Alexandre Vassiliev (Александр Васильев) is an acclaimed costume designer and fashion historian (he wrote that exceptional book Beauty in Exile). This year he came with a even more beautiful surprise that I discovered recently, a long russian documentary (cca 100 min) where he presents the history of perfumes. It is a very well documented and inspiring presentation with some elements that are unveiled for the first time. It is the best TV documentary on perfumes but sadly, it is not translated. The 4th part is dedicated to the russian perfumery pre and post the Revolution. You can see there some images, bottles and original film footage, all presented for the first time. For those who have the passion of fashion history and fragrances those images can bring a new light on the beauty culture in the soviet era pre WWII. There is a short movie from the late 30's showing the production of soviet cosmetics, a beauty salon (Moscow had a cosmetic institute since the 30's) and shops with soviet perfumes. Later you'll see the russian perfumers at work in the lab, blending and smelling. For a second you can see the wife of Molotov presenting the soviet production of cosmetics (old pictures from my archive here). You can hear the story of Red Moscow, Red Poppy, Manon and other soviet perfumes, but also the first cosmetic trust TEJE (I wrote about that in the past and there is a lipstick similar to a famous western model), Ernest Beaux and Auguste Michel.
I hope there will be an edition with english subtitles because it is a wonderful work and many will enjoy this fairytale of scents.
The last part with the soviet perfumes
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
