Are you blonde? Wear a blue perfume. BLUE ROSE
At the time when Coty made his fortune with a rose perfume surrounded by a lot of fantasy, another flower bloomed in USA. A perfume whose secrecy (it was a rare creation) is equaled only by the quality of scent and the exquisite art bottled by the perfumer.
The new Marshall Field's store, opened in September 1907 and it included a Tiffany ceiling, the first and largest ceiling ever built in favrile glass (picture). The 3 blue circles from Marshall Field's Tiffany Glass Ceiling represent the three concepts of Infinity, Eternity and Universality interwoven. The world's largest department store sold many perfumes, and as a celebration of its own supremacy, introduced a perfume and a beauty line representing the new ideal. "Blue Rose" was both a reference to the unattainable ideal of horticulturists, and a symbol of the famous blue shade of the store.
The Blue Rose perfume is contemporary with a very famous jewelry piece made by Cartier (a sapphire surrounded by diamonds) which belonged to Queen Maria.
The true "blue rose" smells like a harmonious mixture between the damascena rose, the fruity orris facet found in a tea rose variety and a note which evokes the Johnson's baby powder classic formula, all contrasted with a sharp lemony element. The whole composition can be obtained by a clever modification of a very old Jacques Guerlain formula and is highly exquisite. I am sure that a true blue flower was available in France long time before horticulturists started to reveal it.
The perfume made in Chicago used several novel European molecules which gave the unusual cachet - they were produced by my favorite lab, but none of the old specialties are available today. It was also a highly mystique perfume, expression of love and spirituality. The symbolism of the blue flower was explored by me in the article devoted to Guerlain last June.
Since several years I have in Paris a modern highly scented type, it is not actually the sapphire blue, but the amethyst type many call blue (Suntory Applause from Japan). It is only a century after the creation of "Blue Rose" perfume in Chicago that a commercially available variety of "blue rose" became available through genetic modification. The new flower has a shade close to the sapphire.
The Blue Rose perfume was sold in a cobalt blue bottle similar in shape with a Poiret (half the blue Tiffany vault shape), and a silver label with a very beautiful floral design. This is why "Soir de Paris" made Wertheimer's fortune. The blue Tiffany shade is the nuance used by Karl in the recent blue Haute Couture collection AVION.
Today, Marshall Field's - now Macy's - can celebrate its long history updating the old perfume formula with the modern headspace of the blue flower.
Monday, a surprise is waiting for you - something at Macy's.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
