Saturday, April 19

Gardenia Hologram

I have a big gardenia bouquet, still green, and wait the moment when the flowers will bloom with their elusive and intoxicating smell. I am a big fan of this flower and love the plastic smell with the contrast between white petals and green waxy leaves. Gardenias were popular in the 20's-30's and their smell both synthetic and natural is a perfect image of the period that was fascinated with modernity, everything artificial, bakelite and fake bijoux but also fascinated with exotic natural woods and rare essences used in decoration.
Adieu Sagesse from Jean Patou is a gardenia perfume which explores the other aspect of the flower. It's not the green, crispy, contrasted and sharp gardenia evoked in Gardenia Chanel with a notable amount of styralil acetate, but the soft, milky white petals, sensual like a silk gown. Adieu Sagesse is a skin fragrance, incredible modern, incredible good on skin. It's almost like a musk with a fresh powdery feeling but also with an acidic green touch like a pear sorbet on a hot feminine décolleté.
But Adieu Sagesse has a modern correspondent with contemporary ingredients. It's not a copy but rather a homage to this classic. I have no idea what was the inspiration for D&G feminine but I see it as if Jean Patou perfume had been resuscitated by Dolce&Gabbana magic with their retro vintage and lingerie sexy touch. It showed me that an old scent/idea can become again young and modern with the talent of a gifted perfumer.
Today we might consider some Jean Patou old fragrances smelling old/vintage/ even old fashion. But compared with other perfumes in their time (Chypre, Emeraude, etc) they were the spirit of youth, very modern as was Patou's fashion.
I consider D&G Feminine as a hologram of Adieu Sagesse - a travel through time to understand and imagine what was the smell of youth, how used to smell a modern woman in the 20's.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
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