Sunday 5 September 2010

Dans la Nuit / In the Night (1924)
Vers le Jour / Just before Dawn (1925)
Sans Adieu / Because I can't bear to say goodbye (1929)
Je Reviens / I will return (1932)
Vers Toi / To You (1934)

A love poem that inspired five scents created by Worth in the 1920s and 30s. I don't think I've ever been to a perfume exhibition before but I knew I had to see this.
How I longed to undo the stoppers to unleash the heady fragrance of an Edwardian boudoir or sniff the wrist of a 1920s flapper.
Even the names are so evocative. Le Jardin de Mon Curé was a Guerlain scent of 1914: mint, thyme, salvia and wood.
Though I wasn't sure about Le Mouchoir de Monsieur as I've known too many messieurs whose mouchoirs are grimy rags that don't bear inspection.
But wouldn't you just love to sniff another vintage Guerlain from 1904 - wood, patchouli and iris - called Voilà Pourquoi J'Aimais Rosine? Can't you just imagine dabbing that on your teagown?
Before I left, I squirted myself liberally with L'Interdit (Givenchy, 1957) and wafted home. Smelling like Audrey Hepburn.
Even if I don't look like her. Much.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh yes, I agree wholeheartedly. From the moment I heard of Voila Pourquoi J'amais Rosine, I've LONGED to smell it. And every time I watch the movie, Somewhere In Time, I wish I could smell the wonderful olde worlde scents those women wore. I imagine them as incredibly feminine with a touch of class! :-)

mary said...

How nice to get a comment three years on and recall the exhibition! I haven't seen the film you mention - but was watching the TV reconstruction of the Pride and Prejudice ball recently and wishing I could smell it! Quite pungent by all accounts!