Tag Archives: Perfume Bottles

(Base)notes on “Camp”: A Few Perfumes

10 Friday May 2019

Posted by in Perfume Bottles

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PRADA PINK FLAMINGOS

Style/art/fashion news from earlier this week:

“The Costume Institute’s spring 2019 exhibition [CAMP: Notes on Fashion] explores the origins of camp’s exuberant aesthetic. Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay ‘Notes on “Camp”‘ provides the framework for the exhibition, which examines how the elements of irony, humor, parody, pastiche, artifice, theatricality, and exaggeration are expressed in fashion.”

Could we also look for camp (both intentional and intentional) in the visual presentation of perfume? I think we can.

Here are a few examples, paired with quotes from Sontag’s landmark essay…

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5 Fragrance Moments from Karl Lagerfeld

25 Monday Feb 2019

Posted by in Advertising and Scent

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Lagerfeld in 1985, with a bottle of KL fragrance.

Karl Lagerfeld died last week, on February 19, 2019, at the age of 85. Lagerfeld was probably one of the first fashion designers I knew by name, thanks to the prominent ads for Chloé that appeared in my mother’s copies of W magazine—favorite reading material for pre-teen me.

There are plenty of obituaries and features that give a comprehensive overview of his life and work. This post, however, is just a look at five perfume-related moments of his career…

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Vintage Perfumes: A Photo for Black Friday

24 Friday Nov 2017

Posted by in Perfume Bottles

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It’s Black Friday—are you out shopping? I might be doing a little online shopping for scented treats later today.

I just wanted to share this glamorous photograph from VOGUE, dated December 15, 1934 (the middle of the Great Depression, no less!). The photographers were Peter Nyholm and John Phillips and the image was titled “A Collection of Christmas Gifts.”

I can see perfumes and other fragranced indulgences from Chanel, Guerlain (Jicky soap!), Millot, Lucien LeLong, Jean Patou, Lenthéric, Molinelle, Weil, Richard Hudnut, and others. Something for everyone on even the fanciest Christmas list of 1934!

Throwback Thursday: Ralph Lauren’s Lauren

19 Thursday Oct 2017

Posted by in Perfume Reviews

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Ralph Lauren fragrances aren’t what they used to be. Long ago, I wore and loved the original Lauren and then Safari. Both were beautiful.

Recently I was remembering a treasured possession of my teen years: a brass atomizer of Lauren (monogrammed, no less!) that had been a gift from my grandmother. I used it until it was empty and I displayed it on my dresser for a long time afterwards…

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Bastille Day!

14 Friday Jul 2017

Posted by in Perfume Bottles

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Here’s an ad for Marianne, “the perfume of the bicentennial.” It was released in 1988 for the anniversary of the French Revolution, and its bottle is a stylized bust of Marianne, the embodiment of the French Republic, a personification of freedom and reason. (She sports a “Phrygian cap,” a hat worn in the ancient Roman Empire by former slaves who were freed by their masters and thus attained liberty and citizenship.)

I’ve never seen (or smelled) this fragrance in person, but its ad seems appropriate for Bastille Day. Liberté, égalité, fraternité!

Image via H-Prints.