Rue de la Paix was once an important street of Parisian fashion and fashionable society, before it moved further to avenue Montaigne - Champs Elysées area. The Guerlain perfume (named after their shop located in the now so famous jewellers street) wanted to capture that atmosphere of fashion, style and good taste as it was perceived in the Belle Époque Era. The perfume had important ads in fashion magazines of the era (like Les Modes) in a period when advertising was not used as much as today. Was this an attempt of Guerlain to speak to a wider audience and try to capture the mood of fashion? The relation between fashion and fragrance was very new at that time, Poiret few years after will be the first designer to offer perfumes (Les Parfums de Rosine). I think that from that point of view Guerlain was a precursor, trying to link fashion-good taste-perfume. The name of the perfume I see it more from that angle than from the "shop name" - Guerlain was not as big in those days as we would think today.
"Examinez cette façon d'avancer le pied en moulant la robe avec une si décevante précision qu'elle excite chez le passant une admiration mêlée de désir, mais comprimée par un profond respect".
Lajea, My Sin, Le Chypre, J'en raffole, La Dogaresse - lost Lanvin perfumes!
Throughout her long career in fashion (from 1930's to 1980's) Madame Grès was often compared with a sculptor. Her long draped or pleated dresses resembled with ancient Greek sculptures, Indian statues or even Japanese drawings. During the first part of her career, the fashion house was named Alix and later Grès. She had 2 big loves (Greece and India) but people usually associate her name with the first one while Indian inspiration was a more secret side of Madame Grès (she is also often depicted wearing a turban). The moment after the war was a blooming period for fashion and fragrance. Many products were created in 1945-1947 but very few will survive in the next decade and even fewer will become famous.
Today we associate Chanel name with the little black dress, with modern art (cubism), black-white-beige and everything that is supposed to speak about abstraction. The history of No5 says that she wanted a perfume different that the smell of a garden, and by that opposed to what must have been popular in those days. But how much of that is truth and how much is myth?
If by any chance you came across to those perfumes (bottles) keep them with the greatest care because they have a big historical value in front of a brand that always rewrites history in the most beautiful way.
Note: Chanel Bleu (*)
The main facets of L'Heure bleue are: orange flower (with methyl anthranilate), violet-orris, spicy, sweet & balsamic (heliotrope), woody (sandalwood) + some characteristic aspect (aromatic, rose, musky). It is a very complex perfume that has almost all the shades of the rainbow, from citrus to animalic. It's hard to summarize such a beauty but this helps to understand other creations of Jacques Guerlain from the same period.
Fol Arome (1912) and Pois de senteur (1917) are like different reflections of the same idea - Heure Bleue. They are based (I guess) on the same formula where Jacques Guerlain emphasized certain aspects. When you have a complex formula (but not long!) in front of you the common way to study it is to extract different ideas (accords) and see how they work: the flowers, the woods, the sweets, etc. I think that's the way Guerlain explored his great (but quite short) formula of l'Heure Bleue.
Pois de senteur was launched in 1917 but I suppose that it was only because of the war that it appeared so late. In Pois de Senteur he explored the floral honey note of HB.
Thank you Галина Анни for this wonderful rediscovery of long forgotten Guerlain jewels !
photo: Hola Palomita, ebay
In 1921 Coco Chanel, in the south of France was the star of a movie. Here, a photo with a russian countess during the set. I have never been able to find if this rare piece stille exists somewhere.
