Scentzilla!

In a recent story for the NPR program All Things Considered, correspondent Susan Stone visited the Osmotheque, and interviewed the legendary perfumer Jean Kerleo. I had a chance to ask her some questions about that experience, her own perfume obsession, and chat up about some oldies but goodies.

What were your expectations for visiting the Osmotheque? What did you think it would be like, and how did your actual visit match up to or differ with your anticipated experience?

It was a bit more technical than I expected – more like a working research lab. The Osmotheque is technically inside ISPCA, the big perfumery school. There were lots of students milling around – we left around lunchtime, and I saw primarily young women. I was left wondering where all of them would end up working! It’s not really a museum – it’s an archive, or a conservatory.

Kerleo in his own words said,

“Our work at the Osmotheque is to preserve the evolution of perfume and perfume of the past and recent past so that students and people interested in perfume can come here, smell the perfume, and understand it.”

There are a small number of perfume bottles on display — Catherine Deneuve, Tabac Blond, Moustache, to name a few, and some framed vintage perfume ads on the walls. But it’s very quiet and simple.

Also on display is a coffret of Parfums de Rosine by Paul Poiret. The coffret was found in the cellar of Jean Patou’s factory by a worker who brought it to Kerleo. One of Poiret’s perfumers named Alméras, had moved to Jean Patou after Poiret went bankrupt in 1925. [Ed. Note: Henri Alméras was responsible for Poiret's Le Fruit Defendu, and such classics as Joy and Moment Supreme at Patou.] He stayed for 30 years, then when he left, some papers and belongings were left behind, including this amazing coffret.

Were you handled differently because you were visiting there in a journalistic capacity than a regular visitor might be? What might the average person expect to discover if they are allowed to visit?

Yes, absolutely. Primarily in that I was able to get an appointment on a day (Friday) they don’t usually invite guests. But, on the other hand, I also missed out on the special lectures they create for groups, including many more scents, and lots of raw materials to encounter. I get the impression that the level of information they provide to the public is at an extremely high and special level. In addition, I believe group tours are held in a sort of conference room, and since there were only two of us (me and my French friend/emergency translator) we were in with all the bottles and also in M. Kerleo’s office. There is also a cold storage cellar that few people see. I didn’t!

What was the most surprising or shocking thing you learned there?

I had asked Jean Kerleo how he decided which modern perfumes to archive, and was surprised that the Osmotheque gets its collection by donation. He had recently received bottles of the latest Serge Lutens while I was there.

Oh how awful! I’m quite surprised that companies don’t donate as a matter of course…. Why aren’t they more interested or invested in archiving their presumptive legacies, I wonder? Was this a source of frustration or disappointment for him, or did he seem sanguine about it all?

Many companies do donate, but I think he would always like to have more. Although keeping up with ALL the new releases every year would be exhausting, as perfume bloggers well know! Kerleo said they accept all things that are sent, and they add them to the Osmotheque’s collection. If there’s a big release and they don’t get it, they request it. He did seem sanguine about it. They have a list of the collection, and it ranges from Uninhibited by Cher to Chypre by Coty. And looking at some of the new donations listed on a recent newsletter, I see the Armani Prive line, Gaultier2, Eau pour soi by Roger & Gallet, La rose du Petit Prince, and Eau d’Iparie from L’Occitane, to name a few.

I was also surprised at how positive Kerleo was about the EU regulations on perfume. He seemed to think that perfumers could do amazing things with the ingredients available, so it should be no big problem. Then again, the Osmotheque is permitted to use banned or restricted substances in their reformulations – because they don’t sell them (and don’t seem to put them on the skin). He seemed more interested in the creativity and imagination of the perfumer than perceived limitations.

What was the most curious thing you learned?

The very first perfume they reproduced for the Osmotheque was Crepe du Chine by Millot – it was the first time they got a formula from a perfume house. I was surprised to learn that it was created by their in-house perfume — Jean Desprez — who later developed my beloved Bal a Versailles. M. Kerleo got out some Bal a Versailles special for me to smell. They don’t have the formula at the Osmotheque – the family sold the rights and the house and he said you can’t really even buy it in France. It seems funny to me that in Versailles, of all places, you can’t get Bal a Versailles. (Bal a Versailles can be found in Paris, just not everywhere or obviously…)

That is a sure travesty. Desprez made some amazing perfumes, and even all those others that escape the general public notice were heady and complex in ways that some of the more modern infamous fragrances never manage. Is he pursuing the formula from the current rights-owner? Given its importance and slow dissolve from shelves, I’d imagine it’d score high priority for them.

I honestly don’t know. The sample in the collection was given to the Osmotheque by the House of Jean Desprez, perhaps before it was sold.

You had the opportunity to smell a number of perfumes on your visit. Would you describe your favorite, and if you can, explain why it was your favorite?

That’s an easy one. Le Fruit Defendu, hands down. This is the perfume by Paul Poiret – Parfums Rosine - that scandalized WWI Paris. It’s very sweet, gourmand, foody. Not vanilla, but creamy, sort of powdery. What’s bizarre to me is that I have been getting olfactory flashbacks from it in modern perfumes. For example, Kenzo Jungle L’Elephant and Annayake Matsuri. I hate to say it, but cloying might be the best descriptor. In a good way? People hated it when it came out – they considered it too frivolous in light of the horrors of the war. Kerleo said even in 1990, when the Osmotheque opened, people thought the perfume was disgusting. Then came Angel. Now people who smell Le Fruit Defendu think it is a pleasant, modern scent. I think there is a bit of rotting corpse in there after all – Eau de CSI. I still like it.

