Perfume can stimulate the mind to recall clear images of times gone by, evoking the mood of the art, fashion, and life-styles of particular eras.
Those whiffs of the past go straight to the brain. We respond instinctively to specific smells because the olfactory nerve is the only one of twelve cranial nerves leading directly to the cerebrum. That explains why the smell of lily of the valley can poignantly remind us of sweet first romance, or why the essence of violets has the power to recall the image of a beloved grandmother.
According to Annette Green, director of the Fragrance Foundation in New York, there are definite trends in fragrance, just as there are in fashion. "We've just gone through this sort of hard rock, openly sexual period, and the popular fragrances such as Poison and Obsession have very strongly reflected that freedom," she states. When Revlon introduced Charlie in 1973, a definitive fragrance with a man's name, it was the perfect echo of the women's liberation movement, Green asserts. "Now, because of what's happening with communicable social diseases, we're moving into a more romantic, less obviously sexual period, and the fragrances will be softer and subtler, reflecting that trend," she says.
Historically, the first two decades of the twentieth century followed romantic and oriental themes in fragrance such as Parisian couturier Paul Poiret's Nuit de Chine and L'Etrange Fleur. Guerlain introduced L'Heure Bleue in 1912 and its Mitsouko made its appearance in 1919.
Women's lives changed irrevocably during the First World War, and many of the fragrances that are considered classics today were created during the twenties and thirties. One of the most memorable of these, Joy by Jean Patou, debuted in 1930.
The youth culture, television, and space exploration shaped the prosperous forties and fifties. Romantic fragrances like Evyan's White Shoulders (1945) and Ricci's L'Air du Temps (1947) accompanied the glamorous fashions which replaced the mannish styles of the war years.
Designer perfumes
Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel didn't become a millionaire until after she introduced Chanel No. 5 in 1923. She was the first French designer to market a perfume bearing her name; Norman Norell was the first American. Other "classic" fragrances that have endured the years are: Je reviens (Worth), introduced in 1932; L'Air du Temps (Ricci), 1947; L'Interdit (Givenchy), 1957; Fidji (Guy Laroche), 1968; and Chloe (Lagerfeld), 1975.
In today's perfume market there is hardly a designer who doesn't have a fragrance to accompany his or her ready-to-wear line. The theory that if a woman loves the designer's clothes she'll also love the designer's fragrance is proven by the success of designer fragrances such as Calvin (Calvin Klein), Michelle (Balenciaga), Pout Lui (Oscar de la Renta), Vanderbilt (Gloria Vanderbilt), Eau de Gucci (Gucci), and perfumes by Laura Biagiotti, Anne Klein, and Paloma Picasso.
Medical roots
The passion for fragrance,
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