Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Win an Exclusive Invitation to "The Garden of Wonders, a Journey Through Scents"

It is my great honor to be able to invite you in the latest project I have been involved in and which has occupied a lot of my time this past winter, as evidenced by the irregular posting on this blog.
The Garden of Wonders, a Journey Through Scents is a project by the Be Open Foundation a creative think tank organized in the historical Orto Botanico di Brera in Milan, within Energy for Creativity, this spring at the context of Expo 2015 in Milan, Italy. The announcement is posted on this link.


The exhibition set up is designed by famous Italian architect Ferrucio Laviani who has created a "diffused museum" where all parts will communicate with each other and with the Garden area.
The set up includes 3 major installations: The Houses of Wonders, resurrecting 8 historical perfume houses with an emphasis on the design & context of their course presented through the sensitivity of 8 art directors; A Journey Through Scents, an interactive promenade along the historical milestones of perfumery with olfactory fountains that pour replications of these "wonders" and of the main olfactory "styles", as well as a concise map of the provenance of raw materials and evolution of extraction techniques ; and A Vision in a Box which focuses on the design & packaging elements in perfumery and the various twists it can communicate in the contemporary art world.


To give you an idea:
"Piero Lissoni's idea is developed around the title Lundborg and the laboratory of a “nose”: the centre of the set up is a perfume lab sculpture made of stills, ampoules, vases with black orchids and hanging plants, chemical glasses in huge proportions so to evoke the story of the brand and the working place where  John Marlie Lundborg created his famous Violette Flor in 1860. The room is then covered with two big and light bookshelves with backlight panels to enhance the shapes of the bottles.
Lissoni explains: “The room is filled with  700 bottles in 4 different vesrions; these have all been made specifically for the exhibition taking the inspiration from the brands's most famous ones and produced just like in the old days”.
The two installations above mentioned, together with the ones by Fernando and Humberto Campana, Dimore Studio, Front, Jaime Hayon, Jean-Marie Massaud and Nendo  will be within a diffused museum created by Ferruccio Laviani.
The Garden of Wonders is inspired by the history of perfume and the history of raw materials from all over the world; each perfume represented a real and imaginary journey of goods and cultures making it an ante litteram global product. In more recent years the relationship between fragrances and the look of the packages has become more and more intense, to such an extent that it has created well-defined brand identities, some of which are still used today."

The Garden of Wonders, a Journey Through Scents
13-19 April 2015 h.10-23 (special preview during Milan Design Week)
20 April-24 May 2015 h.10-22

The contributors of The Garden of Wonders, A Journey of Scents are:
Tord Boontje, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Dimorestudio, Front, Jaime Hayon, Lissoni Associati, Jean Marie Massaud, Nendo, Gerald Ghislain, Elena Vosnaki, Werner Aisslinger, Analogia Project, Philippe Bestenheider, GamFratesi, Lucidi Pevere, Karim Mekhtigian, Mist-o, Ludovica + Roberto palomba, Victor Vasilev, and Thukral & Tagra.

Follow Be Open Foundation on Facebook. Watch the news on the news page of Be Open.


I have 10 exclusive invitations to be distributed to 10 lucky winners who will post a comment below for a draw. Winners announced tomorrow evening. 

Although I will be traveling by the end of the week on perfumed routes, there will also be another draw for a special Easter prize for 5 lucky readers shortly, so stay tuned on Perfume Shrine.

Friday, April 3, 2015

Guerlain Flora Rosa, Teazzura, Le Plus Beau Jour de ma Vie: new fragrances

Two new editions of Guerlain fragrances join the venerable stable of thoroughbreds this spring and summer, belonging in the Acqua Allegoria line which has produced some surprising  gems these past couple of years. [For a comprehensive guide into all the history & fragrance notes of Guerlain Aqua Allegoria fragrances, consult this link.]


Flora Rosa is a travel exclusive Aqua Allegoria fragrance, like some of the last couple of years' Aqua Allegorias have been (namely Bouquet No.1, Bouquet No.2 and Bouquet de Mai, starting from 2010) Flora Rosa had been announced for 2013 and was re-issued in both 2014 and in 2015. The fruity floral scent has notes of rose, red berries, white musk and orris. The difference between the previous editions lies in the packaging (the box is flecked with rose petals), but not the juice which remains the same.

Teazzura on the other hand is the regular retail Aqua Allegoria and a new composition. A sparkling floral citrus composition with green tea notes that will revive and awaken your spirit just as azure waters do...
The Aqua Allegorias are sold on Guerlain counters for €85 for 125ml of eau de toilette.

The other Aqua Allegoria fragrances in production for 2015 are last year's Limon Verde, the famous Pamplelune, Herba Fresca, Mandarine Basilic, Lys Soleia and Nerolia Bianca.



