The news came from the famous offspring of Johnny Depp and Vanesa Paradis herself, via her Instagram where she was seen kissing off a huge dummy bottle (that's a factice, guys) of Chanel No.5, and the industry's bible, WWD.
History re-writing itself, as Vanessa Paradis, Lily Rose Depp's mother, had been the face of Coco by Chanel perfume two decades ago and counting, trapped within a bird's cage.
pic of Lily Rose Depp from i-D
Seeing as we had announced the upcoming Chanel No.5 L'Eau fragrance a while ago with the tag line "meant to appeal to millenials" (and the sneaking suspicion its face will be Kristen Stewart who has signed with Chanel already), it seems that Chanel is embracing this demographic tighter than generally anticipated for. But then Chanel did almost the same thing during the early 1980s when Karl Lagerfeld essentially took a dying house and injected it with youth.
The good thing is that with Lily Rose Depp being quite inquisitive about her own sexual direction and open about it, this is a rather good chance for mainstream media and pop culture to delve a little deeper into how we define such fluid terms as femininity. I know it's a little hip, even in academic circles, but all the same it might serve as the nudge that would shift the scales off balance in how we envision fragrance; a gender bender fragrance opportunity in what is ultimately both a means of identity and of a calling card.
Parthian shot: Is it my own perverted mind who sees the bondage link between the two?
The oriental scent which began its historical arc as a "spa" and "all over" fragrance, meant to refresh and provide the stealth mantle of "a see-through charm". Inspired by the sea-like and skin-like smelling primal scent of ambergris...
Enjoy this vintage advertising for the original Dioressence perfume by Dior. (which you can buy easily on Amazon using the link)
One can blame LVMH for many things, but not for not knowing how to milk a thing on their hands. The Poison fragrance brand is a huge success for Parfums Christian Dior and not without good reason. Distinctive, aggressively noticeable, innovative at their time, the Poison perfume series has provided us with memorable fragrances. The new Poison Girl, out in February 2016 in my country, may fall short on the memorability stakes, but there's a clever twist inside to reflect one of the cleverest (and most enduringly popular) in the canon, the almond-powder feel of Hypnotic Poison inside a "youthful" sweet fruits and caramel medley.
collage made by Le Coeur Gothique (on parfumo.net)
It has been said that pop songs consist of recycling the same handful of chords, as one smart reader reminded me the other day, and the universe is well aware of my belief in fragrances' intertextuality (there's no parthenogenesis in art), so it comes as little surprise that I don't deem that bad in itself if the resulting collage is eye-grabbing. On the contrary it's a smart move by perfumer Francois Demachy, who oversees the creation process at Dior (no stranger to artistic influence themselves). Hypnotic Poison has created its own history and legend, and like Mugler's Angel basic chord before it, serves as a pop reference that pops up everywhere. Why not in the mother of all Poisons, aka Dior?
Poison Girl starts with a sweet, toffee like fruitiness of orange hard candy which vaguely recalls half the current market (La vie est Belle, Tresor La Nuit, Black Opium, Loverdose, Flowerbomb...), with a cherry cough syrup hint, that predisposes an avid Poison lover for toothache, but thankfully cedes to a powdery almond within the hour where it stays for the duration. Seeing as Hypnotic Poison Eau Sensuellegot to the good part straight away, I can only surmise that the intent is to grab a specific demographic interested in the rather tacky gourmand top note and who might come to love the development regardless.
LVMH needed something to spar with L'Oreal and they got it. Not bad.
A footnote on the ad campaign:
Rather lost on the advertising and naming of Dior's Poison Girl, personally speaking.
"Girl" sounds demeaning (would they have called a masculine fragrance "boy" if it would appeal to young men? Edit to add: Apparently they would, but there's a reason). The night club pictures with model and actress Camille Rowen holding a cigarette in her nubile hands under the No Smoking signs and her defiant (try stoned) look under her $200-posing-for-bed-head haircut looks as rebellious as a straight A's pupil going for an Anthropology major instead of the prescribed Law School. Is "no bras" the fighting field of young girls today? I very much doubt it.
At least the previous Poison editions had bold, imaginative, suggestive advertising. This is lame.
