As you have previously read in my letter written in French "dedicated" to Bernard Arnault, some perfumes cannot be bought in France through online auctions because of LVMH. Both LVMH and L'Oreal have started a fight for their presumptive right to control the worldwide Internet sales allowing or not the consumers to buy products that would bare a connection with one of their brands. If first this was intended more as a fight with eBay in an obvious action to gain control over the distribution using the counterfeited products as a legal argument, the results are in several cases hilarious. Last week I saw on eBay USA a rare perfume from Hughes Guerlain and another one from Marcel Guerlain, both historic brands from the 1920's and 1930's. They were not as famous as the original Guerlain, but some of their perfume presentations are exquisite in terms of design, some in terms of scent. They were not really counterfeited products as somebody would be tempted to believe. Before WWII Guerlain tried many times to eliminate them from the market, first using an ingenious phrase through their ads (Nous n'avons pas de prénom) and later in a long legal battle. By 1950's Guerlain, now a powerful company who mysteriously has survived the war despite its bombarded factory and occupied Champs Elysées building, has finally succeeded. There would not be another Guerlain brand in France! In 2011 the history continues as those historic perfumes of Hughes and Marcel Guerlain are forbidden in France. You cannot buy the vintage bottles, just a curiosity today, through online auctions if you live in France, but you can buy them if you live in another EU country. Constantly modifying the history of their brands, sometime even mutilating their products through the reformulation of perfumes (certainly less for IFRA's sake and more for opportunistic price reasons), LVMH has blocked the access in France to the historic perfumes and in many cases to perfumes without any relation to their portfolio. In my early articles, published several years ago, where I explained the death of several myths (the reformulation of Diorissimo, Miss Dior and other masterpieces) I advised the reader to test the new product with any vintage version available online. Today this "authenticity test" for classic Dior perfumes has been cleverly prevented by Bernard Arnault. At least in Paris, if you want to demonstrate the mutilation of classic Dior perfumes, it's not as easy. If this action could find a reason in the obsession of controlling everything in France, the effects are devastating because it curiously affects brands without any relation to LVMH. There is no one to defend today brands like Marcel Guerlain or Pierre Dune and other, with maybe 3 vintage perfumes a year through an online auction.
L'Oréal started the battle for the Internet control in the same period but they did not go that far and did not lobby to prevent the sale of historic perfumes. For this reason, as strange as it may seem, you can still buy online in Paris vintage Lancôme perfumes in their marvelous presentations from the 30's and 50's, as I recently did, while Guerlain and Dior have been mysteriously forbidden.
At the end of this year I'm seriously thinking to send to LVMH headquarters in Paris the list of perfumes I was forbidden to buy in Paris. Being the giant of luxury in France with high connections everywhere, it seems almost impossible to expect a change, if not a more drastic attitude on the EU market. Today LVMH, despite the impressive amount of money obtained selling the luxury dream, is not involved in any cultural project related to perfumes, like a museum, a conservatory, a collection or anything to protect the 8th art, but their actions are proving the contrary - preventing the access in Paris to the luxuries of the past. This hilarious case (the forbidden online sale of several historic perfumes because of LVMH) is a certainly a clear image of how perfume is perceived today in some circles in France. It is not seen as a work of art or as an intellectual creation but more as a product that mimics artistic qualities because of marketing. There is no perfume museum today in Paris and it has never been a question of money. Perfume is not officialy recognized and historic perfumes are not considered cultural heritage. If the perfume was truly considered an art form in the headquarters of LVMH, we would not be forbidden in Paris to buy a piece of art and certainly Dior perfumes would not become the mirror image of Chanel.
In this picture you have one of the perfumes LVMH did not allow me to buy last week. It was sold for 24 USD. You can imagine how frustrating and absurd is the Bernard Arnault dictatorship in Paris.
The truth is that LVMH has no control over the fake perfumes sold in EU, sometimes sold in incredible places like the examples I gave you recently, but allows a stupid ban over the real historic perfumes sold on eBay, today forbidden in France. Instead of protecting the European consumer from Fahrenheit X Black, they forbid the sale of old Guerlain perfumes or classic Dior masterpieces.
The truth is that LVMH has no control over the fake perfumes sold in EU, sometimes sold in incredible places like the examples I gave you recently, but allows a stupid ban over the real historic perfumes sold on eBay, today forbidden in France. Instead of protecting the European consumer from Fahrenheit X Black, they forbid the sale of old Guerlain perfumes or classic Dior masterpieces.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
