Matching Perfume to Fall's Trendiest Fashions

If like me you have a perfume collection to wade through it's almost guaranteed that at some point you thought how one perfume seems to be mentally matched to a specific fabric or style of dress or even with a color that you love in your makeup. Taking this thought further I compiled a hip and happening matchy-matchy of fall 2015 fashion trends and autumn-friendly perfumes for you. From oh-so-hip-it hurts ear climber earrings to blanket scarves (and with a sprinkling of gold eyeshadow there too for good measure), there's a core collection of looks and scents to satisfy you till the next tide comes.

Chloe collection f/w 2015/16

You can find the slideshow on this link on Fragrance.About.com

Feel free to share your own favorite matching of perfume and fashion looks in the comments!

Balade Sauvage for New Dior Sauvage Fragrance: Selling America to Americans

It is no secret that the newest Dior fragrance for men is called Sauvage and is fronted by Johnny Depp. Taking its cue from the famous (and revered) classic Eau Sauvage, but going of course to a whole different direction, I found the following commercial clip mighty interesting for the following reasons, brought to my attention thanks to my dear reader Cacio.

First of all, we've seen perfumers talk before in press clips, but never before, if memory serves me right, in such a scale. This is a mega production that uses a whole panoply of cues: the materials of the fragrance, the link between scent and memory, director shots of parts of the commercial we might never see in the cinema and online, and a...voice over.

Francois Demachy, the Dior perfumer behind this creation, is given the veneer of an American movie-goer's memory of a memory: of the voice overs of movies to follow, of trailers. In constant anticipation of what will follow, not what is in front of you. Trailers have this paradox into them, you see. Watching a trailer, especially nowadays, is like having seen the movie, or at the very least the very best parts of the movie. It aims to catch your attention, to make you exclaim "wow, that looks like an excellent movie" and make you seek it out and pay the ticket to watch it in full, but at the same time it also leaves you with the partial satiation of having actually experienced the movie (at least they do to me). Possibly this commercial clip is doing the same for the fragrance. In constant anticipation for the smell to come it sort of gives away the clues into what it smells like. It delivers before it actually hits the nostrils. Maybe I'm too critical, that could be. Maybe I prefer a little bit of mystery.

The other thing is that this clip, and the official commercial as well, tries to sell very American things to -I suppose predominantly- Americans. Which is funny, if you think about it, since Christian Dior is one of the Frenchiest brands and the official commercial is directed by that most French of French directors, Jean Baptiste Mondino, responsible for some of the most iconic images in advertising ever.

The semiotics reads like a lexicon of symbols: The desert, the wide open space, the open road, the deserted fairgrounds, the light that glimmers at the end of the road, both an effect of heat and distance and the cinematic familiarity of the camera lens showing you the experience instead of you actually experiencing it. Laundromats and wild horses, and most of all heavy Mustangs or similar cars traveling outside the urban landscape. Francois Demachy the perfumer stands atop the skyscraper of offices and dreams of the anticipation of open space, or the memory of it, it is not clear. Johnny Depp on the other hand buries his past in the dirt of the desert to divest himself of memory.

In the end, Sauvage stands as an invitation to fondly recall what we already know (the images and the ingredients of the perfumes, even those openly admitted to be synthesized, which is a nice touch) or to explore something that lies ahead and we don't? It all depends on the audience that views it, their experiences, their associations, their familiarity with what is being shown.

What do you think?

Guerlain Ne M'Oubliez Pas: New Fragrance

Breaking News: A new perfume comes out from Guerlain, inspired by the house's own history. According to Sylvaine Delacourte, art director for Guerlain fragrances, the name derives from the first lipstick "baton" which Guerlain issued and is reprised in their modern Rouge Automatique line of lipsticks (it's #102, a muted rose).
"Guerlain was responsible for the very first modern-day lipstick, made with a wax base in 1870. "Ne m’oubliez pas" was its name and it came in a refillable container with a 'push-up' mechanism."

via dorothytrose.tumblr.com

The name translates of course as "forget me not", a popular motif of floral fragrances of days past based on the "forget me not" flower of the Myosotis family, such as those from Woods of Winsor or Carthusia.
The Myosotis is immortalized in art and folklore during Medieval times as an emblem of romantic faithfulness and enduring love. It later became also a symbol precious to freemasonry.

The new Guerlain perfume, Ne M'Oubliez Pas (tis imperative recalling the ones issued by Caron, in a way, such as Aimez Moi and N'Aimez Que Moi) comes as a new formula composed by head perfumer Thierry Wasser. It is an extrait de parfum edition, in a 125ml quatriblobe bottle with amethyst tassels and a ribbon around its neck. The composition itself is reportedly based on the juxtaposition of a plum chord with patchouli and warm amber. There are also vanilla and rose notes, possibly tilting the composition into the oriental fragrance family. It remains to be sniffed to make sure. But what great news all the same!
The Ne M'Oubliez Pas Guerlain perfume will retail at 500 euros for 125ml of extrait de parfum. Let's hope that a smaller, lesser concentrated edition might trickle down into the boutique line?

Thanks to Czech site Guerlinade.cz for info on notes, price & pic

5 New Fall Fragrances That Caught My Eye

Fall, autumn, whatever you choose to call it, is probably my most favorite season of them all. It might have to do with being born in it, with getting a relief from the heat that broils the city in the summer (I wouldn't mind being called a pluviophile) or the fact that I spent the vast majority of my life counting time in academic years. Whatever it may be, I rejoice in the feeling of renewing my mood through the changing scenery, the changing smells and the changing feelings: from languor to dynamism and from gallivanting playfulness to stimulating sensuousness.

For this transient period I chose 5 new fragrances which fit the season and promise new beginnings. They came, they made an impression, they seduced me one way or another.
Please find the selection of Top 5 New Fall Fragrances on this slideshow with beautiful pictures.  Perfect for a season of cardigans, big cashmere scarves, lush jewelry and wonderful nappa leather boots.

And please feel free to add your own discoveries among the newest crop of fragrances in the comments!

Chanel in the Power of Two

Not one but two dedicated articles with gorgeous images of older and newer advertisements of Chanel perfumes are making an appearance on Fragrance.About.com

via vasilisa/goodfon.su

The first one tracks and reviews a top 5 of Chanel classics (excluding the largely unknown ones to the average consumer, I'm afraid, we will revert to that later on) and is posted on this link.

The second one tracks and reviews 5 contemporary, popular Chanel perfumes which are loosely inspired by other Chanel fragrances and puts them in their contextual position. You can find it on this link. Enjoy browsing! Related reading on PerfumeShrine.com : Chanel news & fragrance reviews