“The bottle of perfume, which Marthe […] nonchalantly holds in her right hand, is the all-important barrier and go-between, positioned at that point of confrontation where body and light touch as they dramatically push and pull against each other. The bottle is filled with a liquid as yellow as the wallpaper and as golden as the glowing radiance advancing from behind the window curtains. The perfume in its vessel is yet another form of light within the painting.” – RICHARD STAMELMAN
books
Different types of books contribute to the field of scent culture: coffee table books, scholarly books, perfume guides and many more. This book is different. It is original in its approach, writing and design: Nose Dive by Catherine Haley Epstein.
Michel Serres, the French philosopher, died yesterday.
Umberto Eco, the Italian cultural theorist and novelist who became the author of best-selling novels, notably the blockbuster medieval mystery “The Name of the Rose,” died last week in Milan. Eco was a contributor to our thinking on scent culture.
The Paper Passion perfume conceived for Handmade 2011, which bottles the seductive scent of a freshly printed books, was inspired by a throwaway line by German publisher Gerhard Steidl in the film How to Make a Book with Steidl, which suggested his favourite scent was a ‘freshly printed book’.
So, are you making a list and checking it twice? ‘This is the season of lists, after all: wish lists, end-of-year/best-of lists, etc. Perfumes lists are aplenty this time of year (nearly as common as perfume ads) but here at SCI we’re especially fond of perfume books.