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"Perfume mocks the passage of time..."
This beautiful historically-centered perfume ad by Guerlain appeared on Ebay. Though it certainly doesn't encompass all Guerlain classics it certainly does some of their most famous up to 1970: Jicky, L'Heure Bleue, Mitsouko, Shalimar, Chant d'Aromes, Chamade... A joy to look at and a fashion & advertising history lesson for those with a sharp eye.
Love it. I follow several of your Pinterest boards and always enjoy the vintage perfume ads you share :)
ReplyDeleteLove it too!!!
ReplyDeleteEspecially the dashing Jicky girl!
Very interesting, as usual. Of course then one is immediately led to ask oneself whether the perfume corresponds to the image. Interesting that the fougere Jicky is presented with a horse rider. The dreamy HB with a more traditional fin de siecle mise, while Mitsouko a more austere look. Shalimar is perhaps the one whose association is less obvious to modern noses. But then nothing in Guerlain seems to define the era, unlike, say, Caron. I haven't smelled Chant to decide whether it fits the post-war, back-home, pre-sixties aesthetic. And the look seem a bit too aggressive for Chamade, Nahema seems more like it.
ReplyDeletecacio
R,
ReplyDelete:-)
Thanks for following. Glad you enjoy.
M,
ReplyDeletethey're pretty great, aren't they?
Jicky comes straight from Guerlain iconography. (not for Jicky itself, but used for Guerlinade launch, from vintage illustrations):
http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.gr/2009/09/history-of-guerlinade-accord-original.html
Horsewomen had captured the collective unconscious before, as Elizabeth Arden ads show (and not for Blue Grass please note!):http://c.hprints.net/m/25/25258-elizabeth-arden-cosmetics-1937-horsewoman-hprints-com.jpg
As well as several other paradigms, as in Shore's Caprice by Guerlain (relevant article posted a few days previously), etc.
M,
ReplyDeletelike I said to Lady Jicky above, the Jicky horsewoman is more drawn from other sources (Guerlain itself as well as other "images") than from a straight Jicky ad existing previously.
Shalimar is the classic flapper; it does blend in with the myth of the orient as an indulgence and a forbidden abode of the senses (contrary to the Zen perception we have of it today). I think that's the angle. ;-)
Agree on Chamade (more romantic than blatantly sexual) and please allow me to remedy the Chant d'Aromes lack of olfactory reference :-)
(I find Chant a very underrated perfume and also one which has one with the more interesting iconography amongst all Guerlains)
Lovely. I feel inspired to wear some Shalimar today!
ReplyDeleteLiz,
ReplyDeleteby all means, I hope you did!! :-)
What an unexpected and nice way to be inspired.