
I found a series of interesting adverts by Elizabeth Arden about their early Babani fragrance co-label. Babani was presented as a partner of the Arden brand located in the French capital - Babani of Paris - with that implicit allusion to a French legitimizing process in the field of perfumery that was important in those days. The perfumes were said on the ads to be bottled in France and imported to the USA, for consumer reassurance.
The house of Vitaldi Babani was established ca. 1895. They were known for their oriental imports and their bohemian-style embroidered silk velvets. In 1919, Maurice Babani was the second couturier after Poiret and before Chanel to introduce perfumes as part of a fashion label. More so than Poiret and less so than Chanel.
There is above a 1923 advert that mentions several Babani scents: Ambre de Delhi, Ligéia, Yasmak, Ming, Afghani, Daïmo, Jasmin de Corée. They are alluring because they are offered as being both rare and exotic. One of the main tag lines for Babani was in 1920 "
Parfums inconnus d'Orient et d'Extrême-Orient" (lit. Unknown perfumes of the Orient and Far-East). The "unknown" part was dropped by 1923.
What was exported also, we can easily understand, was not just French essences, but Parisian chic.
In an another 1923 ad (not shown here), Babani clearly addressed themselves "
To American women" via Arden in a sort of magical prophetic dervish-like way, bringing them in one stroke of the perfume-advertising pen, fine-fragrance civilization. It was, in a way, modeled after the prevalent colonialist ideology of the period, the idea that there existed a
mission civilisatrice, but extended here to the new world in the particular field of beauty. The collection of Babani fragrances was itself very much in tune with an Exposition-Universelle mental framework where all the best goods from the colonies were episodically laid at the feet of urbanites.
In 1925 (below), we find more explicitly stated the marketing and aesthetic proposition of layering the Babani fragrances (not more than two at a time here; up to three elsewhere) to capture that even rarer essence, the unique reflection of your personality. It is a concept that is now systematically explored by Jo Malone for example, but more from the standpoint of the harmony between the scents themselves than from that of your own personality or mood, although the latter emphasis appears a bit with L'Artisan and other brands...
Continue reading "Elizabeth Arden Babani Adverts 1920-25: Mission Civilisatrice & Early Perfume Layering in 1925 {Perfume Adverts}" »