Perfume in the Glossies: May 2008

Slim pickings this month. Boo to the usually (relatively) perfume-heavy Allure for hardly any perfume content except for another basic column from "Fragrance Guy", Frederic Malle, in which he advises that "using a heavy oriental such as Shalimar or Obsession in summer is like wearing a fur coat" and that "sexy summer fragrances are generally made up of white flowers such as gardenia and orange blossom". (One wonders if it pains a man of so much knowledge to have to adhere to a very primitive accessible format undoubtedly requested by editors...and also if it pains him to be called "Fragrance Guy"). ...But kudos to Vogue for finally starting to cotton on to the existence of the world of fine perfume, and by fine perfume I do not mean 80% of that which appears on the numerous ads on its pages. Erika Kawalek, in an article entitled Into This Air, visits Osmotheque, goes away deeply moved by Iris Gris, Scandal and Rose Jacqueminot and attempts to obtain her new favorites. The articles goes to mention names that one somehow would never expect to see in Vogue: "perfume detective" Anitra Earle, Jaime Lliteras (that's right, he of the now legendary eBay store!), The Perfumed Court, Luca Turin, Tania Sanchez and a number of very niche scents like Onda and Bois Blond. I feel a sense of strange satisfaction observing Our World (the world of perfume maniacs that is) slowly but steadily seeping into the pages of glossies and from there into the world of normal people general public. To quote Leonard Cohen, first we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin.