Service Industry: An Interview with Jay Batlle
Jay Batlle, Parties of Six or More, Nyehaus May 2012 In “Life Lessons,” a short film directed by Martin Scorsese, Nick Nolte …
Chandler Burr’s Blind Perfume Project
Basenote’s Grant Osbourne announced the creation of Chandler Burr’s collaboration with OpenSky to sell samples of an already established perfume as blind …
Keiko Mecheri’s Bespoke Collection
I had the good fortune of meeting last night the legendary Keiko Mecheri, at MiN New York. Although she now calls California …
Update: Nose in a Book: “In the Library” by CB I Hate Perfume and “Paper Passion” by Geza Schoen
UPDATE: I received the following communication from Caroline Lebar, Karl Lagerfeld’s Head of Communications in Paris, regarding my post on “Paper Passion.” …
Nose in a Book: “In the Library” by CB I Hate Perfume and “Paper Passion” by Geza Schoen
My collecting habits are becoming a big problem. Like most New Yorkers, I live in a tiny apartment. I don’t have enough …
Belle Haleine: Marcel Duchamp’s Readymade Perfume Bottle
The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by …
An Empty Bottle of Shalimar: The Art of Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois is undoubtedly one of the 20th Century’s most important artists. She passed away in 2010 at the age of 98, …
Smell Me, Love Me: L’Air du Temps, Jontue, and Windsong
I’m going on a bit of a hiatus for about two weeks as I am going to Paris! Mostly for work, but …
Imprison Me in Scent
Naked woman bound by a ring of perfume. Perfume as shackle, as a form of control over the body in an erotic …
The Liberated Woman: Feminism and Perfume Advertising
The late 1960’s and early 1970’s was an era of social and political conflict. As demonstrations against the Vietnam War were happening …
Etienne de Swardt and Ralf Schweiger of État Libre d’Orange at MiN New York
It seems that the overwhelming consensus in the perfume blogosphere that everyone loves Fils de Dieu, du riz et des agrumes, the …
John Singer Sargent’s “Fumée d’ambre gris” (1880)
I will never tire of the lush paintings of John Singer Sargent, an American painter who is most famous for his “Portrait …
Dream Machines: Perfume as Signifier
Let’s begin with Michelle Obama. In her role as First Lady, the media doesn’t focus on her charitable work, her diplomacy, or …
David Lynch’s Perfume Surrealism
In the research I’ve been doing on awesome perfume ads, I realized that the CK Obsession ads I posted were directed …
Serge Lutens’ Pleasure Dome: Musc Koublai Khan
In Edward Said’s celebrated book, Orientalism, he discusses the ways in which Europeans–particularly the French and the British–imagined the East in its literature, …
80’s Perfume Ads and Camp: Calvin Klein’s Obsession
In 1964, the literary and art critic Susan Sontag published an essay in Partisan Review entitled “Notes on ‘Camp’” in which she enumerates …
A New, Noisier Way of Writing – from the New York Times
Anand Giridharadas writes in the New York Times about how the digital age has changed the pace of writing. His thoughts are …
Frédéric Malle’s On Perfume Making
Frédéric Malle is my all time favorite perfumer. His ability to attract the most creative noses in the business helped him to …
Painting and Scent: Pierre Bonnard’s Perfumed Impressionism
Pierre Bonnard was part of a group of French artists called Les Nabis, post-Impressionist painters who came together in the late 19th …
The challenge of writing about smells
In 3QuarksDaily.com, Rishidev Chaudhuri writes a brilliant review of the now classic book on perfumes, “Perfumes: The A-Z Guide” by Luca Turin …