NZZ Folio has an interesting new article by Luca Turin in which he compares cars and fragrance houses. "...Dior is the refined and ladylike Carrozzeria Touring, Caron the shockingly angular Fratelli Zagato, and Guerlain the endlessly graceful Pininfarina." He also talks about Insolence ("This one is the family Ferrari, the 612 Scaglietti" and "is going to be a hard sell unless the staff gets proper training"). He also wonders about the future of Guerlain, where, "after five generations, no Guerlain seems to be willing to take over from Jean-Paul when he retires". One of the options for Guerlain, it seems, is to hire an in-house perfumer, and, as far as Turin is concerned, Maurice Roucel might be a prime candidate. "His very French style of perfumery, that of a man who likes to make women feel gorgeous, suits the house perfectly. " Hear! Hear!
Thanks for the link! I will take any of these cars, but I guess my favorite is the Dior-car (refined and ladylike me:) And the Caron-car doesn't look angular to me--more round. But what do I know--I can't even remember the cars' names.
ReplyDeleteJ,
ReplyDeleteI know NOTHING about cars. I just googled. For all I know the Caron car is not even the one that Turin had in mind. But I tried :-)
Sounds like Guerlain is in trouble...big time.
ReplyDeleteNah, they'll be fine...I think. :-) Bois d'Armenie gave me hope. It doesn't smell like the most Guerlain-y Guerlain, mind you, but it is great.
ReplyDeleteI agree w/ Judith - the Caron car seems rounder to me as well.
ReplyDeleteBut I was mostly pleased to hear what he said about my beloved Maurice. Happy sigh. Hope Guerlain reads that and takes it seriously.
God, I PRAY for Guerlain to wake up from its bad dream...
ReplyDeleteI'm not against new and different, I'm against new and MEHHH !!!
When I smell a Guerlain, I want the big O...
Just saying !
L,
ReplyDeleteI was very happy to read that about Maurice too. And the way he defined his style in perfumery- spot on!
CHaya,
ReplyDelete"I'm not against new and different, I'm against new and MEHHH !!!"
Very well said!!! I absolutely agree. Thus I am not at all against Bois d'Armenie but I am against Insolence. :-)
LT shilling for Insolence perhaps? What ingredients did Symrise supply for the juice? The column this month struck me with an initial impression of extremely commercial, disjointed, and ultimately disappointing. I don't care about odd exotic Eurocars - just getting from place to place and decent writing abut fragrance.
ReplyDeleteFF,
ReplyDeleteI loved the comparisons, even though I know absolutely nothign about cars. :-)
Vika,
ReplyDeleteMe too. Ah, if Guerlain gave Roucel a relative free reign...I think we'd have saw some fine new releases from them.