition Swarovski crystal covered signature fragrance for dogs presented with the tag line "canine style unleashed".

It comes from Sexy Beast Style who apparently haven't even heard the word "economic crisis" or have considered how a Swarovski crystal item for dogs might pose some real danger to endearing canine digestive tracks. At any rate if you have 850$ to splurge, this is your dog's Christmas gift. The scent is said to include classic bergamot, vanilla, patchouli, and nutmeg oils, while the presentation is designed by Karim Rassid and can be engraved with your dog's name ("because it's worth it!" maybe?).

When is a Fake not a Fake?

Browsing through online auctions and reading perfume fora one is left with the impression that highly unscrupulous vendors are roaming the Net "selling algae for silk ribbons". This Greek idiom describes exactly what sometimes happens: something quite different with only a passing resemblance to the coveted is being sold with claims of greatness all the same. This has proven a beneficial compass for the average consumer at the back of their minds no doubt, as people have increasingly become more sophisticated over the years and know how to spot a fake when they see one. It has also created a sort of panic and knee-jerk reaction however, even when witnessing unusual but nonetheless legitimate specimens. Today, let's see three unusual offerings which in one capacity or the other I was drawn to offer some proficiency on in the past few days. Perhaps not coincidentally, they all involve Guerlain...(To explain myself, I simply mean that a fragrance house with hundreds of flacon designs and as many perfumes of modern or vintage cut to contend with, being confused comes with the territory).



Exhibit A:

L'Heure Bleue by Guerlain 75ml Eau de Toilette in the typical "bouchon coeur" bottle (1911) in which the fragrance (as well as Mitsouko) is traditionally housed. YET the label and box are identical to the old "petit beurre" design (from 1916) which also housed Vague Souvenir, Pour Troubler, Kadine, Rue de la Paix, Candide Effleuve.... What's happening? Are we confronted with a fake label and box? Or with a rare, precious vintage? Relax; neither is the case. It wouldn't make sense to fake the label/box, but not the bottle or the fragrance. And the seller has actually five identical offerings to sell, making it rather less rare than one might at first think. Plus the juice looks pristine and very fresh (sprayer mechanism too) for an old vintage.
Verdict: A limited edition bottle from the "limbo" years when the recent LVMH take-over had resulted in several issues of renewed presentation.


Exhibit B:

My friend Dimitri got hold of that one and consulted me about it. I was greatly intrigued! A Shalimar extrait in the typical "bouchon coeur" bottle in glass that only ever housed L'Heure Bleue, Fol Arôme (both from 1912) and later Mitsouko (1919). Since Shalimar has a well documented history on these pages, how could this be possible? The juice is authentic and so is the bottle and label, incidentally. The bottom (not shown) has a label typical of the years between the two world wars and the 1960s, but without the usual stamping in red ink.
Verdict: Shortages of war probably resulted in using a former mould (that of L'heure Bleue indeed) to house a fragrance in search of a bottle.


Exhibit C:

Another Guerlain "bouchon coeur" bottle, this time bearing a (rather worn) Calèche by Hermès label! It looks like a mutant, infested with great genes which somehow got jumbled when the genetic dice was cast and is forever incancerated due to collateral shame. Technically not a fake, but doubtful that either Guerlain or Hermes fans would be very much pleased.
Verdict: Someone once owned and liked the "bouchon coeur" bottle very much; so much in fact that they decanted their Caleche fragrance into it and relabelled so as not to confuse themselves. Then again, that someone probably died at some point and left someone else with something incomprehensible on their hands...which they're now trying to sell with ludicrous results.

The Jasmine at your Door

"The jasmine at your door, my jasmine,
oh and I came to prune it, my little bird.
And your mother thought, my Yasemin,
that I came to take you away.

The black eyes, which are sweet, my Yasemin.
Oh, the brows, which are long, my little bird.
Made me forsake ~my Yasemin~ oh, my mother's milk, my little bird."



Thus runs this Cypriot folk song which plays with the double entendre of the word jasmine: the wonderful trellis that grows upon doors and windows of course, but also the traditional Eastern Mediterranean women's name, Yasmin/Yasemin (which means of course Jasmine). So the poet is in turn speaking of the flower and of the woman, the two becoming one and the same...

Savina Yannatou and Primavera en Salonico perform the traditional Cypriot folk song The Jasmin from the album "Mediterranea: Songs Of The Mediterranean" (1998)
Translation author's own.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: the Jasmine Series