08 Thursday Mar 2018
Posted in Classes and Lectures
I’m teaching a class at the Brooklyn Brainery on Thursday, April 12 (6:30 pm). It’s called “Sensual Scents and Aromas” and it will be a multi-sensory lecture (fragrance! art! tea pairings!). For information and registration, please visit the Brainery website. Hope to see some of you there!
Image: Detail of John William Godward, The New Perfume (1914). Private collection.
15 Monday Jan 2018
Posted in Classes and Lectures
In a few weeks I’ll be doing my first event in Jersey City—a class called “Sensual Scents & Romantic Aromas,” held at the studio space of The Lucky Honeybee. I’ve been enjoying The Lucky Honeybee’s good-smelling handmade candles and soaps for the past five years, so I’m especially happy to be teaming up with one of my favorite small businesses.
The class will be a multi-sensory “show-and-smell” format, as we’ll be experiencing fragrance notes that have been associated with love and seduction for centuries and hearing their stories—with a few visuals along the way, of course! Then we’ll sample teas and sweets flavored with the same notes and just take some time to chat.
If you’d like more details and registration information about this event, please visit The Lucky Honeybee’s website.
09 Monday Oct 2017
Tags
I was reading the September issue of Allure magazine while getting a haircut last month and I did a double-take when I read this paragraph. It’s the opening of a column by perfumer Francis Kurkdjian, titled “Fashion Scents.”
“Chanel no. 5 was the first scent to bear the name of a fragrance house, not a perfumery. And it introduced the concept that fragrance can represent a look or a style. (It also paved the way for dozens of other Chanel fragrances, including the brand-new Gabrielle Chanel.)”
Not quite…
13 Tuesday Jun 2017
Posted in Art and Scent
Tags
Last week I took a “busman’s holiday” and spent an afternoon going to museums. The Cooper-Hewitt was on my list because I wanted to catch the temporary exhibition The “Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s.”
I had already happily wandered through rooms and rooms of radios, jewelry, textiles, architectural renderings, and furniture, when I spied a small but rich selection of perfume bottles. Here are my snapshots…They’re not great, but they give an idea of what I saw.
10 Monday Apr 2017
Posted in Classes and Lectures, Perfume Bottles
Lusha Nelson for VOGUE, December 1934
On May 18, 2017, I’ll be teaching a one-night class called “Iconic Perfume Bottles” at the Brooklyn Brainery. We’ll be looking at classic perfume bottle designs through the lenses of perfumery, design history, and cultural context.
You can learn more about the class (and register!) here.
23 Thursday Mar 2017
Posted in Classes and Lectures
In January I gave a lecture on classic perfumes from 1950 to 2000. It was organized by Think Olio and hosted by ad agency Chandelier Creative at their SoHo headquarters, as a follow-up to a lecture that I’d given in November covering famous perfumes from 1890-1950. It was a wonderful opportunity to share my obsession with perfume history and its intersections with fashion, art, and popular culture, and I enjoyed every minute.
Chandelier followed up my lecture with an interview (also about iconic fragrances) that they posted on their website. I posted a link to Part 1 a few days ago; you can read Part 2 here.
Visual via Chandelier Creative.
20 Monday Mar 2017
Posted in Classes and Lectures
Back in November, I gave a lecture on classic perfumes from 1890 to 1950. It was organized by the dynamic duo behind Think Olio and hosted by very cool ad agency Chandelier Creative at their SoHo headquarters. I was joined by lots of smart and curious people who wanted to know more about iconic fragrances and their social context. We had fun, if I dare say so myself!
Chandelier followed up my lecture with an interview (also about iconic fragrances) that they posted on their website. You can read Part 1 here.
Visual via Chandelier Creative.
