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.

Hermes To Change Guard: Jean Claude Ellena Welcomes Christine Nagel to Join Him at Parfums Hermes

Hermès officially announces something that was in the works for a little while: the arrival of a sidekick perfumer to help Hermès home perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena. That perfumer to come is none other than Christine Nagel, formerly Vice President at the Fine Fragrance Department of Mane aroma production company. Her new role at Hermès will involve developing new projects, alongside Jean Claude Ellena and she will continue to assume the creation and affirmation of the olfactive style of Hermès, starting March 2014.

It doesn't take much to realize that ~as we had suspected~ Jean-Claude, much like Jacques Polge before him, only just recently, is smoothing the way to a seamless transition that will find Christine Nagel his successor at the head of perfume creation chez Hermès. Usually this is a process that requires at least a couple of years, typically around three, which brings on nicely the solitary tenure of Jean-Claude to a solid 10 years, taking into consideration he started his unique course at Hermès back in 2004.

Catherine Fulconis, President of Hermès Parfums relays to us: "With the arrival of Jean Claude Ellena in 2004, Hermès opened uncharted territories. Ten years later we enrich our story with a beautiful new encounter. We share with Pierre-Alexis Dumas, artistic director at Hermès  the conviction that Christine Nagel will know how to put her personality and her talent at the service of authoring new pages in our opus at Hermes."

According to Nagel, "A composer is an interpreter who masters a technique, a kind of a sponge that can soak up the universe around. Whether that is a designer, a jeweler, an artist…"
Jean Claude himself reveals "The choice of Christine is an obvious one. The time that opens up is one of sharing, of freedom and of differentiating."

Jean Claude Ellena himself isn't hiding the fact that at least as far back as 2003 he had been favoring Christine Nagel as a talent to watch out for (let's remember her trilogy for Baccarat, Les Larmes Sacrées de Thebes, Un Certain été en Livadia, Une Nuit Etoilée au Bengale, alongside Eau de Cartier, Histoire d'Eau for Maboussin, Theorema for Fendi, 2000 et Une Rose for Lancome, Miss Dior Cherie, Lyra for Alain Delon, Spazio by Krizia, Memoire d'Homme by Ricci, the Guerlain Carnal Elixirs, co-creating Narciso for Her and recently her work for Armani Si, plus she is the recipient of numerous awards). Neither French (nor Grasseoise), born in Geneva by a Swiss father and an Italian mother, Nagel had been Jean Claude's protégée for some time. In an industry that still works in terms of family ties, the apprenticeship angle is a more honest and direct one.

Bonne chance à vous, madame Nagel!

Respecting a Perfume vs. Actually Wearing It

The other day in the Underrated Perfume Day feature I tackled a fragrance that surprised and continues to surprise me: the original Coco perfume. In my fragrance review of Coco by Chanel I elaborated on how in all my years as a perfumista (and that's all my life, actually) I had never seen a bottle on anyone's shelf, though I know that it's often mentioned in awe online and it's spoken of in revered tones; plus it's still being sold, so someone's got to be buying it, by market law.
In the same post I also recounted a perfume mystery: how such a well-liked (by the sounds of it) fragrance had failed to elicit enthusiastic swap takers when I had presented a big bottle of extrait de parfum for the taking a handful of years ago (I had to beg to get it off my hands). The response I got (which can be read in the comments) was intriguing to say the least.

via Pinterest

Out of the woods there leaped commenters who said that "yes, I do like Coco" and some of them even admitted to wearing the stuff! Incredible! Where had I been all this time? In a sea of YSL Opium, I suppose, but still…

One of my readers posted an interesting tidibit: in Germany Coco far surpasses the sales of No.19 by Chanel, and another specified that Coco is never to be worn in summer, nor in casual situations, never in the office etc. This got me thinking that ~bearing in mind that in Greece Chanel No.19 far surpasses the sales of Coco~ we're dealing right enough with a cultural chasm and a weather continuum as well. It's all too natural that a warm, dense, caressing oriental perfume is doing well in a country that is snowed up half the year and a coolish chypre fragrance with dry, starchy iris is doing well in a country that is enjoying temperatures of over 25C half year long and is sunny even in the coldest of days. It makes sense, you know?