I love your description of Fruit Defendu. It sounds like it would be mesmerizing to wear. Except I’d totally need the right outfit to go with it, you know? Like, you’d so want to be gloved and properly dressed to match. Not that I could carry off a single one of Poiret’s dresses, hee!

Me neither. I’m more of a Dior New Look kind of gal.

What, according to Kerleo, are the most requested perfumes that the Osmotheque holds?

Fougere Royal, and often Le Fruit Defendu these days.

How was the sniffing experience at the museum both similar to and different from sniffing at a shop or home trials?

You can’t put the fragrances on your skin. You can only smell them on the specific scent strips, which are dipped fresh for you. I don’t know if people ask to wear the fragrances – I didn’t. It seems a bit like asking to try on the First Ladies’ dresses at the Smithsonian.

What perfumer or house that you discussed with Jean Kerleo most intrigued you, and why?

I was really glad to be able to talk about Paul Poiret and to include him in my story. Of course, his perfume was a great way to end my story, but I also think he’s more forgotten than he should be, especially compared to Chanel. I studied the history of fashion design (very briefly) and used to read a lot about it, so some of these perfumers’ names are more known to me from clothing than fragrance.

How does the Osmotheque obtain its information on old formulas and histories? Do they get them directly from the houses? Or the perfumers themselves? Perhaps they must solicit them from the perfumer’s families or estates? Do they find this information given gladly, or must they convince the parties of their intents and aims?

Kerleo obtains original recipes from perfumers and perfume houses, and promises they will remain secret. They can study samples of scents, but it is very difficult to obtain a formula from a finished perfume. And it can take years to remake a perfume from the formula. Certainly, the crop of jasmine will not be exactly the same as in 1925. Then again, it might be just as good.

So, uh, Jacques Fath is a constant source of curiosity for me. what did you think about his Iris Gris? Did you learn anything about the legendary perfumer behind it or about Fath’s house you’d be willing to share?

For me personally, at the moment of sniffing Iris Gris had no “wow” to it, more of a “hmm…’ But I would say the scent really awakened my INTEREST in the smell of Iris. I’ve been checking out Hermes’ Hiris in the Duty Free lately, and I have a sample of DIVINE L’Homme Coeur that has an interesting Iris note. I think Iris is a flower that makes you think (or reflect) rather than instantly feel – perhaps it’s cerebral rather than visceral. Jean Kerleo said they consider Iris Gris very good, and very famous. You either like it or you don’t. Technically speaking, he considers it good work of a perfumer because it maintains the same character consistently – what you smell is what you get from the first impression. It doesn’t change – there’s no evolution from top note to heart note to base note – he admires its stability. It was also a very expensive product to produce due to the amount of real Iris used. I just took out the scent strip and sniffed it – it reminds me of putting my cheek against cold white marble. I’m not sure if that’s in a museum or in a mortuary. It feels a bit sad. What did you think of it?

I find it a strange resolution of conflicts. The way the orange blossom top hovers over the heavy orris butter like an aural blanket should smell incongruous and unbalanced, but it works. There’s something in it, as you say, of a mortuary. The base seems so earthy yet impenetrable. But there’s humid warmth there, too - perhaps a touch of something not unlike a dank root cellar in mid-summer. Iris Gris is so highly structured. I wonder if perhaps it struck you as passionless as a result, and maybe that’s why it seemed more contemplative to you instead of eliciting a swift visceral reaction?

Hmm…passionless. That seems harsh but accurate. Like something to be admired but not touched. Very much like some film divas from the Black and White era.

I need to ask you about Coty Chypre then, (which Ms. Stone was kind enough to share a scent strip with me) if Iris Gris was just a “hmm…” moment for you! There is a quality to it which smells like an animal that pissed itself in fear. That quality comes as a fantastic shock to the modern nose. This one HAD to have struck you in the gut. Did M. Kerleo share any thoughts on it while you sniffed? Any warnings come with it, heh?

No, no warnings. I think the disturbing notes come much later with this one. I have to say having just tried my first Caron (Parfum Sacre), I found the same element in it. I described it recently (I am so sorry…) as old lady underpants. Of course lots of people love Caron, and I’m sure they would love Coty Le Chypre. It’s very important to the Osmotheque. Kerleo said that it took quite a long time and many trials to remake, as they didn’t have the exact specific amounts for the formula for this one. He said some of his friends who were a bit older and thus had more of a connection with the scents of the period (Chypre is from 1917!) were able to lend a nose, and they gave the ok. It amazes me that these wonderful aging gentlemen of perfumery have such an astonishing scent memory.

I’m not even a little familiar with so many of those very old Houbigants - what on earth did you think of Vinaigre Aromatique?

The Osmotheque has several examples of vinegars in their collection – it was used medicinally. Even very famous houses like Guerlain began by making perfumed vinegars – before perfume! According to Jean Kerleo, the first product of Pierre-Francois Pascal Guerlain, the founder of the house of Guerlain, was a vinaigre de toilette. As you can imagine, these products start out with a strong vinegar smell. But it does dissipate, leaving a more pleasant, perfumed aroma. In the case of Vinaigre Aromatic de Houbigant, the lasting smell was light citrus. These vinegars were used to purify the skin, and to ward off disease, not to mention to distract a little from all the bad odors swarming around cities in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It was sold by pharmacists, not perfumers!

What’s your take on the differences between the old Idole and the relaunched reformulation of it (if you’ve tried it?) The original was not quite so whiskey- and vanilla- sweet to me. Perhaps you have a more interesting perspective?

The old Idole de Lubin and the new Idole de Lubin could be from separate planets! The original, from 1964, was a floral green women’s’ scent. Its creator is involved in the Osmotheque. The new Idole, in its Afrodesia bottle is Trader Vic’s done classy – boozy, spicy, warm and dark. M. Kerleo talked about a number of scents that have been introduced reusing old names: Emeraude by Coty, Champs Elysee by Guerlain, Tresor by Lancome.

