Subha Patel is an olfactory scientist working for IFF (International Flavors & Fragrances). She specializes in finding new scents recorded and reconstituted from nature thanks to Living Flower Technology also called Head Space Technology. Among other things, she is one of the developers of the space rose note found in Shiseido Zen (the white bottle) dubbed "Overnight Scentsation"......
Wallpaper loved the new Un Jardin Après La Mousson by Hermès and took the opportunity of the recent launch to ask in-house perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena some questions about his creative process.....
Fashion couturier Yves Saint Laurent died at the age of 71 at his house in Paris on Sunday. He had been ill for many years and his health deteriorated in the last week. He was born in Oran, Algeria in 1936, in a family of pied-noir French settlers there. He would become an assistant to Christian Dior, later offering his own YSL fashion brand in 1962 with the help of Pierre Bergé before founding his own first ready-to-wear boutique called Rive Gauche in 1966.
Just like he was a major influence on 20th century fashion and images of feminine beauty, he also left his mark on the universe of luxury perfumes. If he was not a perfumer himself, he was an exacting and demanding designer of fragrances, seeing to the smallest details for the creation of the Opium flacon or encouraging the breaking of puritanical codes in perfume advertising with Pour un Homme for which he himself posed naked in 1971 or M7 which featured a frontal view of a male nude model, Aïkido champion Samuel de Cubber.....
Parlux Fragrances, one of the companies specializing in celebrity perfumes with brands like Paris Hilton and Maria Sharapova, and also Jessica Simpson, GUESS, Nicole Miller, XOXO, Ocean Pacific (OP), Andy Roddick, babyGund, and Fred Hayman Beverly Hills, have added a new name and face to their portfolio, Queen Latifah. The singer and actress's first fragrance will debut in the fall of 2009 in the US and then roll out internationally.
According to the press release,
"Named one of People Magazine’s Most Beautiful People in May 2008, she strives to empower women and instill knowledge and confidence with every opportunity. Transcending the “urban” label, Latifah has a passionate following that crosses race, age and gender boundaries. The top Renaissance woman in the entertainment industry, she has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a first for a hip hop artist now turned award-winning actress and singer"......
After reading an article (see next post) about the kind of perfume ads that normal guys would prefer over the glamorous ones such as that of The One featuring Matthew McConaughey (we also learn that the dressed version is for the US market) and Lynx being quoted as the epitome of that style, we went to see if Youtube had them.
Lynx is the name for Axe in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK.
The Sunday Times has a funny pamphlet against over-glamorous ads for men's fragrances. Call it a problem of the clash of egos and upsurge of competitive Testosterone. Looking at said ideal ads for the everyman - there is a big plug for Lynx/Axe ads in the article - featuring the so-called "civilian loser type" one has to realize that if the guys look like your average Joe, the girls are more the babe type. Unfair? Typical? The columnist (whose name I don't see) only grumbles about men's body image.....
Artist Biliana Velkova has something to say about celebrity fragrances, whose impact on pop culture she recognizes by organizing an exhibition called Breathless at the Jeffrey Boone Gallery in Vancouver. All the trappings of a celeb's launch are here except for the jus itself and the celeb herself or himself. What is the point exactly?.....
Kenzo Power by Kenzo, which rhymes with Kenzo Flower no doubt for harmonizing branding purposes, is destined to be the masculine counterpart to their best-seller feminine scent created by Alberto Morillas in 2000. Like its predecessor, the upcoming Power to be launched in August 2008, takes as source of inspiration the imagined scent of a flower.
In the case of Kenzo Flower what served as support for poetic license was a scentless red poppy dear to the heart of designer Kenzo; in the case of Kenzo Power the fictionalized floral reference dissolves further into the vagueness of a non-entity just described as an "imaginary flower".
Olivier Polge is the perfumer behind Kenzo Power. He is also the creator of Dior Homme, Guerlain Cuir Beluga, Dior Pure Poison, Victor & Rolf Flowerbomb, among others.
