04 Tuesday Sep 2018
Posted in Advertising and Scent
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For those of you returning to school this week (as student or as teacher) or for any of you embarking on a new research or writing project this fall—here’s a magazine advertisement for Revlon’s Intimate. This perfume was released in 1955 but the ad seems to date to the early-1960s.
Wishing you luck as you hit the books this fall!
29 Wednesday Aug 2018
Posted in Advertising and Scent
My husband and I recently went to see the new documentary McQueen. I’ve been an admirer of Alexander McQueen’s work for a long time—even before his death in 2010. In 2011 I was a frequent visitor to “Savage Beauty,” the retrospective exhibition of Alexander McQueen’s designs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I’m still haunted by McQueen’s artistry and the magical way it was showcased there…
26 Tuesday Jun 2018
Posted in Advertising and Scent
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In honor of June—the month of roses—and as a birthday card to myself, here’s a vintage advertisement for Caron’s La Fête des Roses!
14 Monday May 2018
Posted in Classes and Lectures
I’ve just added a lecture to my schedule… I’ll be speaking about classic perfumes on July 19, as part of the “Hamilton Lectures” series in Manhattan.
For information and tickets ($40 each) to this “show & smell,” visit the Hamilton Lectures website.
Hope to see a few of you there!
10 Thursday May 2018
Posted in Perfume Reviews
Left: Reliquary cross, Italian, 14th century, ight: Gilet, Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Fall 2008–09, d
This week, the exhibition “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As an art historian and a fashion fan (not to mention, a Catholic!) I can’t help but anticipate this event. The preview images are sumptuous, to say the least.
And, as usual, I can’t help making a few perfume connections. Here’s a list of fragrances that would work well as olfactory companions for a Catholic-themed outing to “Heavenly Bodies.” I’ve paired some of them with garments in the show and my own selection of other works from Met’s vast collections.
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.
27 Tuesday Feb 2018
Posted in Uncategorized
26 Monday Feb 2018
Posted in Art and Scent
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The Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo became known for his witty and eye-fooling “portrait heads” in the 1500s. His portraits and allegorical figures composed of objects like fruit, vegetables, seashells, and food gained him favor as a court painter and prefigured the much later art historical movement of Surrealism. (You can read a short Smithsonian article about him here.)
19 Monday Feb 2018
Posted in Uncategorized
WHY: Because winter can give us cabin fever and make us crave new sights (or smells).
WHAT: An unused “discovery set” of GALLIVANT fragrance samples that I’d like to pass along to a reader in the United States. It includes Brooklyn, Tel Aviv, London, and Istanbul.