Partially in thanks to Luca Turin’s new book, Kerleo’s recreation of Houbigant’s Fougere Royale is perhaps their most famous to us perfume-nuts now… What lingers in your own mind about it? What did Kerleo stress to you as the most important facet of its formula and/or recreation?

Well, it is the granddaddy of men’s colognes. Though it has to take responsibility for its swaggering grandson Drakkar Noir (the male equivalent to Giorgio in my poor nose’s formative years). I love Turin’s description of it being bathroom cologne – having a secret nastiness to it. Jean Kerleo told me a nice story about recreating this. He received the formula from Antoine Javel of Houbigant, who was really skeptical that Fougere Royal could be recreated. But Kerleo wore it 50 years ago when he was a young man, and he had a perfect memory of the scent. So he remade it, and gave it to Mr. Javel, who said it was exactly the same! Kerleo said it was fantastic to have proof!

It almost shocks me how ultra modern it smells! Almost a hyper-reality version of lavender, if you will. It’s hypnotic, the smoothness deceptively hiding its dirty underpinnings. Its “secret nastiness” contrasts interestingly to the less oblique skank lurking in some other vintage fragrances. And compared to the modern aesthete of explicit “niceness,” it’s profound, really. Thanks for sharing a scent strip with me.

What’s on your sniffing list outside of vintage fragrances or older houses?

I’d like to experience all of the Comme des Garcons scents, though I don’t know if I would like to wear them all! Also, I’m hoping to smell the Thierry Mugler coffret soon. I am doing a story about the film “Perfume” and will mention the coffret in the report.

How would you describe the difference between perfume shopping in Europe versus the U.S.? Is there one? Do you feel, if there is one, that it affects how you look at perfumery? Does it affect the perfumes you find yourself wanting to smell or the houses you want to explore?

I don’t think people in Europe can really imagine the level of perfumes to be found at discounters (sometimes) for just a few dollars. I do miss that about shopping in the states. But what’s been fun for me are the lovely niche perfume stores I have visited lately in Vienna and Geneva. It’s really nice to have some knowledge about perfume, because I think many of the employees really like to engage in conversation about fragrance, but don’t always get to. And that knowledge gets you some respect even when you aren’t wearing expensive clothing. I have managed to have more-or-less intelligent conversations about perfume in three different languages in the last month! It’s really so wild. I love that perfume is more a part of the culture in Europe. I didn’t know Robert Piguet was Swiss until I was in Geneva speaking (bad French) with a lovely woman at a perfume shop in the old part of the city.

In Berlin we don’t really have one nice niche store that I have found, but I must admit I haven’t looked all over town. I love to go to Galerie Lafayette here, because they have a great selection and it’s partially unsupervised. I can’t stand SA’s jumping on me! Though some, it must be said, are charming. We also have a really unusual luxury department store which seems to have EVERY holy grail perfume – 10 Corso Como, Miller et Bertaux, Keiko Mecheri, lots of CdG. But almost all their perfumes are crammed onto trays together, so it’s hard to see what they have. They also have a huge special Malle area, but I only braved it briefly, and what I thought I would like I didn’t (Noir Epices) I talked to the SA at this store about CdG Tea – my holy grail, which I finally have promised to me from a Basenoter. I am afraid I will hate it, but it’s been a quest of mine since I started reading the blogs. We have a CdG Store which I haven’t visited yet. I don’t know how much in the way of fragrance they have, but it should be an adventure.

How long have you been “into” perfume? Meaning, how long has it been a hobby or subject of interest for you?

My most recent interest, which I would describe at more of a cultural/sociological level was in all honesty sparked by Chandler Burr’s article about Jean-Claude Ellena and his designing of special scents for Hermes in the New Yorker. And of course his book “The Emperor of Scent” is one of my favorites – I’ve returned to it several times. And after reading it last fall, I started doing research online, and reading perfume blogs! But I had in fact been collecting books and research on perfume several years ago, back while I worked on NPR’s Science Desk (from 1997-1999). I wanted to do a “science of perfume” story, but never got around to it. (It’s funny that the notion became so popular!) And I have to admit, that when I think back to my dresser in Washington, DC (where I last lived in the States), it was covered with perfume bottles! A lot of miniatures in really cute bottles and a lot of things bought unsniffed that I didn’t really enjoy as much as I enjoy trying and reading about perfumes now. I had to pack up and get rid of a lot of things when I moved to Europe, so I think I threw out a lot of things I’d like to revist. Like my Vivienne Westwood miniature set. Argh.

My mother didn’t really wear perfume (she says it smells strange on her) but she did sell Avon when I was little, so I remember their solid perfumes fondly – maybe more for the packaging than the scent! Fun to play with. But my first real perfume was Bal a Versailles. My friend’s mother wore it, and on a school trip to London, my friend and I both bought the perfume. It came in such a lovely tiny bottle, in a gold and white pouch, in a special box. Then I started finding the EdC spray in local stores – a white bottle with gold lettering and a gold cap. I wore that all the time, and my boyfriend loved it. It smelled a bit like Dr. Pepper! You can only find the EdT these days, which I don’t think is the same for me. I also wore KL (which is on sale here in Berlin – I don’t know how I feel about that!) and on occasion Opium. I went to a big “Giorgio” and “Poison” high school so those are two things I can’t bear. Certainly I also bought drugstore stuff like Exclamation and Samba, and some essential oils.

What are some of your current favorite perfumes?