Masculines Are Hot
The new Kenzo Power, beyond the in-house reference, appears to be part of new trendy generation of floral compositions for men that were recently reintroduced with some fanfare by Jean Paul Gaultier with Fleur du Mâle (Flower of the Male), a masculine scent centering on orange blossom created by Francis Kurkdjian. If floral notes never really took the exit door of men's fragrances following the prim flowery 19th century filled with gentlemen sporting flowers in their buttonholes and scented with rose at their barber shops, they could be showcased more or less, and as recently experienced, readily flaunted for their modern metrosexual connotations rather than hid as sub-virile. Thus contemporary dandies have pointedly been invited to reconsider their options......
Fire Rescue reports that some of their own had to be hospitalized after responding to a fire alarm at a perfume factory. Apparently the cause of their malaise is due to the overwhelming smell of fragrances to untrained and unprepared noses.
"Three city firefighters were taken to North Broward Medical Center this morning for evaluation after they began suffering from headaches and lightheadedness while investigating a fire alarm at a perfume company. [...]
Other firefighters have determined this afternoon that the trio taken to the hospital likely were not exposed to any hazardous chemicals and instead likely were affected by the perfumes in the building in the 600 block of Fairway Drive, Fernaays said."
Trying to break the cycle of financially rewarding poppies crops in Afghanistan, in demand in the heroin trade, proves a challenging task. A local entrepreneur and distiller Shafiq Azizi attempts to replace poppies with roses cultivated for their perfume and fails, for the moment being......
Fashionable Parisian pastry chef and macaroon specialist Pierre Hermé has launched two scented candles called Sucre de Bois (Woody Sugar) and Herbe d'Amandes (Almond-y Herbs) created respectively by renowned perfumers Olivia Giacobetti and Jean-Michel Duriez; the latter is the in-house perfumer for Patou.....
NoBs Alpha Male is a fragrance company founded in 2007 entirely dedicated to catering to the perfume needs of a forlorn minority, the alpha males. In the midst of a gender-bending age, someone had to shout enough is enough. Within this brand universe "Metrosexual" is considered a dirty word. As stated, "NoBs Alpha Male is a company of, by, and for the alpha male".
We got a comment and advertising tag under our recent post about men's perfume ads, saying "NoBs Alpha Male has come out with a fragrance for Alpha Males, called Fighter, no mixed messages; smell great, and smell like a man. We agree, men want to look at women, not other men." We went to take a look at their website and it is pretty single-minded and picturesque.....
Zara is a Spanish fashion brand, famous for having made high fashion styles accessible to the demos. It was founded by Amancio Ortega Gaona, a notoriously reclusive personality, a fact that did not prevent him from becoming the richest man in Spain. Zara, in particular, is known for its exceptional turnover rate as new designs are brought into the stores in a matter of days and sold out or replaced equally swiftly, as need arises. The Zara boutiques usually receive new clothes twice a week. According to the Independent (May 23, 2001),
"Zara has never conducted an advertising campaign. Word of mouth, and the rapidly changing clothes on offer, seem magnetic enough for customers to come flocking through the doors. The company owes its success to swiftly identifying stylish catwalk trends and bringing them to the high street at a fraction of the cost, within days."
Zara partnered with Puig in the past to introduce several fragrances starting with Zara Woman, Zara Man and four limited edition scents called Zara Textures in 1999. The fragrance line was originally set up by Carlos Benaïm and Alberto Morillas. The perfumes were created by Rosendo Mateu. In 2003 I Homme was launched. The brand this year released 6 new fragrances in the beginning of 2008, three for women and three for men: Rosa Bulgara, Flor de Azahar, Lirio de Agua, Sandalo, Vetiver, and Ambar, which are all part of a new line of perfumes called Agua Perfumada. The Perfumed Water line is also made by Puig.
The spirit of the range is described as being "classical, minimalist, and elegant", according to Look 4 Fashion. Perhaps in keeping with the company's motto of proposing affordable versions of high-end patterns and materials, it is not surprising to notice that the packaging for the new perfumes resemble in shape and size the line of Les Exclusifs by Chanel......
Looking for fragrance gift ideas for Father's Day? Here is a cool list, courtesy of Guillaume Crouzet from L'Express Styles. Even if you do not read French, you can still get the meaning of this style-exercise by looking at the pictures on the right. So what should the Adventurer, the Trendy Man, and the Romantic-at-heart wear?
By the way, we loved the latest Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! I think it's the most sophisticated film in the series and I never laughed so much watching an Indiana Jones....
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