Forty
odd years after the Ballet Russes hit Paris, Estée Lauder provided the next
milestone in the story of commercial scent with her Youth Dew.
Tombstone might be rather more appropriate, as it
signalled the end of perfumery as an art.
“It’s
cheap, it’s vulgar, it smells awful...” said Harry Doyle of Revson Inc, adding:
“- and I wish I had a piece of it!”
Wise
words, for that scent - the recipe for which had been given to Lauder by an
admirer who admired her tenacity, hard work and
refusal to admit defeat, and who felt she could do with a helping hand - went
on to establish Lauder world-wide, and ensure her future $multi-million empire.
An empire kept firmly in the family, all attempts at persuasion to “go public”
resisted. To this day [1991], the Lauder family
hold control of both image and finance. No shareholder ever told this lady what
she should do.
 |
| Youth Dew (Estee Lauder). First created 1953. |
A
further 30 years brought the influence of the Middle East on world markets, and
the almost indecent haste of the West to cater exclusively to them.
The
sad fact is that [perfume] prices are determined
by US standards of cost versus quality. When someone replies “Giorgio!” when
asked what perfume they are wearing, they are really saying: “$150 an ounce”.
Right
now it seems that the average perfume buying woman would wear Jeyes Fluid if it
cost enough. It no longer seems to matter what a perfume smells like, only how
much it costs, and more importantly, that the rest of the world should know
how much it costs.
This
lunatic logic and perverted sense of priority has led to master perfumers
having to equal the price asked for what amount to chemical fly-sprays for fear
of appearing cheap and losing face. If Jeanne Lanvin’s Scandale was still available, which sadly, it is not, and sold for
£50 an ounce, modern woman would favour “L’Esprit de la Derrière” if it
retailed at £300 – what is even more lamentable, they would make it seem
desirable.
Patou’s
Joy was for many years [marketed as] “The Most Expensive Perfume in the
World” for the simple reason that the jasmine absolute it contained was the
most expensive ingredient in the entire perfume cannon. When Elsa Maxwell and
Jean Patou chose it, the chemist warned that it was not viable because
it would prove to be prohibitively expensive.
“Great!”
Said Maxwell, “ - that’ll be our sales pitch!”
 |
| Patou's Joy. Created 1929, and marketed as "the costliest perfume in the world" |
Now
JOY is advertised not as “the most
expensive perfume in the world, but “the costliest”, having been outstripped
time and again by everything from Niki de St. Phalle to Elizabeth Taylor’s Passion, to Estée Lauder’s Beautiful and Knowing. A comparatively unknown American scent called Pherenome retails at an incredible $300
an ounce.
At
a time when Chanel were offering No5
at £46 an ounce, and Guerlain their entire range at £54, Giorgio asked (and got) £53 for a quarter of an ounce. Estée
Lauder and Calvin Klein asked (and got) £150 an ounce.
 |
| Fred & Gale Hayman's "Giorgio" which overtook "Joy" in terms of how much it cost. At least to buy. Created 1981. |
Worse
was to come. Elizabeth Taylor demanded £200 [an ounce]
for Passion, and not to be out-done,
Miss Lauder demanded the same for Knowing.
Guerlain
and Chanel upped their prices in self-defence, virtually doubling them
overnight.
Plus ça change, plus
c’est la même chose:
over 70 years ago, Guerlain were asking $200 an ounce for some of their
perfumes, and at that time, for some people, that would have been the
equivalent of 2 years wages.
Impact
One
of the myths that perfume companies like to perpetuate is the ludicrous
assertion that “fashions change”, which is how they excuse copying each other
so slavishly that all their products end up smelling vaguely the same.
“It’s
what the public wants!” They protest.
What
absolute rubbish.
It
is the perfume companies who create these “moods” and “fashions”, and their
motive is simple avarice.
They
are no longer artists, they have become cash ‘n’ carry market traders, and as
long as they continue to embrace American big business standards, they will
never be anything else. It does not seem to occur to them that American
tourists flock to Europe because they want to escape from their own culture,
not simply find a diluted version of it. Those souls who backpack, fly, or sail
to Europe seek another, less frenetic more leisured culture, where time lingers
longer and traditions of style and elegance, craftsmanship and pride in it are
taken for granted.
