Perfume and its container (2/2)
(This article started in a previous post)
The situation today hasn’t improved much, and the idea of scent as a magical potion is put off by other messages such as freshness, lightness, fashion and other more or less sexy features; clearly bottle shapes fit to market needs, and this leads to mocking of past styles or experimenting new forms borrowed from contemporary architecture. For example, the arguable contortions of skyscrapers (Lancome Hypnose) or connections to engines and their accessories (Bulgari Black, Guerlain Homme), or unexpected connections to weapon shells (Flowerbomb by Viktor&Rolf).
Today, perfume business needs an aesthetic that recalls something different from fragrance itself: a look, a mood, a shape connecting the consumer to the entourage he wants to belong to.
As far as artistic brands are concerned, bottles still tend to safeguard perfume as an entity in itself, as an artwork dwelling in the decent bottle, which conveys hints to the content as an alchemical composition (Le Labo, F. Malle).
Others recall the most sensual déco aesthetics such as the wonderful "bells" by Lutens;
or Tom Ford’s Black Orchid, recasting the refined bottle of Lanvin’s 1927 Arpege.
The formal rigor of Joy by Jean Patou inspires Acqua di Parma, with a bottle of great aesthetic impact, of great strength, but however oversized for its evanescent content (a Cologne).
Bottles as object de collection or furnishings accessories, is the key concept of Bond No.9, original and courageous in detaching from the usual style to embody the full Post-déco pop art with reminiscences of New York, but where bottles tend to be even more important than the content (which in my opinion, in some moments follows olfactory paths already smelt).
Finally, I enjoy the formal cleanness of Dior Homme, where the balance of volumes, the transparent crystal and a perfect interpretation of contemporary art with an eye turned to the past, perfect balance its content, an essence of great depth and transparency with a crystal iris leading us back in time and reminding us of other “deeper” and never forgotten irises of the past.
The situation today hasn’t improved much, and the idea of scent as a magical potion is put off by other messages such as freshness, lightness, fashion and other more or less sexy features; clearly bottle shapes fit to market needs, and this leads to mocking of past styles or experimenting new forms borrowed from contemporary architecture. For example, the arguable contortions of skyscrapers (Lancome Hypnose) or connections to engines and their accessories (Bulgari Black, Guerlain Homme), or unexpected connections to weapon shells (Flowerbomb by Viktor&Rolf).
Today, perfume business needs an aesthetic that recalls something different from fragrance itself: a look, a mood, a shape connecting the consumer to the entourage he wants to belong to.
As far as artistic brands are concerned, bottles still tend to safeguard perfume as an entity in itself, as an artwork dwelling in the decent bottle, which conveys hints to the content as an alchemical composition (Le Labo, F. Malle).
Others recall the most sensual déco aesthetics such as the wonderful "bells" by Lutens;
or Tom Ford’s Black Orchid, recasting the refined bottle of Lanvin’s 1927 Arpege.
The formal rigor of Joy by Jean Patou inspires Acqua di Parma, with a bottle of great aesthetic impact, of great strength, but however oversized for its evanescent content (a Cologne).
Bottles as object de collection or furnishings accessories, is the key concept of Bond No.9, original and courageous in detaching from the usual style to embody the full Post-déco pop art with reminiscences of New York, but where bottles tend to be even more important than the content (which in my opinion, in some moments follows olfactory paths already smelt).
Finally, I enjoy the formal cleanness of Dior Homme, where the balance of volumes, the transparent crystal and a perfect interpretation of contemporary art with an eye turned to the past, perfect balance its content, an essence of great depth and transparency with a crystal iris leading us back in time and reminding us of other “deeper” and never forgotten irises of the past.
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