Right now, I am wearing MpG Ambre Precieux – it’s a sample. I’ve been trying many different perfumes in samples, as it’s sort of more fun than committing. I have bought a couple of bottles in the last year, but the implied commitment isn’t always there! For instance L’Artisan Bois Farine, which I like but don’t always turn to. I’ve also become interested in lot of “men’s” perfumes. Someone spritzed Guerlain’s L’Homme Instant Extreme on me in Heathrow airport last Christmas, and I made a face and bought two other things, but couldn’t stop smelling my arm an hour later. I finally tracked it down, but the top notes are a little rough. I like sandalwood, spices, amber. I’m not big on most flowers. A friend sent me a tiny sample of Michael Kors (almost all had leaked out in shipping) I was blown away by it. I was shocked. I think it was a Proustian experience of some sort – maybe reminding me of Tuberoses bought with an Indian-American friend in the flower market in Los Angeles, mixed with Gardenias from the front yard of my childhood home. I don’t know if I could wear it, but I like smelling it. I just completed my first MUA swap which will include a sample of Fracas – I live in fear of it, but I want to know! Oh, also, I just got a sample of M. Micallef Gaiac. It’s spicy, woody, sweet, mouthwatering. There might be a cotton candy undertone. I think I love it.

My thanks to Ms. Stone for sharing her thoughts, it was fun!

Coming up in the next week, I’ll finally share what I found when I cracked open a bottle of Jacques Fath’s first fragrance release, Chasuble, and after that hopefully something a little newer, too, since I’ve been trying the Les Nez fragrances off and on for the past few weeks.

All photos in this article were taken by Susan Stone, who has graciously allowed them to be published at Scentzilla. You can find more of her interesting photography, including shots of unusual subjects and street objects, at Flickr.

I’m taking a little time out from perfume stuff to share a recipe today. When digging through the cookbooks to find some holiday baking ideas, I rediscovered this little gem. Its components are artificial, highly processed… and delicious. I’m the sort of dork who serves Cool Whip rather than real whipped cream, too. Fake food tastes yummy, and sometimes you just have to say screw the gourmandise palate. *shrug* Let he who is without sin cast the first skillet.

Classy? Yeah, totally classy. Anyhow: Enjoy!

I’m not sure this was the best headline, but it seemed appropriate somehow. The latest rounds of my Made by Blog fragrance make it seem as if we’re in full gallop of something breathtaking.

To say the very least, I was thrilled with them.

You can read more about them in my letter to Laurent directly at Made by Blog. There’s still a few sets of this latest batch left at the Made by Blog store, but I’m not sure how long it’ll be before they run out.

Maryam from Maryam’s Soap Nook recently sent me a small selection of her handmade products to try, which I am more than happy to talk about. There were two products that really stood out to me:

One is her rich whipped body butter in the Ginger Cardamom scent. The fragrance is sweetly filled with fruity tones of peach, but the fruit is accompanied by a subtle spiciness. The texture is thick and creamy, with these little granule droplets that melt right into the skin. Perfect for those of us who get nasty winter skin, especially those of us who suffer from flakey elbows.

However, by far and away, I was most delighted by her Lemongrass, Lime & Ginger Shea Butter and Dead Sea Salt Glow Scrub. It’s a ginger lover’s dream. It smells of real fresh ginger slices, rather than only vaguely spicy like some “ginger” products. The scrub smoothed my skin as it exfoliated, and didn’t make it all pink and cranky looking (which unfortunately happens all to often with my sensitive skin.) Moreover, the scrub is salt based, so you don’t have to wash down the shower afterwards to keep it from getting scratched. Yes, I am lazy, but that is quite appealing, no? This stuff is awesome, and I am sticking it straight away onto my Christmas wishlist. (It fits in a stocking, “Santa,” hint hint!)

Other products from her line that she sent over included her Camellia Body Oil, a light moisturizing oil that feels silky and non-greasy, her gorgeous handcrafted soaps, and her Exfoliating Body Wash in Gardenia Peach, which was certainly nice, but I was so blown away by her gingeriffic salt scrub that I am recommending that instead!

* Internet Exporer 7 is pants. I’m not sure what the deal with it is, and thus, my apologies to those of you who are using it to browse this site. That browser, and that browser alone, makes the comments appear screwy, and I don’t know how to fix that yet. I’ll keep at it, but I am not personally impressed by IE7. Sigh. If you like the tabbing feature on it, I strenuously suggest swiching over to Firefox, which handles “div”s (a component of most sites’ style sheets) with what seems like much better stability and standards compliance to me.

* I saw this news photo of a dog fashion show, and it’s so deeply wrong. It nearly completes some full octave of awful which circles around to hideously brilliant: meet meta dog.

* Christopher Brosius of CB I Hate Perfumes has been keeping a small online journal, and I am really enjoying reading it. I suppose this is old news to everyone, but I wanted to share the link: CB Journal.

* I found this little item from the Wall Street Journal interesting… Something about it appeals not to my fragrance-obsessive self, but to that little nine year old kid still in me that used to collect stickers. (The best ones to get were of course the scratch-and-sniff ones! Second best were the “puffy” ones.) Kraft Vies for Eyes — and Noses

* Not sure how I missed this earlier, but Hugo Boss’ campaign for their Green fragrances is really kind of neat. Sure doesn’t hurt that the campaign features Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, who is ever so pretty. Lots of images and info at the DWA Client page describing it. (Via AdRants.)

* If it wasn’t alreay clear, the whole celebrity fragrance thing has once and for all definitively “jumped the shark.” BetUs.com is now posting odds on which will be the next celebrity fragrance. Sure, it LOOKS like a big spoof-up, but when even Barry Manilow has a fragrance, I can’t help but feel there’s a grain of truth to it all.

* Coty’s Wild Musk commercial ranks at #29 on Giant Magazine’s 50 Greatest Commericals of the ’80s. Use it before you stalk? Egads!