Le Plus Beau Jour de ma Vie is the more budget friendly eau de parfum version of Le Bouquet de la Mariée posh parfum extrait (which retails at €750 for 125ml), a special perfume aimed at brides. The new wedding fragrance is available in the bottle depicted. As Guerlain presents it : "A perfect companion for magical moments, Guerlain’s new fragrance Le Plus Beau Jour de Ma Vie captures the essence of happiness in a bottle. Seal the moments of boundless joy and relive the intense emotions of these special occasions with this soft sparkling floral scent."
Τhe composition of Le Plus Beau Jour de ma Vie includes fragrance notes of citrus, orange blossom, angelica, pink pepper, rose, sugar almonds (confetti), incense, patchouli, white musk and vanilla.


Thursday, April 2, 2015

Fragrance Stylistic Terms Explained

I have comprised a short, and concise I hope, guide into the terminology of fragrance and the subdivision of the fragrance families. Although the different terms used to describe perfumes have been adequately explained in the various articles on this blog (consult the links below or the right hand column under Perfume Terms), a cheatsheet comes in handy, I thought.

via
If you're trying to decide between -say- Dior's Hypnotic Poison (a gourmand) and Prada Candy (another gourmand), isn't it useful to know what connects them in 2 secs or less?
You can therefore consult the guide on this link on Fragrance.About.com


Related reading on Perfume Shrine

PERFUME TERMS

Monday, March 30, 2015

The True Story Behind the Diptyque Name

Where does such a name come from?

Time and loyalties made it familiar. But in 1961, it was nothing but a technical word for art specialists.

The diptych is a picture divided in two hinged panels of the same size. Each panel is painted inside and outside. The real subject of the diptych is depicted within the inside paintings, which interact from one panel to the other. Hence the opening of the panels discloses the topic of the diptych which can otherwise stay shut to keep solemn its religious holiness… or to hide a licentious content. The diptych was very much in vogue in the Flemish painting of the XV and XVI centuries.


So why diptyque? The name sounded obvious to the three founders when they first acquired the space of the 34 boulevard Saint-Germain to create their boutique: from outside, it consisted in two equal sized windows on each side of the entrance, one on the boulevard and the other on rue de Pontoise, as if an opened diptych. Added to the metaphor, the rarity of the name and its somewhat electric and international sounding convinced them all to go for it.

At the time, there was a nightclub just next to the boutique on rue de Pontoise named the Orpheon. When it came to close down some years later, diptyque acquired the place to gain space. Although the symmetry got broken, the name was kept.

Before it became the boutique, which has changed very little since diptyque started, the space had been a little coffee shop, an office for the swimming pool of Pontoise on the other side of the Boulevard, and also a boutique of ladies ‘lingerie.

This area of the 5th arrondissement was quite popular, modest and not trendy at all. There were many artisans’ workshops around too. Only the beautiful swimming pool of Pontoise did attract some people from outside: built in 1934 and still open today, it is classified as a historic monument. But this part of the boulevard Saint-Germain remained remote from the mythical Saint-Germain-des-Prés which still was the trendiest place to be where the Parisian intelligentsia, starting with philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, had been mingling for years with artists from all over the world, writers, American jazzmen, stars from the music-hall, singers from the new scene of the French song, not to mention countless wannabes.

The early days of diptyque are humble: on the first floor of their boutique, three artists are creating the fabrics of their liking for their own pleasure… They invent a shop which reflects their tastes and personalities, and start to add to their own products a growing variety of original objects from other periods and other cultures, all of great craftsmanship, that they bring back from all over the world. This is another story to come… But it sure is this meticulous care for an aesthetic quality apart from the mainstream trends that will make the name of diptyque discreetly famous.

Thus runs the story...Diptyque have refurbished their brand by opening a special online magazine, called memento, which you can check out if you haven't already. Hours of fun await the perfume and arts enthusiast. 

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Parfums Carven: A Story of Clever Marketing & Great Fragrances

Just after World War II ended, Carmen de Tommaso, a French-born who originally studied architecture and interior design, opened a couture house with the aid of three businessmen friends who had happened to have been war prisoners together. Ailed by her minute size, what we call 'petite" nowadays, de Tommaso had the idea to cater to women who also had a comparable figure. To inflect her brand with a more Parisian (rather than Andalusian) flair, as her base of operations was Paris, Carmen, like Charles Revson (of Revlon), substituted a letter in her name and became Mademoiselle Carven ever since.


What made for the success of this couture house, one among many starting in the mid-20th century Parisian landscape, such as Dior, Piguet, or Balmain? Simple, original ideas and the proper dose of marketing.

Please refer to this link to read my article on the History & Vintage Fragrances of the French company parfums Carven.

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