Wine
producing countries have learned the value of patience, for fine wine cannot be
rushed. To new business, whose proudest boast is: “I can get it for you yesterday!”
The laid-back European is, or at least was, an enigma; incompatible,
infuriating, incomprehensible and inefficient.
Sadly,
a newer generation of Europeans, eager to compete on a global level, and
impatient with the old ways, has grown up to embrace what are, to a large
extent, New York business techniques, and in the mad scramble to follow their
lead, has not noticed that like Pinocchio following the Cat and the Fox to
Pleasure Island, they are growing donkey’s ears.
And
there is nothing anyone can do. No customer has thus far stormed into
Selfridges, or Macy’s or Harrods, banged on the counter and yelled: “Enough of
this patchouli – I want vanilla!” Or, “you can keep your jasmine, give me
tuberose!”
No,
they simply become sadly aware one day that their favourite scent is no longer
available, because something more “fashionable” has taken its place.
 |
| L'Occitane's "Eau de Quatre Reines". A former masterpiece that blended Bulgarian roses with a sexy musky base. The recipe has now been altered beyond all recognition to appeal to a 'younger' market (EWB - 2014). |
Loyalties
A
survey taken in Paris in the latter half of the 1970’s revealed that modern
woman is not as loyal to a particular perfume as she once was – preferring to
experiment with several different fragrances and often buying perfume simply
because she has been attracted by the bottle.
“It
is a sad woman who buys her own perfume” can no longer be said with any
justification, if indeed it ever could. Women buy their own scent. If left to
men, the perfume industry would be in a parlous state, far from the boom it is
experiencing at present. Many’s the man who trails hopelessly around the
department stores searching for the scent he gave his wife 20 years before, and
finds to his chagrin it has been discontinued.
“And
no wonder” the assistants snap, “if this is how often you buy it!”
But
if modern woman is no longer loyal to a particular perfume, it is hardly
surprising because the perfumers, by and large, have not been loyal to her. Old
favourites have been discontinued without warning with what amounts to cavalier
disregard for sentiment and feelings, to be replaced with new creations
seemingly every few months.
It takes a long time for a woman to find a
perfume she thinks is right for her; something that expresses her personality
and individuality, and with which she feels comfortable. Any
old smell will not do, any more than any old dress will do. To go about one’s
daily life wearing a perfume that feels “wrong” is the equivalent of walking
down the street in a clown’s costume or fishnet tights and a g-string.
It
matters not that she is wearing a neat classic suit or jeans and a t-shirt, she
feels as conspicuous as if she were wearing nothing at all.
 |
| Poster for Habanita - c.1940s |
Molinard’s
Habanita is a vanilla, and so is
Guerlain’s Shalimar; but the
difference between them is Villiers Street to Cadogan Square.
You
might happen to like Villiers Street, but if you don’t, you will scrub
your skin until every vestige is gone, and then you will still smell it.
Coty’s
Emeraude was also a vanilla, so was Styx (another Coty), many people still
miss them, but not as much as they miss L’Origan
– the face-powder smell of all time. Hardly surprising Coty scented all
their face-powder with it for years.
Thankfully,
certain scents are above fashion: Chanel
No5 has remained the world’s best selling fragrance for over 60 years. Charlie briefly gave it a few uneasy
moments, but that’s probably because they are both warm florals (Charlie
Revson, the greatest marketer of all time, wasn’t daft). [Guerlain’s] Shalimar,
second only to No5, is basically
vanilla and bergamot, and JOY, most
womens’ dream, is a full-blooded jasmine.
Nevertheless,
because of “fashion”, so far we have lost:
Carven:
Robe d’un Soir, Vert et Blanc, and Chasse Gardée
Piguet:
Visa
Dior:
Diorama
Lanvin:
Pretexte
Raphael:
Réplique
Nina
Ricci: Fille d’Eve
Corday:
Toujours Moi
Revillon:
Latitude 50
Guerlain:
Ode, Sous le Vent
Coty:
L’Origan, Chypre, Paris
and
the one that started it all – Jacqueminot
Rose
Sally
Blake
(unfinished) August, 1991
(unfinished) August, 1991