It is no secret that the newest Dior fragrance for men is called Sauvage and is fronted by Johnny Depp. Taking its cue from the famous (and revered) classic Eau Sauvage, but going of course to a whole different direction, I found the following commercial clip mighty interesting for the following reasons, brought to my attention thanks to my dear reader Cacio.
First of all, we've seen perfumers talk before in press clips, but never before, if memory serves me right, in such a scale. This is a mega production that uses a whole panoply of cues: the materials of the fragrance, the link between scent and memory, director shots of parts of the commercial we might never see in the cinema and online, and a...voice over.
Francois Demachy, the Dior perfumer behind this creation, is given the veneer of an American movie-goer's memory of a memory: of the voice overs of movies to follow, of trailers. In constant anticipation of what will follow, not what is in front of you. Trailers have this paradox into them, you see. Watching a trailer, especially nowadays, is like having seen the movie, or at the very least the very best parts of the movie. It aims to catch your attention, to make you exclaim "wow, that looks like an excellent movie" and make you seek it out and pay the ticket to watch it in full, but at the same time it also leaves you with the partial satiation of having actually experienced the movie (at least they do to me). Possibly this commercial clip is doing the same for the fragrance. In constant anticipation for the smell to come it sort of gives away the clues into what it smells like. It delivers before it actually hits the nostrils. Maybe I'm too critical, that could be. Maybe I prefer a little bit of mystery.
The other thing is that this clip, and the official commercial as well, tries to sell very American things to -I suppose predominantly- Americans. Which is funny, if you think about it, since Christian Dior is one of the Frenchiest brands and the official commercial is directed by that most French of French directors, Jean Baptiste Mondino, responsible for some of the most iconic images in advertising ever.
The semiotics reads like a lexicon of symbols: The desert, the wide open space, the open road, the deserted fairgrounds, the light that glimmers at the end of the road, both an effect of heat and distance and the cinematic familiarity of the camera lens showing you the experience instead of you actually experiencing it. Laundromats and wild horses, and most of all heavy Mustangs or similar cars traveling outside the urban landscape. Francois Demachy the perfumer stands atop the skyscraper of offices and dreams of the anticipation of open space, or the memory of it, it is not clear. Johnny Depp on the other hand buries his past in the dirt of the desert to divest himself of memory.
In the end, Sauvage stands as an invitation to fondly recall what we already know (the images and the ingredients of the perfumes, even those openly admitted to be synthesized, which is a nice touch) or to explore something that lies ahead and we don't? It all depends on the audience that views it, their experiences, their associations, their familiarity with what is being shown.
In a totally typical of 1970s sensibilities pose and text, this print ad for 4711 Eau de Cologne reinforces the idea of scent as a well-being gesture. A luxury for every day, a quotidian gesture of pleasure after the bath or shower, the complement to your soap.
The scent of 4711 Eau de Cologne typified a whole generation in Greece; everything was bathing in it, it seems. But the memory and generational seal hasn't vanished. There came Greek equivalents like the lifestyle Mirto cologne which came in lemon, reminiscent of 4711, and in lavender, to be shared by the whole family as shown in the below commercial from the 1980s.
"You wear Mirto and you feel the coolness.
You wear Mirto and you feel the freshness.
You wear Mirto and you feel so much better,
Mirto, Mirto, Mirto"
There is also the continuous presence of the concept of Eau de Cologne in a retro style context in contemporary culture too!
Rous (in the music video below) recorded the song 4711 in 2013, in which it's incessantly referenced how the singer loves the trail of his fragrance wafting from his girlfriend after having sat at the back of his motorbike or from his left-over blouse in her apartment and just how much he loves it when strangers ask what cologne he wears. A genuine case of sensory pleasure becoming intellectual stimulus!
But the piece de resistance is probably this incredible commercial for 4711 from 1971 I found on Youtube. Tagged "the Body Cocktail" it puts the fizz in cheese; not a cheesy bone in its body. Enjoy!
