Victoria: 2669 posts

When Chanel announced the launch of Beige, Jersey and 1932 in Extrait de Parfum, purportedly the richest and more luxurious concentration, I was excited. Although neither Jersey nor 1932 caught my attention in the Eau de Toilette versions (Beige, by contrast, is one of my staples), Chanel often has a few surprises up its sleeve, and I waited impatiently till my local boutique received the testers.

There was some speculation as to the reason why Chanel launched the “deluxe” versions of particular perfumes in the Les Exclusifs collection. Shouldn’t the exquisitely beautiful 28 La Pausa, sultry Coromandel or polished 31 Rue Cambon receive more attention? Chanel itself said something about the noble materials and other romantic things, but the truth is that Beige, Jersey and 1932 are the best sellers in the collection, and it made more business sense to focus on them first.

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What kind of perfume do you select on days when you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders? A triple incense extravaganza that makes you smell like a Gothic church? A quirky niche perfume that requires a degree in philosophy? A complex classic? I love all of those, but on hectic days, sweet and frilly is what I turn to. Lately, La Petite Robe Noire Couture, a sophisticated variation on Guerlain’s original little black dress, is my sweet perfume of choice.

Here, I have to make a little aside. The original La Petite Robe Noire Eau de Parfum released in 2009 was tweaked in 2012, and it’s this reorchestrated version that became a runaway success for Guerlain. It’s a raspberry macaron with a twist of licorice. The sparkling Eau de Toilette was released in 2013, and this year, we have the Couture version. All but the first La Petite Robe Noire were created by perfumer Thierry Wasser.

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One rarely gets to use ‘Chanel’ and ‘beef intestine’ in the same sentence, but perfumery is often a mixture of seemingly incongruous concepts. The heavenly aroma of jasmine wouldn’t be possible without the raunchy notes of horse sweat and moth balls.  To make a mouthwatering berry, a perfumer not only needs materials that smell of roses and violets, but also of rot and decay. The art of baudruchage is another such example. Well before technology made vacuum-tight seals possible, craftspeople used a fine membrane from ox intestine, a baudruche.

Today the baudruche is usually made of synthetic fibers, onion paper or other natural (non-animal) materials. You can recognize the baudruchage seal by the fine, transparent skin around the neck of the bottle.  Modern innovations aside, baudruchage is one of the most traditional and unique perfumery techniques. Since it is done by hand, one bottle at a time, few perfume houses resort to this labor intensive sealing method. Chanel, Guerlain, and Jean Patou* still employ it for the most precious item in their collections–the extrait de parfum.

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Guerlain has launched a new fragrance in its  l’Art & la Matière collection, called Eau de Cashmere. It’s designed to be sprayed on cashmere or wool for a soft, cocooning effect, although it can be worn on skin, like any other perfume. Eau de Cashmere is unisex and is based around powdery notes. It’s also meant to be layered with any other fragrance in the l’Art & la Matière collection, which includes perfumes like Angélique Noire, Cruel Gardénia, Myrrhe et Délires, and Bois d’Arménie.

“Fresh notes of bergamot and mandarin are mixed with soft and powdery notes of iris and lavender . Then comes the elegant sillage of woody notes of cedar , vetiver and musk.”

Available at Guerlain boutiques and counters. 125ml/72 €

On Saturday my husband and I walked around Ypres, a town in West Flanders, which was the center for the intense battles during World War I. In Belgium, the memories of 14-18 are still vivid, and walking along the meadows that once were the war zone but are now pale green and ready to burst into spring blooms was a poignant experience. Later that day I heard the news that the Russian Parliament granted Vladimir Putin broad authority to use military force in Ukraine; it all seemed like a bad dream, or a scene from a film.

Except that we have seen this film before and know that it doesn’t end well. The justification of invading Ukraine to protect its Russian population is absurd. The Ukrainian conflict that started in November 2013 is not between Russians and Ukrainians; it’s a struggle among Ukrainians for an accountable, responsible government.  Turning it into an ethnic conflict is dangerous, callous and irresponsible. Once such rifts are opened, they don’t mend easily. History gives us plenty of warnings from the 20th century, from the Partition of India in 1947 to the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s. For someone who’s half-Ukrainian and half-Russian with family still in Ukraine, the current events are a personal tragedy.

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