Upon the occasion of the infamous Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog’s listing of the collected archives of Jacques Fath, I figured a brief choppy history of the man and his house might be in order. Of course, I am sure I could do a much better job of it if anyone would like to loan me a spare $3.5 million dollars… I swear I can totally pay you back!

Jacques Fath

(September 6, 1912 - November 13, 1954)

Jacques Fath began his fashion house in a small two-roomed salon on Rue de la Boetie, presenting his first collection in 1937. He later moved in 1940 to Rue Francois Premier¹, and then in 1944 settled into a studio at 39 Avenue Pierre 1er de Serbie.

Fath took a number of young designers under his wing, though perhaps the best known of the assistants he hired were Hubert de Givenchy, Guy Laroche, and Valentino². He also drew upon the talents of shoe designer Andre Perugia³.

The Paris studio Fath operated was fortunate to remain open during the entirety of Nazi occupation during WWII. His relative occupation-era success, viewed in certain quarters as a direct result of cooperating with the Germans and kowtowing to Vichy pressures, has only recently entered the discourse in the past decade. His association with various Nazi-Vichy sympathizers and a comparatively wealthy German clientele during those years certainly tarnished his status as a designer amongst some modern critics. Much of the credit for this discussion can apparently be attributed to Vallerie Guillaume’s 1993 book Jacques Fath, which looks into the house’s history. (I am hoping someday I will get my grubby little hands on Guillaume’s book. The book is neither easy nor cheap to find in the States, but I would love to read it.) However, it is also due to a slow but growing willingness to examine the survival strategies of ALL those famous French houses, not only Fath’s.

The period of French design during Nazi control is rarely discussed widely, but merits mentioning for historical context. Parisian designers like Maggy Rouff (who some of you perfume-nuts may know by association with Paul Poiret of Parfums Rosine, who sold designs to her), Marcel Rochas, Nina Ricci and others, also somehow kept afloat. They perisisted, despite their houses being practically decimated by the time Paris was free again. This was not due to the various designers’ artistic, or in some cases moral, inflexibility. Lucien Lelong, for instance, was also affected by the Mode Martiale of WWII; He was one of the more prominent designers to have talks directly with the German textile and fashion officials⁵ in his capacity as the design community’s nominated leader. Amongst other things, Lelong successfully dissuaded them from relocating the Parisians to establish Berlin and Vienna as the premier fashion capitals, diminishing France’s preeminence in the industry. The bureaucratic Nazis micromanaged every conceivable facet of life during their take-over, and the fashion industry was granted no exceptions. Author Valerie Steele notes⁴,

“…the Vichy regime adopted a fashion discourse similar to that in Facist Italy and Nazi Germany, stressing nationalism and conservative social values. Fashion designers were encouraged to draw inspiration from regional or ‘folk’ costumes; Jacques Fath, for example, designed dresses inspired by peasant costume. Fashion magazines were also encouraged to extol the traditional Frenchwoman, as opposed to the cosmopolitan Parisienne.”

A number of German-demanded regulations were bootstrapped onto all French designers, right down to which fabrics and the lengths of those fabrics that could be used. (Hence, the shorter hemline came into vogue.) Even the dates of release for the meager Paris collections were dictated by the German government.⁵

Lelong, of course, shook off the perception that he may have been a collaborator, later being granted status as a hero (Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor) due to his leadership in working for France’s intrests. Perhaps in contrast, we might glance over at Coco Chanel. The Nazi sympathies of Coco Chanel are widely known, due to her literal sleeping with the enemy. Yet Chanel is one of the most recogizable names in fashion. Ask the average person about Lelong, Fath, or other contemporaries, and you will only receive an empty-eyed “who?” in response. Exemplary behavior during that time clearly hasn’t been a necessary condition for achieving renown. Opening up the whole subject for further evaluation will hopefully occur even more over the years to come: This period for designers is historically interesting, and a story that may prove interesting to readers outside of costuming and fashion study.

At war’s end, the liberated French designers celebrated with profound creative renewal, most notably in the inspiring “New Look.” Christian Dior is regularly credited with the genesis of the “New Look,” yet it is not hard to see the premonitions and seeds of this movement in Fath’s earlier designs. In fact, there was even a bit of feud between Fath and Dior. Magazines devoted coverage to it, splashing headlines such as “Dior Contre Fath” (pictured) across their feature pages. What interesting things might have eventually evolved out of this rivalry we will never know, as Fath died at the young age of 42, while Dior went on to acheive even greater heights of popularity.

Fath’s eagerness to break into the American market and his ambitious pursuit of that goal, may have also been cause for scorn amongst his Parisian peers. In 1948, the New York-based clothier Joseph Halpert contracted with Fath to design special ready-to-wear collections for sales in the American market. (One such Halpert collection is Fath’s 1950 Puritan collection, whose theme rather funnily, to me, fetishizes the “American” aesthete.) Many of the cuts of his clothing from this time emphasize a fitted form, accentuating thin waists and using lines that minimally curve with the body.

Fath most famously sold his designs in the US at Neiman Marcus, some apparel bearing labels of both the famous store’s name and the designer’s. Neiman Marcus went so far as to bestow him with an “Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion” in appreciation. Time magazine noted of the occasion⁶:

“Couturier Jacques Fath, in Dallas to accept a fashion prize from the Neiman-Marcus store, got all dressed up in native costume (Western-style plaid shirt by Jacques Fath, glass-studded white leather belt by Neiman-Marcus, blue denim britches by Sears, Roebuck). Concluding that the U.S. square dance is ‘wonderful, wonderful,’ he announced that Paris would hear of the sport just as soon as he got home.”

