In the past Givenchy used to be a symbol of prestige and quality in fashion and fragrances. Hubert has never been very innovative but his clothes retained the sense of quality and texture learned from Balenciaga. When LVMH bought this house everything changed. Now, 10 years after it is very clear that Givenchy has lost a precious value. The clothes designed by Ricardo Tisci might look great on stage but in the stores their quality is somewhere near Zara. The fragrance division is not far from that but in many ways did better. I was very enthusiastic in 2007 when I heard that the discontinued fragrances will be part of a new line. If they were quite close to the original creations there was something else that disturbed me then. The packaging design. The cheapest and the most uninspired choice. If one year ago this seemed to be rather a personal esthetic option, today I have the "proof" that Givenchy doesn't care at all about its tradition. If you look at the testers you'll notice how bad the label is attached. Because it was a beautiful day in Paris, I went in 10 perfumeries to see how they look. With no exception, several labels were detached in the corner like those products sold à la péripherie. Because they did not care very much about classic Givenchy perfumes, the management opted not for serigraphy but for labels attached with glue. Luxury is in details is something said like a mantra at LVMH seminars. Voilà details! There is no surprise that nobody buys those classics, even reformulated. Ugly bottle, bad packaging, hard to read label … all the DON’TS in design were applied there. Another example of price cut at Givenchy is their bottle for the limited vintage editions (used also for a powder). I liked that cute bottle but last week I found with great surprise that it's a standard bottle, already used by a mass market brand in the late 70's (I will put the picture later). I have no problem with that, but it says quite much about the difference between the real price of the product and the luxury image. They had beautiful bottles and boxes. Now, each season the
Very Irresistible bottle is sprayed with a new color.
(we'll have some great launches at Givenchy this year, but no specific idea right now)
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
