Smells like...

Perfumes are timeless and often shrouded with mystery, allure, confidence, but above all a generous dose of popular culture. Celebrities generally advertise perfumes and are constantly creating their own fragrances, designers up their credibility with a signature scent, perfume adverts have themselves become studied works and the world continues to fall at the perfume industry’s feet. Therefore, it is an appropriate subject for this next article.

       Contrary to what you might have thought I am going to start with the traditional fragrances as they are actually coming back into fashion (I guess fashion has a habit of doing that J.  I am going to leave the early history for what it is though. Nevertheless, in my eyes, when it comes to classic scents, Chanel No.5 is still the mother of all contemporary perfumes with apparently a bottle still being sold every 30 seconds. It was created in 1921 for Coco Chanel by Ernest Beaux. The perfume is said to be inspired by the midnight sun, as well as by lakes and rivers in the Arctic circle which Ernest had visited the year before he created the perfume.  It has notes of Ylang-Ylang, Neroli, Grasse Jasmine, May Rose, Sandalwood and Vanilla. The fragrance has remained the same throughout the years. Marilyn Monroe, very much an icon in popular culture, initially meant the breakthrough for Chanel No 5. Not only through an advertising campaign that would come to set the tone for the Chanel No. 5 advertising campaigns but also thanks to her iconic words: “What do I wear to bed? Why Chanel No. 5 of course”. [1]   Chanel No.5 was further solidified during those years by popular culture artist Andy Warhol who made one of his famous works of art using the perfume as inspiration.



Today I think we are probably all familiar with the impressive Chanel advertising campaign with Nicole Kidman and later also French actress Audrey Tautou (see pictures below). What the perfume radiates has actually given Chanel products (bags, shoes, jewellery) an overall appeal as a timelessly classy and stylish brand.  Other classic scents are among others Dior, Shalimar by Guerlain and L’air du Temps by Nina Ricci. For men classic scents are Bleu or Allure by Chanel, Cool Water by Davidoff, Armani Code or something by Ralph Lauren or Tommy Hilfiger. 



The new generation of women who have to become the target group for these classic perfumes are cleverly seduced at an early age. This is done by creating strong advertising campaigns around  youthful, fun, happy spin-offs of the classic perfumes. Often the respective adverts are very colorful and they seem to radiate life.  The girls featured in these adverts have a natural glow, an overall attractiveness but also sexiness and they nevertheless issue a strong personality. For example Miss Dior Chérie which is currently featuring the intriguing actress Natalie Portman as face of the campaign. What gives it an extra boost is that celebrated director Sofia Coppola, known from among others Lost in Translation (2003) and her dreamy, visually often stunning films, also directed the television advertisements for Miss Dior Cherie.  In a similar way Keira Knightley is the fresh face of the Coco Mademoiselle perfume. Additionally, the deal is sealed with a catchy tune (maybe like perfume puts a finishing touch on an outfit). This is definitely a reason why classic perfumes are making a revival. It seems to me it can lower the threshold when it comes to buying a Chanel No.5 or a J’Adore by Dior later on.

 The television advertising campaigns:

Miss Dior:

Miss Dior Chérie featuring Natalie Portman:

Coco Mademoiselle:

Nevertheless, the perfume industry does not let a season pass by (in Europe summer is nearing) without releasing a fresh batch of perfumes. It seems the new perfumes this season are very much inspired by flowers. Although there are many others, I will only be discussing Marc Jacobs (the talented, influential designer) who has embraced this trend to the full  giving it a twenty first century twist by creating original packaging. The two perfumes I am talking about are Daisy and Oh Lola! (a new perfume to be released in July this year and derived from Lola). It is rumored that it-girl Dakota Fanning will be the face of the new perfume, which sounds promising. When it comes to these perfumes they are described as “refreshing, playful, irresistible and perfect to face the upcoming summer days”. In my eyes he has the ability to create edgy, yet still elegant designs. This is further accentuated by the fact that Marc Jacobs has also made it a must-have accessory. You can actually buy Daisy and Lola rings which are great with almost any outfit and you can slide them open to release solid perfume that you can then apply with your finger. It is most handy and to be honest an ingenious idea which I am fan of.  There is also a pop art version of the Daisy perfume which I thought was quite interesting.

 

               

                To tell you about the upcoming smells it seems the weirder the better J. Three examples pop to mind. It probably will not have passed you by that anything ‘vampire’ is extremely popular at the moment. Of which most of all the HBO serie True Blood and of course the Twilight sensation. This is why it may not be weird to hear that an Italian company has come up with unisex perfumes inspired by our blood types. Then there was the rumour Karl Lagerfeld was working on a perfume inspired by the smell of paper and books. Nevertheless, this has been denied. Yet, we can still rely on Lady Gaga to shake things up as she is also said to be working on a signature fragrance although it seems a very risky smell as the press described it as a perfume that was to smell like blood and semen. Lady Gaga clarified this misconception, "I wanted to extract sort of the feeling and sense of blood and semen from molecular structures, so that's where [the rumors] came from and that is in the perfume but it doesn't smell like that."[2] There are also original names such as Paris Hilton’s perfume ‘Just Me’. The point is somebody tells you you smell good and asks what you’re wearing you can reply it’s just me. I liked that idea J

When it comes to my current personal favourite it is Incredible Me by Escada. It is not the most original design or anything but the smell is great. It is soft with just a whiff of something that spices it up which makes me feel alive and confident.  I also love the slight vanilla undertone. It also helps that I sometimes get complimented that I smell nice. Surprisingly, I also have a favourite when it comes to men’s perfume. I love the Hugo Boss XY  because you can wear it to work and at the same time it has an extra tanginess that almost radiates fun and makes me believe there is more than meets the eye.

What I want to emphasize is that the creators of perfumes use their inspiration to create great fragrances but it is an industry that in the end channels popular culture to make it work. They use famous actors and actresses in their campaigns, directors or famous photographers to design their adverts and keep creating new perfumes inspired by what people are watching, doing or connects them in some way J

(On a personal note: I know this was not my promised Sims article (I probably should not have said that was going to be my next one ;) It is definitely coming soon and feel free to comment!)

[1] http://www.suite101.com/content/icons-chanel-no-5-perfume-a44263

[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/25/lady-gaga-perfume-blood-semen_n_828273.html

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