His work soon became especially popular with the American women, and celebrites including Jacqueline Kennedy, Josephine Baker, and Rita Hayworth all wore his designs. He even designed Rita Hayworth’s wedding dress for the occasion of her marriage to Aly Khan in 1949. Additionally, his costume design for the Hollywood film The Red Shoes is quite well known, though he did contribute to a few others. His dress patterns through Vogue’s sewing pattern company also sold rather well to average women who enjoyed his style but couldn’t afford anything from his lines.

In 1939 he married Genevieve Boucher de la Bruyere, a celebrated “mannequin” and former secretary to Coco Chanel. The couple had one child, Philippe, born in 1943⁷. (Phillipe in turn had two children⁸, however the rights to the name have long been sold off, and I don’t believe they have any involvement with their grandfather’s house.) After Jacques died, the house briefly carried on for a few years under Mme. Fath’s direction until 1957. A number of the designs released under Genevieve’s time are as appealing as those M. Fath himself put out. The photo book Stella, about a frequent Fath mannequin named Stella Maret, demonstrates a fantastic range of designs issued in the years following M. Fath’s death. Genevieve was instrumental not only in keeping the name alive, but also in terms of creative input to her husband during his lifetime. What I find most touching about Fath’s story is not his beautiful clothing, or even his perfumes… it is this lovely woman, who had smarts behind her beauty. It is her influence which shaped many of his collections and the photography showing off his designs. She was a remarkable source of inspiration, but sometimes remained hidden behind the title of “wife.”

Fath himself was less than generous towards the female gender as a whole. He had notably declared⁹, “Women are bad fashion designers. The only role a woman should have in fashion is wearing clothes,” and “Fashion is an art and men are the artists.”

Jacques Fath was a flawed, imperfect man, but one with impeccable taste and talent. If we go rooting around into his contemporaries’ lives, I feel we’d come to much the same conclusions about them. But to whitewash is to render a subject dimensionless, and Fath deserves more than a flat treatment. And better than my pitifully edited summary, too.

The following is a complete list of perfumes made under the Jacques Fath label, some with brief olfactory information.

Perfumes released by Fath during his lifetime:

1945: Chasuble, floral woody oriental
1946: Iris Gris, floral fruity woody: perfumer Vincent Roubert
1950: Canasta, fruity chypre: not sure, but has perfumer Vincent Roubert’s fingerprints all over it
1953: Fath de Fath, floral woody and musky oriental
1953: Green Water, green aromatic citrus woody (for men): perfumer Vincent Roubert

Perfumes released under the Fath name after it was licensed to L’oreal:

1968: Fath’s Love, sparkling tuberose floral
1972: Ellipse
1977: Expression, floriental chypre

Perfumes, released and/or reforumulated & re-released, as the house experienced a revival in the 90s include:

1994: Fath de Fath, remade as fruity floriental with strong vanillic emphasis by perfumers Haarmann and Reimer¹⁰
1996: Eau de Fath¹¹
1998: Pour L’Homme (sometimes called simply “Jacques Fath”), fresh floriental (for men)
1999: Yin, fresh floriental
1999: Yang, green woody oriental (for men)

1. Elements of Fashion and Style, p.115, by G.J. Sumathi
2. Time, Feb. 5, 2003, “Is There A Future In Fashion’s Past?”
3. http://www.historyofashion.com/historyofashion/shoeperugia.html
4. Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now, p.9, by Valerie Steele
5. Fashion Under the Occupation, various including appendix, by Miriam Kochan and Dominique Veillon
6. Time Magazine, 19 September, 1949, notes
7. Paris Match, 18 March, 1950
8. fashionfinds.com, site now defunct
9. Women Designers in the USA 1900 to 2000: Diversity and Difference, p. 194, by Pat Kirkham
10. New Perfume Handbook, p. 166, by Nigel Groom
11. Years of release for Eau de Fath through Yang via Basenotes.net.

UPDATE: There’s a great little short film showing off Fath clothing from 1956 on You Tube… just wonderful! For some reason I am having trouble embedding it today, so here’s a link to the You Tube page: Jacques Fath 1956

A number of sites have already covered holiday gift ideas, and covered them well, but usually the hardest things to shop for are stocking stuffers. Well, I mean it’s easy to find tons of little stuff, but not necessarily the little stuff that folks might actually appreciate. Here’s my fragrant list of ideas, with online shopping links when available. I’ve roughly organized them from lowest to highest in price, though I’ve tried to focus mostly on items $15 or less:

Pre de Provence Guest Soaps, starting at $0.89 each in my neck of the woods. I especially recommend the Linden. Available at so many places now, including Wild Oats groceries. I see they’re also online at Bon Savon or in cute little gift sets sold at Joan of Arte, including 5 packs of these little bars for $6.00, which are just the right long shape for fitting well in stockings.

Bee & Flower Sandalwood soap, usually around $1-$2. Sold all sorts of places, including many health/natural food stores.

Bath Fizzies, from Ulta, only $2, and adorablely shaped like cupcakes. I’m generally well-pleased with Ulta’s house brand of bath and body products, which are nicely made but not hard on the wallet.

Paddywax travel tin candles, $4. The Paddywax brand is available in the Portland area at Cielo Home, and online through Paddywax.com.

Perfumeria Gal Lip Balm in Violet, around $5 on average. Available at some Urban Outfitters stores, and online at American Discount Beauty Supply. Also online at Adore Beauty in Austrailia for AU $11.95.

Handmade soaps from Maryam’s Soap Nook, $5. These are all so gorgeous looking, and I’d especially like to point out the Pomegranate and Wildberries soap to everyone because of its rich fragrance.

For the kids: Pluto Cologne, $5.99 at Imagination Perfumery. It smells a little like CK One, admittedly, but c’mon! It’s friggin’ Pluto!

