It might not come from a French-authored source, but in Karen Homer's adorable little book Things a Woman Should Know about Style, a whole chapter is devoted to fragrance use. The cover, sporting the famous opening shot of the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's (based on Truman Capote's story) with an Audrey Hepburn in shades & pearls, hair on a high bun, is predisposing for classical, glamour tips for wearing your clothes with confindence and panache.
Leafing through the book's pages, I come upon such seemingly wise, but ultimately ill-gotten advice as "A bottle of perfume once opened will not last more than 6 months. At least not to a nose that knows". And I find myself smirking a bit on behalf of all the perfume community's hunt for vintage treasures. But still, there are other nuggets of wisdom, which are charming and harmless, as well as the sound practical tips on opting for classics when in doubt ("Chanel No.5 or anything created by Guerlain before 1930 are your safest bets") or buying the fragrance you like at outlets at a discount.
A few of those hints of perfume etiquette sound like wise precautions in the battlefield of love & romance; even if a little less self-assured or defying as the standard perfumista is accustomed to: The author advises to stop wearing a fragrance if one's significant other doesn't like it. And cautions an even faster elimination of fragrance if it happens to be the same as your significant other's ex. Particularly if said partner is responding positively to its scent! Furthermore a partner's conscious move to gift a current love interest with an ex's fragrance is to be viewed with grave suspicion. For reasons of fairness, one's partner should be met with the same courtesy when choosing a gift for them.
If you're really romantic and happen to be travelling away from your loved one, it's a very poetic gesture to scent a card with your beloved's fragrance and tuck it away in your luggage. Opening up your suitcase upon arrival, a wave of nostalia will tangle its poigant fingers around your heart...
Moving into the realm of choosing fragrance for public wearing, Homer advises caution in the face of unisex fragrances (or masculine scents for women): "When you dress up for an evening, you want to smell feminine and not the same as the maitre d'. That said, for daywear, the classic unisex cologne Aqua di Parma has a fresh, lemony charm perfect for lunching in Tuscan gardens." And where would one be most likely to find a decent substitute for Aqua di Parma cologne, should one want to bypass the sameness factor? The author confirms my own experience that small off the beaten-track toiletries stores in France (and along some of the Mediterranean countries) can provide their local take of toilet water which is often exceptionally good and looks positively "exotic" to most people not native. Homer quips that the trick of "exclusivity" with local toilet waters however is not possible with quite the same subtleness in Spain or Italy, given the predeliction of male patrons for stronger, expansive fragrances: Therefore, use extreme caution, "unless you want to smell like a teenafer boy's bathroom the night he thinks he's going to lose his virginity".
But perhaps the most controversial and ripe for discussion snippet is the tip on choosing toilet waters: "Rosewater smells of the faded grandeur of old actresses; lavender smells of your granny". Perhaps it's all a game of perfume associations...Or perhaps the greatest tip of them all is to just have confidence in yourself and good manners when applying perfume: less can be so much more.
....for the newest Lutens samples are Beth G. and Marialena. Congratulations and please e-mail me with your shipping data, using the contact on Profile or About page, so I can have your prizes in the mail soon.
Thanks everyone for the enthusiastic participation and till the next one!
L' Association des Professionnels du Luxe is today debating the question of luxe and premium as pertaining to terms used to communicate products to consumers at the Westin hotel (with the participation of Michel Teychène, marketing director at Air France and a trio off Added Value comprising Cécile Gorgeon-Pompéi, director, Leslie Pascaud, marketing director et Mark Whiting, director.) This gives us an excellent opportunity to question the theme for our own purposes regarding luxury brands and lessons learned from them.
News surrounding the luxury segment devising new techniques to capture the attention of consumers amidst an economy that is still not recuperating from the recession (and in fact might be in for another bout) have been landing on news sites thickly recently. Witness the mega-news that Gucci devotes an entire blog-site to the China market: Gucci China. The question of whether China is an applicable market for luxury brands or not is rather an over-discussed point. Obviously it is, otherwise so many brands with huge marketing offices standing behind them wouldn't try to infiltrate it so passionately. To point, the Hermes offspring specifically for it, as announced on these pages over a year ago, has been doing amazingly well according to reports. What makes Gucci stand out in this piece of news is that they dedicate a blog site, rather than just a part of their site, thus personalizing the platform for users and importing content that can be peripheral. The marked similarities with the Sartorialist in the layout of street fashion photography is also intriguing to watch. Could it mean, to make this a broader discussion, that one successful amateur might pose as an exemplar to the professionals? To bring this to perfumes, could it mean that specific elements of presentation offered by amateur/indie authors (be it producers of aromatic compositions or troubadours of perfume prose) can slowly become the expected way in which certain aspects of the trade will be communicated from now on?