That's Cate Blanchett, for the upcoming new publicity for Armani Si, a nouveau chypre fragrance built around a blackcurrant note, that has already taken a significant share in the market. The Italian maestro's white shirts from the previous ads give way to something a bit more casual, it seems; a silvery grey cashmere jumper with short sleeves or a dress, from the looks of it?And a killer raincoat for when in the car.
Anyway, sartorial matters aside, the new commercial will air in September 13th, filmed by Irano-American flim maker Massy Tadjedin. Darius Khondji is the director of photography and the clip has been filmed in Australia. Tim Munro is behind the print campaign. Photos by Josh Prendeville, from Cate Blanchett's fan site.
Every new commercial for Chanel No.5 is a small idyll and the reason isn't very hard to see: we're talking about the perfume industry's most sacred totem. The amount of ink and gigabytes spent to write about No.5 (and the whole Chanel mythos) is spilling forth and my cup filleth. But still I was left sort of mesmerized upon watching the latest Chanel No.5 video commercial, directed by Aussie maverick & iconoclast Baz Luhrmann (who might possibly never surpass his Romeo & Juliet 1990s film adaptation, but who's interesting and relevant all the same).
The credits come full circle as Luhrmann had directed the 2004 commercial starring a fledgingly scary-looking at the time (notice the eyes) Nicole Kidman as "a dancer" (but really a celebrity) who pushes away Rodrigo Santoro (then becoming famous through his participation in 300) in what was an almost bankrupting filming for the French brand of luxury goods. The couture gowns designed by Karl Lagerfeld, the jewelry, the body suit and high heel pumps, the chauffeured limos, the skyscraper views, the dancing routines, the red carpet exit, the Debussy music…
Luhrmann doesn't really cut down on budget for the new Chanel No.5 commercial for 2014 and again uses a well known male actor to his feminine heroine, the giga-super-model Gisele, this time Game of Thrones' Michel Huisman. In fact this is the first time that the heroine in those commercials doesn't shy away from a man, but seeks him out.
But what really stands out is the genius use of music, Lo Fang's extra slow (like, 5 times slower than normal) cover of The One That I Want, the famous Grease song that vindicated a generation or two.
Even though I was initially skeptical on the choice of Gisele standing as the face of this iconic French perfume, when it was first announced, this was mainly because she doesn't embody any of the cliches that we come to associate with either Chanel (brunette, small framed, very smart but quirky looking) or the French "chic" (lots of simple black & white, Cleopatra-cut bobs, red lipstick and a spattering of rather unhealthy habits). But seeing the film, I can't deny that apart from a couple rather "void" gros plans at her face on the surf board, I find myself convinced.
Of course I disagree with Lurhmann that Gisele embodies the multi-tasking character of Coco Chanel (a much more manipulative and sharply street-smart woman, what in Greek we call "καπάτσα"), but she looks good (in not only gorgeous-gams-and-hair way, but also convincing in her anxiousness during role playing). Additionally the fact that the director and scripting didn't get her to speak any lines is clever; why shatter the perfect image? It's all played through direction, something that shows very well in the 3-minute long film (shorter snippets of 30 and 60 seconds will play on TV screens during the countdown to Christmas).
Lurhmann, a man known for his grandiloquence, also makes use of some personal leitmotifs: the Queensboro bridge driving-through shot which he used in his Nicole Kidman commercial for No.5, his The Great Gatsby and now for the latest Chanel commercial, for one. To Baz it's a shot out of Fitzgerald's novel that suggests inner turnmoil, much like the Brooklyn bridge stands out in filming as a symbol of faith in industrialization (or even the unification of America, such as in Atlantis poem by Hart Crane).
The commercial of Chanel No.5 featuring Gisele isn't as dreamy as the Audrey Tautou Chanel commercial (who unsurprisingly did embody French cuteness to a T), which had been directed by Jeanne Pierre Jeunet, but it's rather charming all the same. For instance, I absolutely love the clever association of "chills" in the lyrics to the water bubbles shown and the famed zing of aldehydes on the top perfume notes of this most classic floral aldehydic fragrance. And I also smile watching the very cute mother & daughter spraying a cloud of perfume in the air ritual]. The Chanel commercial, especially for something as timless and "old" is better mannered than Dior's latest J'Adore 2014 commercial (which basically told us off if we romanticize any sort of timelessness). Assuredly a step into the right direction after the catastrophe of sanctioningthat Brad Pitt commercial (and patching things up last season with a Marilyn tape transcript). Well done Chanel!