But it also impressed me that many readers mentioned how their appreciation has waned a bit compared to the 1980s and 1990s simply because they're now immersed in a sort of perfume obsession that distracts them too much with too many samples, too many niche releases etc. The market has also seen the fragrance launches multiply like Gremlins in a pond in recent years. That's also kind of a natural conclusion.

My thoughts grazed another path as well. There are some noli me tangere perfumes, perfumes that are aspirational and require a better self to approach them, someone leaner, richer, smarter, what-the-fuck-er   in order for us to claim them and graft them unto ourselves. Coco isn't too haughty, but some others are (are you saving your Amouages and By Kilians for special occasions when dressed up to the nines? I feel your pain).  I used to think like that from time to time, "saving" myself for specific perfumes, deeming them too important to trivialize with the mundane and the everyday. I don't do that as much nowadays. I think it has to do with my "to hell with it" attitude which has matured over the past couple of years due to mundane and everyday reasons, ironically enough.

So, what gives? In a society that we're never good enough for so many things, is perfume itself becoming the yardstick against which we measure our shortcomings? And is admiration that never gets materialized into reality an exercise of borborygmi answered with Lean Cuisine?
I'm throwing a thought to the wind and hoping someone catches it.

Do come out off the galley and confess in the comments: Are there perfumes that you feel you admire or respect but don't wear as often as you'd like to? Which are they? And why do you believe this happens? 

Sammarco Vitrum: fragrance review & introduction to the Sammarco brand

Sammarco is an artisanal line based in Appenzel, Switzerland, founded by Giovanni Sammarco, a genuine lover of fine perfume and premium quality raw materials who set up his own shop and now caters to all those who want a very special, bespoke fragrance or to get their hands on some of the choicest and less available perfumery materials for their own blends or scent education. I have been fortunate to have sampled some of the wares of Sammarco, both finished fragrances and raw materials, and I'm impressed by the quality; real animalics, precious ingredients, everything shining and awing with the sheen of natural, genuine essences, heaps of real jasmine, gorgeous cacao absolute, authentic orris butter, smooth osmanthus, lovely liquerish rose….

Right now Sammarco offers three ready made perfumes: Alter (a gorgeous jasmine floriental to which I will revert later on), Bond T (a real dark chocolate gourmand that was conceived after a visit to a chocolatier in Pisa, Italy) and Vitrum, a vetiver woody made for a journalist friend of Giovanni, named Federica. They're all lovely, with Vitrum perhaps spanning the spectrum on gender specifics best. So I'm starting with that one today.

Vitrum belongs in that class of fragrances that are immediately likable by everyone, exactly because it focuses on a beloved material which although always intensely itself it hides nuances of talent beyond its recognizability and genre factor. Like a Vincent Price of a character, it has the drama of its coolish and smoky demeanor, all rugged and beautifully boomy voiced, but it is softened by the magic of sentiment; rose and pepper bring forth antithetical virtues, much like a soft fairy tale of Edward Scissorhands can bring a tear in our eye and a smile in our heart. It's as surprising to find a gentler side to the craggy profile of the master of sinister as finding out he was an art historian and an avid cook who started his career as the romantic lead, which is totally true.
Likewise, we're conditioned to view vetiver woody fragrances as perfect for the heat of summer (and indeed vetiver is used in India for its cooling properties) but I find that the smokiness and bold spiciness (with a hint of a wintery, tempest petrol green sea spray) makes an overcast, brumous winter day feel like a precious gift.

Vitrum is available on the Sammarco e-shop for 130CH. (There are several paying options and you will have to contact the company to see if there are any shipping restrictions if you're worried).

To tie this all up and conclude. Regarding the bespoke fragrance option, it's all fine and dandy as an idea, and if you have been following Perfume Shrine you know we have touched on the subject here and there, but the major stumbling obstacle for most is the initial cost: one can't just have a formula made and only order a single bottle with most perfumers offering this special service. Giovanni cleverly thought about this and bypassed it in one fell swoop as he offers the Sammarco Mini-Bespoke service. For just 600CH you can have one bottle of your specially made perfume, created for you and with you! I call this genius, don't you?

The winner of the draw...

...for the Tauer Explorer set (Andy's Advent Calendar offer) is Veronica (posting at 13: 24).
Congratulations! Please email me your shipping data, using Contact, so I can forward them to the perfumer to have your prize in the mail for you soon.

Thanks everyone for the truly enthusiastic participation and till the next one!