PAST FILES: Perfume, The Fashion Designers Best Model
When it is the case of judging a book by its cover, or rather a perfume by its bottle
Past Files is a column dedicated to pieces I have written for other publications in the past. Through it, I want to take you behind the scenes of my writing by either sharing unpublished parts of the column in another newsletter or by sharing books, podcasts and articles that add to the piece at the end of the column.
During university, I co-wrote a blog with two friends. Its tagline was “the cultural blog that doesn't lack style” because we were writing from France, Italy and the USA about our experiences abroad, music, fashion, and everything that caught our attention. Below is an article I wrote, initially in French, that I translated to share here with you.
Paul Poiret, the renowned XIXth century couturier famous for having liberated the women’s body from the corset, was the first one in the fashion world to create the first-ever perfume. This detail might seem ridiculous, yet it does have its importance when, today, fashion and fragrances are almost inseparable.
I discovered Paul Poiret, the perfumier, and his perfume bottles by reading Charlotte Seeling’s Fashion: The Century Of The Designer 1900-1999. This read is essential to understand how important the perfume bottle is for couturiers. The bottle is the fragrance’s piece of clothing; it gives it style, in this instance, the couturier’s.
Poiret’s style was definitely inspired by Orientalism - an artistic movement that Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and Léon Baskt’s costumes made famous - as the name of his perfume Nuit de Chine (China Night) suggests. Nuit de Chine glass flask, reminiscent of a Chinese snuffbox, is closed by a cabochon stopper, also in glass. The rings on each side of the bottle are made of bakelite, a new material created in 1909. A choice that showed Poiret was first and foremost, a couturier. Let’s not forget that it was the beginning of haute couture, and therefore, fashion designers researched new fabrics to craft their clothing better. It is the same process adopted for the perfume bottle below.
If Poiret was, in the fashion world, the trailblazer who first approached the fragrance world, it was Coco Chanel who undoubtedly stole the show with her perfume N°5. The bottle is everything but pretentious. Sleek, subdued, but above all elegant, all these adjectives describing N°5 bottle could apply to Coco Chanel herself, and that is what sets her apart from Poiret. N°5 is Chanel, not the brand, but the woman indeed. Unlike her rival, Chanel embodied her perfume.
“Opium for the women who devote themselves to Yves Saint Laurent” is the slogan of Opium, the perfume that smells like but, above all, has the shape of scandal. And we still owe it to Poiret! From 1911 to 1977, Orientalism still sold or, better said, opium did. It’s as if the Orient and this drug kept fascinating fashion designers' and perfumiers’ imaginations. It is no surprise, then, if Yves Saint Laurent chose a box worthy of its name to contain his perfume, the Japanese inrō. This little object was used to carry seal stamps, medicine, and prohibited substances, such as opium. With Nuit de Chine, Poiret only hinted at the obsessive substance. Meanwhile, Yves Saint Laurent turned the obsession into addiction. With Opium, he created a perfume that makes the wearer and the person who smells it dependent, as if you needed to be seduced to seduce in turn.
More than the scent, it seems like the bottle makes the perfume.
As far as I am concerned, I am telling you I love perfume bottles, but ironically, the one I use is nothing but elegant. It is basic and is nothing like the sleek N°5. I am telling you about Yves Rocher coconut perfume!
This article is twelve years old, and since then, fashion has evolved. The marriage with the fragrance world is still ongoing, but it is not as strong as before because the beauty industry with a capital B has entered the game. What are your thoughts on the topic?
The cabinet of curiosities
Avery Trufelman, the voice behind the podcast
really surprised me with this episode about perfume. The podcast's tagline, ‘A show about what we wear’, couldn’t be more fitting as perfume is meant to be worn, too. This episode caught my attention because, as usual, Avery Trufelman managed to get deep about perfume, an extensive topic, in less than 30 minutes. It is a great crash course about what I believe is the final touch of someone’s style/character.
Brooke DeVard’s Naked Beauty podcast is a show I love to listen to because it’s not necessarily about the business side of the beauty industry but more about how people relate to it. In this episode, Brooke DeVard invited Keta Burke-Williams, founder of OurSide, a luxury fragrance brand. I found it eye-opening to hear about Keta Burke-Williams's interest in scents and then her journey to creating her own brand with no background in the fragrance world. Ah, should I mention she is a Black woman navigating an industry where People of Colour aren’t present.
I could not publish about scent without inviting you to (re)read Patrick Süskind’s Perfume: The Story of A Murderer. I never read a book that is so subtle and widely informative about a past era. Patrick Süskind is incredible at describing the sense of smell (and all senses really), XVIIIth century Paris, and above all the world of parfumiers at that time. Oh, and the protagonist, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was a beautifully written chilling character.
,
Maybe try Bronze Goddess by Estée Lauder. I like bronze goddess Nuit.
Are you still wearing Yves Rocher? I wore # 5 for years. It didn’t smell the same on me after an illness. I wear many now.