This is the portrait of an unknown man painted by an anonymous painter c 1775, a work of art preserved in Madrid, seized by French from an English cargo in 1779.
It is also the metaphor for the perfume. More than 90% of what you smell = anonymous works sold by merchants, portrait of unknown flowers or plants, while "what is known" - the other 9% - exists only in realm of the virtual websites. Perfumes are praised or not praised through the comments of anonymous users which can be anyone from a sincere writer to a fool, from the PR of the brand, the PR of the shop to the competition, also online to extract new ideas. Cut the Internet and you will understand what I mean with "Le parfum de l'Anonyme".
When an author is known, often because of an anonymous comment or paragraph in a book, it is not necessarily the real perfumer, the real author. No proof, no paper, no document. Authorship in perfumes doesn't exist as long as the written formula is secret, the "name behind" is as mythical as the merchandise. Few exceptions.
Perfume is an ART, it always was, but not all perfumers are artists. ART and ARTISTS. Only a very small fraction in the XXth century have this title because they left material proofs. A name is not enough when it is not attached to the work.
Who composed "Vent Vert" sold by Balmain? You have heard it was composed by Germaine Cellier. You have heard. Perfumers shared the same room of a lab, the same building today.
Unlike ART, which becomes more expensive with time, the perfume is made for the present. Every strategy is used to sell it and make it more interesting. It is meant to enchant you. When it is no more produced it fades leaving behind only the myth, what was said to the press. Le VIDE. What is "known" is like moving sands.
Everybody had the right to claim anything. Who would recognize that a new perfume launched on the market last year is not the perfume from Marie Antoinette's court? Probably the unknown man in this picture. Le parfum de l'Anonyme.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