The Missoni Target collection which sold out within the first day is another example of a new spin to the techniques of making luxe products stand out. “The combination of the excellent marketing strategy, a large number of resellers looking to profit off of the limited availability of the line and Target vastly underestimating the popularity of the collaboration are what led to such a successful, sold-out first day of the Missoni for Target launch,” said Emily Connor, conversation manager at Media Logic, Albany, NY. It's also a lesson in how social media could be of tremendous help when mobile Web problems and in-store fights erupted due to over-demand (Web crash happened on Sept.13th 9am.Eastern time).
On what constitutes the targeted market segments, two interesting facts emerge: Male consumers with an aspirational streak consume more luxe goods and the affluent family is becoming a new target within brands.
Aspiration male consumers increase their spending "dramatically", according to American Express. “As consumers grow more confident coming out of the recession, many are returning to their luxury fashion shopping behaviors from years past,” said Ed Jay, senior vice president at American Express Business Insights, New York. "[...]online and discount and flash-sale spending has provided another platform for buying favorite brands, all contributing to increases in luxury retail spend across the board". (According to numbers, that's a staggering 126% increase on premium luxe brands for non-enthusiast males in the USA). Maybe some of the Missoni-Target audience consisted of those? Compare and contrast with male fashion enthusiasts, who spent 11% less on premium luxury overall, while affluent female consumers did not change their spending habits.
Cuing in this data with the rise in masculine fragrances released by mainstream luxury and niche perfumery brands makes sense: indeed the tsunami of releases presents fragrance addressed to men like never before seen in the history of mankind. There's definitely something here. Could it also mean that the (traditional) role of women buying perfume has finally shifted?
But it's the affluent family which might be the emerging target of the luxury world: According to the Ipsos Mandelsohn 2011 Annual Affluent Survey families buy products in mass (that pertains to the digital and electronic goods especially, but a concept store that caters to each and every member of the family can also see this materialized in higher sales). The reason behind it is suggested to be one of being in control and effecting changes in an are that the consumers feel they can make a difference. Children and teenagers are increasingly monitoring purchases for families. A fact that is well known by the perfume industry as well, which has been catapulting us with releases that address the under-teens (see Justin Bieber celebrity fragrance) or slightly above.
“Additionally, it’s undeniable that the line is successful in the fact that it was truly able to keep the traditional Missoni elements, yet design a much less-expensive group of products, ranging from clothing to luggage to kitchenware to electronic accessories, that was accepted by this key demographic,” she said.
"An unusual, lucid harmony between green, fruity, watery, floral and woody notes". This is what L'Artisan Parfumeur says of their latest, Mon Numéro 6, city-exclusive scent, inspired by their travels:
Evoking sensations of rebirth in which the first drops of rain give life back to the earth. A dreamy, leafy mood, imagine yourself barefoot on the ground in the midst of a monsoon. The official notes are lychee, magnolia flower and sandalwood.
Its perfumer, Bertrand Duchaufour, has a bit to say:
And a bit more on Batucada, which we had announced a little while ago, a collaboration between two perfumers, Karine Vinchon in Grasse and Elisabeth Maier in São Paulo.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
(The more things change the more they remain the same.)
French proverb
~by AlbertCAN
For the majority of the summer Perfume Shrine has been investigating a grand perfumery mystery. The million dollar question: Finding the name of the next fragrance to be launched by Christian Dior. For two months, though living in separate continents (Elena in Europe, me in North America), we have been busy searching and researching high and low, busy forming hypothesis on what will happen within the up-coming months.
Now the keen readers might have deduced that we were only interested in the name and not anything else—for yours truly have sampled it way back on the second week of July and lived with it for a whole day, silently and carefully observing its sillage and diffusion. In fact when the Russian Elle made the announcement two weeks ago it was merely a confirmation of what we have secretly known for months.
The intrigue started on an unassuming Saturday, July 9 to be exact. Elena received a short message from me (for privacy reasons details of day have been modified):
"I just came back home feeling very intrigued because a very chic young lady I know was wearing a fragrance I simply couldn't identify. For hours it was driving me insane: It smelled fantastic on her, but I just couldn't name it! My first guess was 31 rue Cambon, but I know the Chanel has more ‘gras’ and a bit more pronounced black pepper. After 2 hours I finally had the courage to ask her what she was wearing. Turned out she was wearing the latest Christian Dior, yet to be on the market—she got it as a gift. Now, she was too elegant to name drop..."
Surely we all have moments which a story is at the tip of the tongue, knowing how frustrating it is to name that fragrance, the music we’ve just heard or that book we have just enjoyed. But to name a fragrance that is not out on the market? I now know why the antagonists in Russian folklores often ask their subjects to find the thing I do not know as one of their cruel tasks!
