perfume lover’s new york: 9 posts

If you will be in New York this month, you might  want to explore the scented walk organized by Elastic City in collaboration with the Brazilian artist Josely Carvalho. Elastic City is an organization that works with various artists around the world to make the audience “active participants in an ongoing poetic exchange with the places we live in and visit.” On July 10th, 12th and 14th, Elastic City will hold walks titled “7 Through the Nose.”

Carvalho’s Diary of Smells is her most recent project, and “the participants will explore their own senses of smell and its powerful relationship to memory and emotion. Starting in Times Square, taking the subway and then sniffing through Flushing, the group will identify synthetic smells (i.e. smells created to entice sales: such as french fries and store-specific fragrances) and existing natural urban smells, (i.e.sweat, herbs, fish, bread and urine). Via memory, metaphor and association, Josely will work with each participant to record smells in individual and collective scent journals; an evanescent geography of odors.”

Each walk holds 12 people. The fee for 2h walk is $20, but Bois de Jasmin readers will  get a discount with the code is TWENTYTWENTY, for 20% off walk admission. For more information and times available, please visit Elastic City website. Also, the organization holds walks in different cities, including San Francisco, Detroit, Berlin and Paris.

Image: Yellow Cabs on Fifth Avenue by Bois de Jasmin.

My father had a photographic memory. He could glance at a page of poetry, a list of numbers or a collage of images and remember them more or less precisely. It was something that left everyone awestruck and at parties he was happy to oblige by memorizing card combinations and such. Sadly, I inherited none of his prowess in this particular area; I had to build my own memory skills. As I became more interested in scents, I realized that more than anything else, perfume helped me reconstruct whole scenes. When I smell the honeyed sweetness of linden blossoms after a summer rain, I’m back in Kiev, walking down the sunlit avenues, a melting ice cream cone in hand. A whiff of Diorissimo—and I’m 5 years old, watching my mother put on her green checkered tweed suit and arrange her bob with a spritz of hair spray.

Continue reading →

The Museum of Arts and Design will debut its first fragrance exhibit in November of 2012. “The Art of Scent, 1889-2012 will lead visitors through an olfactory experience that showcases the artistry inherent to creating a fragrance. Featuring twelve perfumes that have significantly impacted the medium, the exhibition will explore major developments in the style and design of fragrance and provide an unprecedented behind-the-scenes glimpse into the labor-intensive process of crafting a work of olfactory art.”

“Highlights from the exhibition, organized by MAD’s Curator of Olfactory Art Chandler Burr, include: Jicky by Aimé Guerlain, Chanel N˚ 5 by Ernest Beaux, Aromatics Elixir by Bernard Chant, Angel by Olivier Cresp, Pleasures by Annie Buzantian and Alberto Morillas, and Untitled by Daniela Andrier, among others… Other confirmed works of olfactory art featured in the exhibition include: Drakkar Noir (1982), by Pierre Wargnye; L’Eau d’Issey (1992), by Jacques Cavallier; cK One (1994), by Alberto Morillas and Harry Frémont; and Prada (2003), by Carlos Benaim and Clément Gavarry.”

Continue reading →

A path leading up to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Cherry Esplanade opens up on a fairy tale view of graceful alleys. With its soft greens and pinks, the wide expanse looks as if it could have been painted either by Monet or by a 19th century Japanese artist.  Under the cherry tree canopy, which is so thick with blossoms that you catch only glimpses of the sky, the light is caressing and delicate. Suddenly I feel that I need a floaty chiffon dress and a wreath of wild flowers in my hair to properly fit into this sylvan setting. Plenty of girls around me are doing just that and strike nymph-like poses to be captured on film. When the gusts of wind grow stronger, you have a sensation of being inside a snow globe, except instead of snowflakes, you feel the brush of pink petals against your cheeks.

Continue reading →