I really love wearing perfume...
I switch perfumes all the time. If I've been wearing one perfume for three months, I force myself to give it up, even if I still feel like wearing it, so whenever I smell it again it will always remind me of those three months. I never go back to wearing it again; it becomes part of my permanent smell collection...
Smell really is transporting. Seeing, hearing, touching, tasting are just not as powerful as smelling if you want your whole being to go back for a second to something. Usually I don't want to, but by having smells stopped up in bottles, I can be in control and can only smell the smells I want to, when I want to, to get the memories I'm in the mood to have. Just for a second. The good thing about a smell-memory is that the feeling of being transported stops the instant you stop smelling, so there are no aftereffects. It's a neat way to reminisce...
I get very excited when I read advertisements for perfume in the fashion magazines that were published in the 30s and 40s. I try to imagine from their names what they smelled like and I go crazy because I want to smell them all so much:
- Guerlain's: "Sous le Vent"
- Lucien Le Long's: "Jabot," "Gardénia," "Mon Image," "Opening Night"
- Prince Matchabelli's: "Princess of Wales" in memory of Alexandra
- Ciro's: "Surrender," "Réflexions"
- Lenthéric's: "A Bientot," "Shanghai," "Gardénia de Tahiti"
- Worth's: "Imprudence"
- Marcel Rochas': "Avenue Matignon," "Air Jeune"
- D'Orsay's: "Trophée," "Le Dandy," "Toujours Fidèle," "Belle de Jour"
- Coty's: "A Suma," "La Fougeraie au Crépuscule" (Fernery at Twilight)
- Corday's: "Tzigane," "Possession," "Orchidée Bleue," "Voyage à Paris"
- Chanel's: brisk "Cuir de Russie" (Russian Leather); romantic "Glamour; melting "Jasmine"; tender "Gardénia"
- Molinelle's: "Countryclub," Demi-Jour" (Twilight)
- Bonwit Teller's: "721"
- Helena Rubenstein's: "Town," "Country"
- Weil's: Eau de Cologne, "Carbonique"
- Kathleen Mary Quinlan's: "Rhythm"
- Lengyel's (pronounced "len-jel"): "Impérial Russe"
- Chevalier Garde's: "H.R.R.," "Fleur de Perse," "Roi de Rome"
- Saravel's: "White Christmas"
— From The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again) by Andy Warhol
(I think most people reading this will identify a little sheepishly with how long this list is, his perfume lusts becoming more and more obscure. I like the way he puts the perfume names in quotations, as if they were titles of books or movies. I wonder how Andy would have felt about Bond No. 9 branding his name into their perfumes. On a side note, Andy Warhol's syntax and deadpan style has a way of creeping into your own writing if you read his prose even for a brief time... Anyway, I'm touched and surprised by the King of the Hipsters' love of perfume — especially his love of vintage perfume!)
Man, I feel like I see Andy every day on campus. His style is really a classic now, eh?
Gotta say I'm curious about a few of his curiosities now...
Posted by: breathesgelatin | September 08, 2012 at 11:28 AM
Hi, breathesgelatin! You should image-google Andy. We're so used to seeing him older with that crazy white wig askew on his head, but he was such a hipster back in the day. Tight jeans. Striped shirt. Ray bans. But what separates him from the stereotypical hipsters of today is the kind of unironic enthusiasm he shows for things like perfume here. Who among us who truly loves perfume can't identify with the following: "I try to imagine from their names what they smelled like and I go crazy because I want to smell them all so much..."? Anyone? ANYONE? Yeah. I thought so. ;-)
Posted by: Perfumaniac | September 09, 2012 at 12:58 AM
They say he had an IQ of 85. I don't know about that. Check this out:
“What's great about this country is America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good.”
Posted by: Joan | September 10, 2012 at 12:11 AM
Hi Joan. That's crazy talk! Whoever said that Warhol had an IQ of 85 and then looks at his body of work (including his films, which are amazing) and still concludes that he's mentally challenged, well, I have no words for this person! (No words I'll utter publicly, anyway!) People could say the same about David Lynch. They are (well, Warhol was) very odd fellows on the outside. So are a lot of brilliant people.