"Mr. President, it is not only possible, it is essential. That is the whole idea of this machine, you know. Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy... the FEAR to attack. And so, because of the automated and irrevocable decision-making process which rules out human meddling, the Doomsday machine is terrifying and simple to understand… and completely credible and convincing."
Forget the impressive staging of the fragrance commercial itself, theTop Kapi/Mission Impossible cascades, the theatrically choreographed motions of former Martini-girlCharlize Theron (which lipstick color does she use here, anyone know?), the gold dress, or the actual slogan "the future is gold" (I needed that, personally). The single thing to really note is they do know that they're letting down their old clientele and breaking up with them in so many words…"the past can be beautiful, a memory, a dream, but it's no place to live".
Riiiight, when you have rendered your perfumes unrecognizable by those loving them and cherishing them for years on end, it is "a sacrifice reuired for the future of the human race" as per Dr.Strangelove.
Additionally, can't resist: what the hell happened to Charlize Theron's face? It used to be pretty perfect (and more sensual) to begin with.
The first "real" celebrity perfume is probably Sophia by Coty, issued in 1981 after the persona of Sophia Loren, Italian superstar and Hollywood legend to give many a run for their money. No Liz Taylor, you ask? Elizabeth Taylor's white Diamonds and Catherine Deneuve's erstwhile Deneuve perfume deal with Avon (1986) historically follow Sophia. I'm not counting the (semi-promotional) claims by Creed or the historical figures like Empress Josephine (for Guerlain's Eau Imperiale) or Sarah Bernard who had a penchant for cosmetics anyway; their commissions didn't come across as "product" till very recently, in essence ~pun notwithstanding~ negating the very concept of "celebrity scent" (aka, jus and packaging produced to harness the power of a fan club into strengthening a person's "brand").
If you're curious about these little fragrance trivia you can check out an interesting timeline for the Celebrity Fragrances Craziness History on this link. And if you're not, it's still sort of fascinating to find out that Loren apparently had such a big following in America that the giant Coty was interested in promoting a fragrance after her!
But my focus today is the print ad. I mean, wow! Doesn't it give you that nudge, nudge,wink wink to go out and try out Sophia because it's everything that prim little "old ladies" with sour lips (yeah, I know!) wouldn't approve of? Please note that by 1981 Loren was no spring chicken herself, proudly displaying her 47 years of age (All the more so since back then 40s was most definitely not the "new 30s", we've come a long way baby…). Far from the feminist issue it appears on first glance, this little fact gives nuance.
I have been watching Marc Jacobs perfume commercials for the last five years or so (latest has been for Daisy Dream, a flanker of the original Daisy by Marc Jacobs, afterDaisy Eau so Fresh) and I am constantly questioning myself about who they're aimed at really and who can identify with the nubile, hazy, virginal waifs he's depicting at an alarming rate; surely the teenagers are far too street smart to be that innocent, right? And they're young enough not to need to recapture their youth via image associations? Far from a feminist issue (others have tackled this more effectively already), I'm calling the bluff out on an aesthetic issue. The tone is set on a dreamlike sequence, grunge fashion style, with flou ~natch, strike that out~ bad lighting (and small lights creeping up from one focal point on the screen, so 70s) and certain cinematic techniques (gros plan, travelling etc.).
Basically they all look like they're shot by the same director (Are they? If anyone knows, please chime in).
Yes, really, they do.
They invariably remind me of the stylistic approach of two movies: The Virgin Suicides (with its nubile girls aplenty) and Blue Valentine(true life dystopia condensed in two hours or less). The trouble is those are sad movies, I mean really sad. Did I mention they're sad? (And they're absolutely great, go watch them! Like right now).
Obviously lots of other fragrances have used visual and artistic references which do not correspond 100% to their actual scent (you can find several in our articles under Advertising) but at least they hinted at something a bit less uniform, less mass generated, less dull than the Jacobs brand is churning out. I don't know, maybe I'm grumpy today, what do you all think?
This specimen of vintage advertising from the 1980s by the French brand Cacharel comes as the imaginative apex of an aesthetic we don't come across anymore. The white knickerbockers-style outfit with the straw hat and the knee high socks in Mary Janes has a vaguely early 20th century feel to it. The lion is imposing and has a questioning look in its eye, it is hoever reflected ~please note~ alone and on a checkered floor on the opposite page of the advertisement.
Gisele Bundchen has been announced as the new face of Chanel No. 5 perfume.
According to WWD, the 33-year-old Brazilian model was shooting a video for the campaign this week in the Hamptons, New York, with film director Baz Luhrmann.
She was chosen for her 'natural beauty and modern femininity,' a Chanel spokesperson said.
The leap was natural since Gisele has been gracing the Chanel makeup advertisements and the line Les Beiges de Chanel for some time now. Nor was the elevated fee (Gisele is the highest paid model working at the moment) since it was already into consideration by the Parisian family-owned company.
Still, that's 3 spokes(wo)men in 3 years which makes it a record for the perennial Chanel masterclass.
It's an interesting, though not novel, approach, since the flanker is supposed to capitalize on a well-established brand, which however has lost much of its fresh, youthful appeal now that its original audience is comprised of mothers with their own daughters. So, in order to capture the daughters, L'Oreal, who hold the licence to parfums Cacharel came up with this plan. After all, three quarters of the sales of Cacharel come from the perfume sector!
What do you think? Wow or Yawn? (I refer to the advertising aspect, rather than the list of notes)
"Now he smells like a man and they treat him like one.". There in a nutshell you have everything you ever wanted to know about the appeal of the Old Spice products. Old Spice is manly and it makes women treat you like a man. A man, not a boy. Yes, dear reader, we're putting the scalpel on the newest goofy Old Spice commercial which has surreal, frumpy and constantly hovering mums lamenting -in song!- how their little boys have changed gears and are on the way to hell on a handbasket because they changed into Old Spice which draws feminine attention in a way not yet dreamed of. "I didn't see it coming, but it came in a can". Indeed!
Affectionately referred to as "the mom song" the new Old Spice commercial is in my opinion doing everything it sets out to do (which makes it a success): namely drawing the attention span of young males into seeing an old standby with fresh eyes. And it has such a weird, goofy, upping the ante factor cleverly built in that it can't help becoming viral.
As my perceptive reader who sent me the clip, Cacio, puts it: "Old spice was, quintessentially, grampa, certainly not something that could appeal to teens. In recent years they've been trying to reposition themselves to capture the vast male teen bodyspray market (where Axe seems to dominate). Hence a series of funny, zingy, parodistic ads, like the cult machoman ad* of a few years back which managed to be both ironic and convince males that it was after all ok to wear scents. Now this one in an even more surreal type of humor, explicitly directed at teens."
It's unfortunate that the commercial has generated such grumpiness at dedicated fragrance groups (such as on Basenotes) who worked themselves up because -really- the target audience isn't the repeat buyers of the Old Spice in the familiar white bottle with the little ship on it and the tiny conical stopper, but the teenagers and college frat boys who buy the big spray cans sitting next to Axe/Lynx at the drugstore and the supermarket shelves. Where I'm disagreeing, sorta, with Cacio above is that Old Spice is not repositioning themselves. They have already repositioned. The commercials are the optical affirmation and seal on this repositioning. The old grampas are, alas, dying away and a new market is emerging. Instead of lamenting the "loss" of one, let's rejoice in the harvesting of another. Old Spice still smells quite good. In fact much much better than the various variants of Axe do and many, many boys' mothers online and in real life are thankful for this. Aren't you?
*Those have become modern classics and deservedly so.
Like a modern day Cole Sear "I see dead people". Only it's not in the real world (well…), but on my TV screen and when leafing through the latest glossies. No, it's not my Sixth Sense coming through. It's just that perfume and beauty companies (and not only) have been using famous people long deceased like crazy lately. Is this a symptom of an ephemeral star system that self-mutilates by creating vulgar scandal after scandal and lacks the distance necessary to create glamor or is it something else?
miniature porcelain skulls via Pinterest originally
I wrote a longer piece on Fragrantica exploring just this link between dead celebrities and pivotal commercials that use them. You can consult it at this link and feel free to comment there or here. I'd be interested in your views.