Oregon Cabernet Wine Truffles, starting from $6.50 at Euphoria Chocolate. Seriously, they’re scary delicious. The Double Chocolate ones are awfully good, too, but I don’t see a smaller stocking size box at the online site… which is as good an excuse as anything to make a trip to Eugene, I guess. Hint, hint, Mr. Katie, *ahem*.

Fragrance decants from eBay seller dragonfly00, prices vary. I’ve yet to have anything other than a pleasant shopping experience with her. I wouldn’t necessarily give these decants as regular gifts, but for stocking stuffers they are perfect, and the labels she makes for her decants always look simply lovely.

Coffee Cup Air Freshener, $6.95, and T-bone Air Fresheners, $3.95 for a set of 3, at Archie McPhee.

Perfume mini bottles are fantastic last minute items to pick up when all else fails. I’ve found them at Fred Meyer and Target, both of which have the best selection and best prices, though K-mart, Wal-Mart (if you’re so inclined), and Walgreen’s, sometimes stock them as well. Prices can vary wildly, but generally expect to see most priced between $7-$15.

Sephora Fragrance Atomizers, $9-$15. Perfect for throwing into a purse or bag, and if you buy it in the brick and mortar store and you’re lucky, they’ll even fill it with a favorite fragrance for you! Also sold empty online at Sephora.com, in the 3″ Atomizer and Bullet Atomizer for the recipient to fill from their own collection.

Travel size Eau de Toilettes from L’Occitane, starting at $9. Consider their Verbena or Eau de Iparie for either men or women. If you have a L’Occitane boutique near you, be sure to check out their trial size product section, which is just brimming with ideas for stocking stuffers, including the small tubes of their fantastic hand cream.

Stella McCartney, Stella Eau de Parfum Roll-On, $10. Admittedly not a favorite fragrance of mine, but it sure is ideal for friends and family who love it. Sold at Sephora.

Fresh To Go trial size items, prices vary. The Pomegranate Hair Rinse and the Sugar Blossom Body Treatment are items that might be the most welcome discoveries for recipients who’ve never tried the line before.

The biggest (and smallest in size) hit from last Christmas was Philosophy’s Cinnamon Buns Lip Shine, $10. I make my own ribbon bows, and I used these little tubes in the center of the bows, but they’re ideal for stocking goodies.

Benefit “Touch me and then try to leave” Cream, $12 for a 1.3 oz travel size, or $28 for a full size 4.75 oz tub. Sold at Benefit counters, and at benefitcosmetics.com, which I can’t link to because their site is not working properly at the moment.

Fruits & Passion Hot Dog Puppy Shampoo for Puppies and Sensitive Skin, $16, at Drugstore.com. What? Don’t look at me like that. Yes, I put up a stocking every year for my dog, but it’s not like I’m the only one who suffers from this particular form of mental illness. This is becoming my new favorite winter shampoo for Fred - his skin gets so dry during the cold months, and thus far it has yet to irritate his skin or make it flakey, it lathers up easily, and is only scented very lightly with citrus and fig. Fred smells divine these days.

Also for the dog, The Laundress Fabric Fresh spray in Cedar, $12, is awesome for spritzing the dog bed from time to time. Okay, so the dog might strenuously object to you removing his stank, but you know, one does have to draw the line somewhere when catering to the little kings and queens of the household.

Demeter Home Fragrance Sprays in general, and their Laundromat and Bamboo in specific, prices vary depending on seller and locale. The best place to buy Demeter anything is in a brick and mortar store, since buying blind from this line can be a crapshoot. However, if you’re shopping online, I feel the best place to purchase Demeter is through eBay seller, awhumer. Great turn around time on shipping, and the shipping charges are quite reasonable.

Body Butter Trio, $24, or a full-size tub of the Buttercream Frosting Body Butter, $22, by Jaqua. The Buttercream feels rich, and smells scrummy with no off notes. Love this stuff. Jaqua helpfully provides an extensive list of brick and mortar shops, as well as a local store finder, to locate where their products are sold right on their site.

Agraria Cologne sprays, $36, at Fragrances & More, in your choice of four different scents. It’s Balsam that has caught my attention.

Esteban Paris’ Note Marine 2 potpourri from Aedes, $38. I keep meaning to write a review, but then other stuff comes up. It’s a very subtle fragrance, with just a touch of saltiness and cucumber, along with those melony notes we usually associate with marine fragrances, and light florals. It’s a wonderful way to make the house smell of spring at the beach during the doldrums of winter. There’s also something very tactilely addictive about it, and I dare you not to occasionally pick up the odd piece now and again to smooth your fingers over.

Slatkin & Co. Blaine Trump Candles, $50 - $65. Proceeds of sales through the following hyperlink will benefit God’s Love We Deliver, a charity which serves those living with HIV/AIDS and other illnesses by preparing and delivering “nutritious, high-quality meals to people who, because of their illness, are unable to provide or prepare meals for themselves.” (Hat tip to Jack & Hill for making me aware of this charity and the site.)

I hope this list is helpful, and please feel free to comment with your own good ideas for fragragrant stocking stuffers!!

Following up on an earlier post from last week, both of the following Perfume in Art parodies were sent in by the Fragrant Funster of the Spoofume blog:

Rubens’ Adam and Eve:

Dali does Chanel:

Great work! Thanks so much!

If you are inspired or just plain bored at work, I’ll continue to take submissions for a little while. Email to katie at scentzilla dot com, with the subject line in Perfume in Art.

In the past two days, we’ve had a pipe burst; which led to flooding in the master bedroom and its bathroom; a light that we knew need replacing but hadn’t gotten around to burned its light bulbs to a crisp, and it is now shorting out the fuses that handle both our living room and the kitchen; a fence post along one side of our backyard decided to sag and dip down to the ground; which led to a whole section of the fence falling down because we were too harried with the bursting and the flooding to deal with a fence post. GAH! GAH! GAAAAAH! Will write a post after this weekend when we are done with damage control and I stop my uncontrollable swearing/sobbing.

I was waiting for a stroke of inspiration to hit me for a Thanksgiving-themed post this week, but it hasn’t come yet. The trouble with inspiration seems to be that it usually occurs in the middle of the night, when there’s sleeping to be done, and then I wake up to discover I’ve forgotten the allegedly brilliant thing that I was totally going to remember in the morning because it was so brilliant. So I stuck a pen and notebook on the dresser next to the bed, thinking I’d quick write it down before I’d fall back asleep. Then there’d be fresh, pretty ideas waiting for me to start the day with!

Here’s what I jotted down… In your head, try to imagine this written in line scrawl, with checkmarks before each word, and a single exclamation mark to the right that was five times the size of the words themselves. Underneath this lurked what was I believe was supposed to be a little round smiley face, but I can’t be sure, because it’s actually kind of egg shaped with some chicken scratch lines in the middle:

• brown
• jellybeans
• vintage

Ah. Yes. Apparently my big idea was to dig under the couch cushions to find remnants of old rotting candy hidden back last Easter, which not only addresses the wrong holiday, but is also pretty gross. Where the hell was I going with that? Well, there’s one lesson learned: there are no good ideas in the sleeping darkness, only crazy ones.

I am themeless. Here, in no particular order, are random things I’ve been thinking about…

1.) Balla Powder, Scented Scrotum Talc for Men.

This is a product?

I mean, a real one?

Not some item you see sitting between the remote control fart machine and the “How do you like your boobies” shirt at Spencer’s Gifts? (Both of which, by the way, we are reminded are “hilarious” by Spencer’s. We can all feel grateful they’re explicitly informing us of this fact, since it would have remained otherwise unnoticed.)

I am sure there’s a joke to be found about Balla Powder somewhere, and I’m pretty sure the punchline goes, “Tom Ford.” But I haven’t the steel stomach to go looking for it.

2.) Dolce & Gabanna Light Blue. So perfect. So chic. So popular. It’s the pretty cheerleader that everyone likes! But alas, there’s always that crowd that secretly hates the pretty cheerleader, and even moreso when people keep insisting “she’s so nice.” I am with that crowd. Light Blue is a mix of lemon, bergamot, cedar and white musk, with a green apple twist. Doesn’t that sound so nice? While I’m not sure any perfume can convey irony, Light Blue smells of veiled sarcasm to me. It’s shiny-happy on the surface, but then! Out of nowhere! A sharp metal knife driven into your back, or really, straight at your nostrils, just as soon as you let your guard down. And this, after you’ve already felt a small blast of Lysol up your nose, too.

People keep telling me to “give it another chance, just stick with it, and eventually it’ll work for you, too.” That sounds suspiciously like perfume appeasement, and Neville Chamberlaining with a perfume that insists on antagonizing you is a terrible plan. I shall fight at the counters, I shall fight at the display racks, I shall fight in the aisles and in the streets, I shall fight at Sephora; I shall never surrender.

I shall also remember that taking Benadryl for my allergies makes me very, very loopy. Seriously. It’s like being drunk, but without the fun, the beery deliciousness, or the comparative coherence of thought.

Anyhow, I hereby declare that I am done trying to come around to Light Blue. It’s a remarkably bad fit, and we are just never going to get along. If you and Light Blue are good buddies, congrats. You’re one of the lucky ones. It sure ain’t for me, though.

3.) Madonna’s NBC concert special is set to air this Thanksgiving Eve. Because nothing beats spending the holidays with Grandma. (I’ve no idea where that bit o’ vitriol came from, and no, I don’t really think she’s old. I’ve got nothing against her in particular, I swear. Just a vague annoyance that we’re supposed to find her antics lately at all compelling.)

4.) I finally cracked open a sealed bottle of a vintage fragrance I’ve been sitting on for months now. I’d wanted it for forever, but hadn’t worked up the nerve to unseal it right away. Oh man. I believe I found my Holy Grail perfume. More on that in a coming post, but I want to give another go ’round before I write about it.

5.) The Philosophy Lemonade 3-in-1 shampoo is proving to be a big hit with the menfolk in my house. It’s not really my kind of scent, but it’s quite good. Not too tart, not too sweet, a little pulpy, maybe a wee touch of woodiness. All in all, a really good representation of lemonade. My picky husband swears to me that it works equally as well on hair and on body - I’m taking his word on that and passing it along. My boys have been loving it for their bubble baths, and I must say, it foams up nicely.

6.) While I’m at it I am going to also recommend their Double Rich Hot Cocoa 3-in-1. I bought last winter, too, and it is the best fudgey-chocolately shower gel I’ve ever come across. Sometimes chocolate scented bath/body stuff hits me with a vague whiff of vinyl doggie chew toys, but this one’s fragrance is blessedly plastic-free. I don’t use it for shampoo, so I can’t say one way or the other how that works out. However, it does serve up a rich bubble bath, in addition to feeding a fine dessert to the ol’ shower poof. Hot Cocoa might just be my favorite 3-in-1 from Philosophy.

7.) Has anyone tried their Sugar Plum Fairy one? I should know better, but the name and bottle are so cute and utterly twee that I totally want to try it. Is it any good? Does it smell of plums, or what?

Image of Balla Powder from MenEssentials.com. Images of Philosophy 3-in-1s from Beauty.com. Image of Light Blue from Sephora.