Funny you mention that great Coca-Cola quote. I used the exact same quote in my post reviewing Tilar Mazzeo's The Secret of Chanel! http://yesterdaysperfume.typepad.com/yesterdays_perfume/2010/12/the-secret-of-chanel-no-5-by-tilar-j-mazzeo-book-review.html The cover is a Warhol silkscreen of the iconic Chanel bottle. He's right, too! But who thinks like that?
Posted by: Perfumaniac | September 10, 2012 at 01:01 AM
I read recently that he was buried with a bottle of Estee Lauder's Beautiful in his hands.
True? I don't know.
Posted by: Jan | September 13, 2012 at 10:20 PM
Hi Jan,
Ive also heard that he was buried with perfume. Ive submitted the question to the Andy Warhol Museum, and Ill let you know what I find out! Thanks for the question! He approached perfume in a unique way!
Posted by: Perfumaniac | September 14, 2012 at 12:18 AM
This is a treasure! Thanks for posting. I want to try all the vintage beauties I've never even heard of ( and that's most of them) on his list. Will content myself with Sous le vent for now. I do hope the Estée Lauder lis not an urban perfume legend.
Posted by: Cheryl | October 29, 2012 at 06:34 PM
Hi Cheryl,
Are you talking about the anecdote that Andy wanted to be buried with a bottle of Beautiful by Estee Lauder? That is amazing, but it also gives me anxiety. How could you ever choose just one perfume?? (As if this is the biggest problem with death.)
Anyway, yes, many of these are still available to try. Go for it!
Posted by: Perfumaniac | October 29, 2012 at 09:44 PM
Great review you have shared on perfume. Thank you for taking such type nice point on perfume to discuss here.
Posted by: Guerlain perfume | November 15, 2012 at 05:12 AM
I didn't know that he was a frag head. He had good taste. Thanks for the post.
Posted by: SwagScent.com | December 21, 2012 at 07:27 AM
I switch perfumes every day. I can't wear strong scents but I have a nice selection of my favorite mild scents. If I wear something on one day, I usually don't feel comfortable wearing it again the next day, unless it's a special case and the occasion warrants it.
I wear perfumes in order to influence my mood. For example I wear Sex and the City when I have a new project to start. It puts me in a creative mood. I'll wear something like Cool Water when I have a lot of tiresome work to do.
Posted by: Tshai@choies | February 04, 2013 at 07:28 PM
Tshai, I think switching scents around is a very modern way of wearing perfume, and like everything else it seems, Andy Warhol was doing it at a time when the idea of a signature scent was still in place. (And dont forget also how modern he was for ignoring the arbitrary designation of masculine/feminine in fragrances by wearing womens perfumes, too!)
Posted by: Perfumaniac | February 04, 2013 at 08:36 PM
When I have too many perfume and tired of wearing those, I combine anything that I have and you will discover different possibilities with those scents and find it better.
Posted by: Paolo @ Perfume Collection | March 18, 2013 at 09:19 AM
It seems to me that every time I find a website that says discounted perfume that they really arent. Does anyone know of any good discount perfume online stores?
Posted by: Kikidi Stiles | March 18, 2013 at 01:10 PM
I know this is an old(er) post now, but I have some White Christmas and could share a little if you haven't tried it yet.
Posted by: Mary P. | May 08, 2013 at 08:12 PM
Thanks for the offer, Mary P. Im in the middle of a move, so let me contact you when Im settled. Thanks again!
Posted by: Perfumaniac | May 09, 2013 at 12:40 PM
Dear Perfumaniac
Intriguing piece in the week when, as chance would have it, I have been reading about the whole Parfums Andy Warhol range elsewhere.
As an aside, I'm sure you must know, but Guerlain still make Sous le Vent. And, no, I don't mean the moisture spray, the actual perfume.
Much changed no doubt from the original, but still available in Paris and very select Guerlain boutiques elsewhere.
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
Posted by: theperfumeddandy | May 11, 2013 at 11:49 AM
I feel like scent is so important to setting my tone for the day, it's fun to switch different scents depending on what I'm wearing (Bandit or Fendi for my 'vixen' days, for example). I've worn perfume since I was a teenager and feel naked without it!
I'm a big lover of citrus, chypres and aldehyde perfumes, I feel so very lucky to have just scored a vintage version of O' de Lancome, has anyone tried the older versions by chance? I am also finding it difficult to find reviews of it....
Posted by: Liz D | June 01, 2013 at 12:31 PM