Carolina Herrera has launched 212 VIP Men, the masculine counterpart to last year’s 212 VIP:
212 VIP MEN is a masculine fragrance that completes the 212 VIP universe and represents the style and attitude of VIP men in New York…
Esprit has launched Jeans Style, new fragrances for men and women:
It’s time to revive the magnetic Esprit jeans craze that began in the carefree California of the late 1960s…
Givenchy will launch Play For Her in August. The new feminine counterpart to 2008′s Givenchy Play For Him fragrance is fronted by Justin Timberlake and model Noot Sear…
So yes, I’m jaded, but I don’t think I have a closed mind: if these are wonderful, I’ll be thrilled.
That’s me, commenting on the post that announced the then-upcoming Collection Extraordinaire from Van Cleef & Arpels. That article elicited a number of skeptical comments, including my own, about the glut of multi-scent luxury perfume launches — many of which turn out to be less interesting than the prices and the fancy packaging would suggest — and then a discussion about whether some of us were perhaps a bit too jaded.
I might be too jaded, who knows? It doesn’t seem to me to be an important issue: I say what I like in the comments, but I go right on smelling and looking for beauty regardless. And whatever my original suspicions, I did keep an open mind when I smelled the Collection Extraordinaire, and yes, I’m thrilled. This is a lovely collection. All six are worth smelling, and one, Bois d’Iris, captured my heart thoroughly enough that I laid out the $185 (!!) for it on the spot, thereby blowing my third quarter damage tally, which up until then had been a very gratifying zero.
Bois d’Iris is one of two unisex fragrances in the collection, the other being Cologne Noire.1 It’s a must try for iris fiends…
Thanks to “old” Givenchy marketing and publicity, whenever I see or hear the word “Givenchy” I think of Hubert de Givenchy. In ‘candid’ and professional photos he always looks at ease, and I don’t know anything about his private life…and that’s a GOOD thing. When the man or woman behind a brand is “mysterious” (or just plain circumspect) it’s easier to approach the brand’s products in a way that’s personal, a way that’s not besmirched by or connected to the designer’s life and personality — his or her drug use, dieting and exercise regime, sex life.
Every time I go into my local Nordstrom store and spray on some Armani Privé Bois d’Encens, the Armani sales person tells the same old “Creation Story” — how young Giorgio always went to church with his grandmother and loved the incense-infused services; Armani asked his perfumer to recreate the church-incense aroma with Bois d’Encens. Being susceptible to imagery, now, when I spray on Bois d’Encens, I imagine the too-tanned, white haired head of today’s 75-year-old Armani on a six-year-old boy’s body and see a classic Italian grandma, black dress and stockings, lace veil pinned to her head, pulling little Armani down a cathedral aisle, censers swinging and smoking all around them. I don’t like other people’s faces (and life stories or fantasies) intruding on my perfume experiences.
Justin Timberlake is the “image” of Givenchy’s two new men’s perfumes: Play and Play Intense, and he comes with a lot of baggage…
Stella McCartney in conversation with Alexandra Shulman (video, talks about new scent L.I.L.Y) http://t.co/VAKYigvK "French parfumier Guerlain on trial over 'race slurs'" article at Telegraph http://t.co/lVDxoZMi Vote for NST's Mood Board on FB and win a Zoya Nail Polish collection! http://t.co/MXHMN7I3