"Chant d'Arômes is a special way of feeling.
It is the rare way you feel when you love someone and he loves you back.
Or when you breathe in the sweet of a giant forest right after it rains.
Sometimes Chant d'Arômes is a happy feeling.
The feeling you get when a little bird sings a song he made up just for you. Chant d'Arômes could be the comfort of having a secret place that is all your very own.
Or having someone understand how you feel, even when you don't tell them. Chant d'Arômes is lots of things all put together. Chant d'Arômes is a perfume by Guerlain's."
A woman loves the sweet scent of green leaves,
wood crackling in the fire,
the fragrance of talcum-powdered babies,
spicy things,
incense
and salty air.
While enchantment to him is a woman in Shalimar.
Men are more romantic.
From a vintage 1964 Guerlain advertisement of a woman and man shown nose to nose in profile for their Shalimar perfume.
Wes Anderson, in an interval between his takes for his upcoming "The Grand Budapest Hotel", has teamed up with director Roman Coppola to make a mini-movie for Prada's newest feminine fragrance, a flanker to their successful Candy perfume, called Candy L'Eau.
Lighter than its predecessor (and recognizable thanks to its more pastel-hued packaging), Candy L'Eau blends white musk, caramel, benzoin, sweet pea and citrus notes. Available in 30ml, 50ml and 80ml bottles, the fragrance is available exclusively at Selfridges UK from March 28, set for an international launch in the end of April (some markets will get the new fragrance in late May-early June).
Gwyneth Paltrow, the celebrity face of the new Boss Nuit fragrance, shared during the Boss Nuit breakfast event that she has always been into scent; by the time she was 14 she was already addicted to Anaïs Anaïs, then graduated to Calyx and Coco by Chanel, and still remembers her mother's scent, the fresh jasmine Quadrille by Balenciaga. Now she says she "prefers something a little more complex". Hard to imagine something more complex than the original Coco which came out in the era of baroque orientals in the mid-1980s, but one has to throw a sales pitch when they're fronting a fragrance campaign, don't they!
Still Gwyneth comes across as pretty honest when she says that she does believe in a fragrance wardrobe: she doesn't only wear what she advertises, as claimed by other celebrities when promoting a specific fragrance. She also gives the reasons why she does keep a perfume collection, stating that the beauty of the bottle is enough for her to keep a few of those approximately 50 scents around and that with some others it's a "going steady" relationship. Her love for perfume has ben long, teaching her through the years the value of some perfume etiquette: Her daughter Apple "sprays herself head to toe, though I'm trying to teach her that less is more. Me, I just spray a little on my left arm, press it against my right arm, and then dab behind my ears."
Apart from a complete aversion to anything perfumed during both her pregnancies, when she says "I couldn't even stomach the smell of orange juice from across the room, let alone flowers or fragrance", Paltrow used to be the face of Estee Lauder Pleasures, following Elizabeth Harley and Carolyn Murphy, and of Pure White Linen and Sensuous by the same brand. Paltrow now goes for Boss Nuit by night, which she deems "feminine and alluring" (but appreciates that it feels "like an extra something, rather than a perfume pouring off me"), though she adds "that could be because of the branding - good job guys."
Read more about Gwyneth's beauty secrets on the Telegraph.
Here are the teasers, the whole commercial will air on February 24th.
I assume the line "Christian Dior said" refers to the Dior fragrances brand and not the actual designer...(who had been dead long before Miss Dior (Cherie) was even a spermatic thought at anyone's mind). Ah well, chalk it up into harmless fluff and enjoy the visuals.
"When he takes me in his hands...
...and whispers love to me...
...everything's lovely. It's him for me and me for him...
...all our lives, and it's so real what I feel, that's why."
The teasers are code-named "the fountain" (la fontaine), "the car ride" (la voiture), "the kiss" (le baiser) and "the garden" (le jardin).
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