November 2008

Fashion Industry News Roundup: 11/30/08

November 30, 2008

Louise Vuitton Cuts Prices in Japan to Boost Sales:“LVMH, the world’s largest maker of luxury goods, lowered retail prices for its Louis Vuitton brand in Japan by 7 percent yesterday to boost sales . . . The price cuts apply to nearly all items sold, including bags, watches, apparel and shoes, at the company’s 56 [...]

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Frederic Malle Dans tes Bras and Roja Dove Enslaved

November 28, 2008

What am I thankful for this day after Thanksgiving? Fragrance companies that don’t cheap out, wimp out or fake out. After gritting my teeth and trudging through Ava Luxe, Boudicca and Neil Morris on Wednesday, it’s my pleasure to spend today awash in Frederic Malle and Roja Dove, two high-end lines that take the task [...]

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Neil Morris Fetish; Boudicca Wode; Ava Luxe Kretek

November 26, 2008

FETISH: I don’t really agree with the title, as there’s nothing that strikes me all that fetishistic about Fetish, with its rather subtle and somewhat sweet nature. I suppose it was meant to be a dark, leathery experience (hence: “fetish!”), but there’s too much restraint in the mix to take its stated feint at psycho-sexual [...]

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Vero Profumo Rubj

November 25, 2008

Unlike Vero Kern’s Onda, which is a fragrance I wanted to love but was forced to ditch at the altar after it mutated from a breath of rich earth and grass into a jug of laundry detergent (but that’s just my experience — Onda sends other wearers into what can only be described as near [...]

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Sonoma Scent Studio: Wood Violet, Vintage Rose, Sienna Musk, Champagne de Bois

November 24, 2008

If there’s one thing to greatly appreciate about the fragrances from Sonoma Scent Studio, it’s that there are no coy titles or misleading descriptors — you get exactly what the fragrance says it is, with no beating around the bush about it. I wonder sometimes if this is a uniquely American trait when it comes [...]

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Everything Must Go

November 23, 2008

So Louise came to visit, and we spent some time hitting one of the malls here in Dallas. Knowing that the more upscale department stores are experiencing financial tension due to the down-spinning economy, we figured we’d cruise through Neiman Marcus and see what they had on sale. Little did we know that meant over [...]

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Yes, But Is It Art?

November 21, 2008

Smelly masterpieces: Why is great perfume not taken more seriously?:“Why is great perfume not taken more seriously? While many art professionals are very serious about many branches of literature, architecture and music, I have yet to find a curatorial colleague who regularly beats a path to the fragrance counter in search of, say, Joy Parfum, [...]

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Tom Ford Private Blend Amber Absolute

November 20, 2008

I have some friends flying in today and we’re going out to dinner tonight, but while I wanted to sample something new before they showed up, I didn’t want to greet them at the door in a haze of four clashing fragrances, or inflict anything especially challenging on them, either. So I dug through my [...]

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Frederic Malle Vetiver Extraordinaire

November 19, 2008

My sample vial was labeled “Vetiver Extraordinaire Dominique Ropion” — so at first I didn’t realize that I was spraying on a sample of a Frederic Malle fragrance until I remembered that Frederic Malle is the only fragrance line that features the names of the actual perfumers on the label. But when you come right [...]

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Serge Lutens Un Bois Sepia and Sinfonia di Note Saveur D’Artichaut

November 18, 2008

UN BOIS SEPIA: Begins with a cubist-like expression of candied citrus rinds, all angles and planes, made more so by that familiar sinus-clearing element I get at the opening of most every Lutens I’ve sprayed on my skin. With Un Bois Sepia, the culprit at the root of this sharpened intro is an exceptionally dry [...]

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