The fragrance itself was not hard to figure out on the other hand. As I communicated to Elena within the same message:
"I can tell you that the new Dior fragrance, if the news can be verified, is a modern chypre and a kissing cousin (and I do mean kissing cousin) of Chanel 31 rue Cambon with pronounced patchouli, orris, incense (my money is on frankincense), musks (I sensed ambrette and modern musk effects), and spices (definitely black pepper, but more complex as well) with a stable and sustained development and a very work-appropriate sillage. Not a lot of citrus, but neither is Rue Cambon. The only thing that I consider an improvement is the patchouli and the black pepper facets are slightly more nuanced than 31, which is sharper. The orris used in this Dior is not as obvious. I observed the fragrance for hours and the smell is an engineered marvel, as it did not waiver a bit throughout the duration".
Even until now, months after sampling it, the scent of Patchouli Impérial still floats comfortably on my mind, steady as a diver’s back, delicately forceful as the gaze of a Nubian woman. Its structure concise, its proportions disciplined. Looking at the official notes I now can recognize how the Sicilian mandarin modifies the Calabrian bergamot, almost hidden with the piquant smoothness of Russian coriander seeds—all could have easily gone unnoticed but they are there, interesting second glances. Now of course the patchouli is decidedly present—the Indonesian variety, mind you, having a slight pungent, crisp green characteristic—but hardly a solifolia at all. Rather the patchouli used here is a context, straddled between the bergamot and the musk, creating a modern chypre effect, and, when paired with the sharp cedarwood (Atlas, not the Virginia variety, would be my vote) and sandalwood (most definitely a convincing replica for costs and conservation purposes)...the effect isn’t too far from, again, Chanel 31 rue Cambon in my humble opinion.
I am in no means to suggest or to imply that the juice of the venerable, contemporary Chanel classic somehow accidently slipped into the analytical lab of Parfums Dior, nor I am in any position to suggest François Demachy, who authored Patchouli Impérial, of imitating the work of Jacques Polge and Christopher Sheldrake. Yet Monsieur Demachy’s tenure at Chanel is fairly evident with the latest Dior composition, injecting an abstract richness into the realm of Dior fragrances while carefully editing the existing Dior archive. All this cannot be coincidental.
Still, here's another million dollar question: What’s with the lateral lineage when Dior and Chanel are originally supposed to stand for almost opposite views on luxury?
Many avid readers of Perfume Shrine will no doubt have read Elena’s less than optimistic review of the latest Dior commercial, how stars of the bygone era like Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe—the last being forever linked to Chanel No. 5, no less—have been used to advertise J’Adore. Interesting to note that Dior did not hire anyone to play dress up: All of the bygone stars are brought back using CGI technology. Dior, in short, is re-editing its history much like what Coco Chanel did throughout her life.
Let’s consider that facts here: In order to raise its competitive advantage LVMH, the mother ship of Dior, needs to grow by making commercial acquisitions. (LVMH's latest acquisition of Bulgari is yet another stern reminder.) Yet in the current economic environment the few remaining worthy brands are, in the case of Hermès, rarely available aside from a minority stake. And in the case of Chanel the shares are 100% unavailable, having owned by only the Wertheimers. All of which in private equity.
So what would you do if you were Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of the French conglomerate LVMH if owning a stake in Chanel is not very possible within the immediate future? Given the choices I would have done exactly what he did: hiring the former Chanel deputy perfumer, imitating its legacy. It’s nothing personal, just business.
(On the flip side why is Chanel being content on being commercially competent when Dior is nipping at its heels, especially given the recent releases such as N°19 Poudré? That’s honestly not for me to answer at this space—but certainly begs the question, no?)
What strikes me as interesting with the latest l’offre is the dialogue between Polge and Demachy, almost a perfumery development process ~Jacques creates an essai olfactif while Demanchy suggests the possibilities of the theme. To comment, to reflect. I think if one approaches from this perspective this fragrance will be interesting.
But all that aside the bottom line to me, of course, is that now I cannot smell this fragrance without thinking of the lovely young girl who introduced me to this scent. She was wearing a navy print flouncing chiffon mini-skirt on that day, cut to perfection just right above the knees. Fantastic legs and just a great pair of strappy leather sandals. A beautifully cut solid black top, with impeccable silken shoulder-length hair and almost perfect manicure. Funny how I remember people when they have a way with fragrance.
Christian DiorPatchouli Impérialis created by perfumer François Demachyand contains notes of: Sicilian mandarin, Calabrian bergamot, Russian coriander, Indonesian patchouli, cedarwood and sandalwood essence. It’s the latest addition to the upscale La Collection Couturier Parfumeur Christian Dior line and is available for order at Dior boutiques worldwide and the official website. Patchouli Impérial is marketed for women, although as a patchouli fragrance it can be used as unisex under the appropriate context.
Ofra Haza singing Elo Hi (Canto Nero) by Goran Bregovic (who mixed for the occasion Serbian band Bijelo Dugme's original song "Te Noci Kad Umrem Kad Odem Kad Me Ne Bude") Arabian Eyes 2 by GayfruitBonB on deviantART
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