Finding a Fragrance Story: Prada Candy

In our recent seminar's we've been trying to create our own fragrance story. In order to do this we have been evaluating perfume adverts - print and digital. 

I looked at the Prada Candy short films directed by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola and stars Léa Seydoux. The three part short film tells a love triangle romance story. Candy (Léa Seydoux) is a flirty,  playful, mysterious modern girl. 

Episode 1 - starts with Candy and Boy 1 (Julius) on a date and Boy 2 (Gene) who is Julius' best friend walks past and wants to meet Candy. Julius is reluctant but Candy introduces herself. At the end all three go to the cinema. 

Episode 2 - Candy and Gene go to Gene's apartment where Julius is waiting for them both with a birthday cake  for Candy. By the end of this episode, they have a party for three in Gene's apartment. 

Episode 3 - Candy is in the salon, complaining about the two men and explains that she likes both men and is annoyed that she met them both just a few hours apart. The camera then switches to the guys who are waiting for her in the salon. All three walk out together linking arms. 

It is annoying how there is no proper ending to this love triangle story and during the three episodes of the short film advertisements there is no mention of the fragrance till the end of each video. 

What's interesting is that the print advertisement of this perfume does not convey the same story. In fact the print advert does not convey a story at all! The print advert shows the three characters dancing. 

The behind the scenes video interviews the cast and directors. Léa tells the audience why she loves the Prada Candy perfume. She describes it as happy, lively, it creates an atmosphere and very 'Paris'. Whenever I smell Prada Candy, it reminds me of my grandma who loves perfume and this is one of her favourites. 

Soraya x 

Photo Credits: Youtube & Google

Lantern Extravaganza!

Yesterday I visited the Magical Lantern Festival at Chiswick House and Gardens. This was to celebrate the year of the monkey for Chinese New Year. This is something quite different at this English heritage site. Nothing like this has ever been in the UK before. It is Europe's largest lantern festival. Over 50 giant hand-sculptured lanterns were dotted throughout the garden. Even though it was really cold the intricate lanterns were just so beautiful it, I did not mind being freezing! 

The centre piece of the festival was a 66 metre dragon which is placed by the lake. There was also an animal kingdom where there were life-sized flamingos, zebras, kangaroos, elephants and pandas. It took around an hour and a half to walk around and gaze at the wonderful lit up lanterns. My favourite lanterns were most of the animal kingdom and the terracotta warriors, not as we know it, but it was covered in silk with metal frames. Not only were there animal lanterns and Chinese cultural heritage but there was a Cinderella scene with the horse and carriage and Prince charming on his knees to Cinderella.  The colours used on the lanterns were so beautiful and vibrant we were all in awe. 

This wonderful festival is a definite must see! But be quick, it's only on until next weekend! 

Soraya x 

Andy Warhol at the Ashmolean Museum

During reading week I went on a day trip to Oxford and decided to stop by the Ashmolean Museum owned by Oxford University.

The Ashmolean Museum had an exciting exhibition of some of Andy Warhol's later work which had never been seen before as it was part of a private collection, a part of the Hall collection in the USA. The Hall family had collected over a hundred works from Andy Warhol. There were also some pieces included in the exhibition that were on loan from the Warhol museum in Pittsburgh.

Warhol is a cultural icon, celebrity and provocateur, Warhol produced images which are instantly recognisable, but this exhibition also includes work that displays an unfamiliar side to the artist. The exhibition span's Warhol's entire output from Pop art to some of his experiential works during his last decade. 

It was so enlightening to see Andy Warhol's later works. Walking into one of the exhibition rooms seeing a wall filled from top to bottom with screen printed portraits of musicians, journalist and events Queen or Iran. Other prints on display were screen printed flowers in different colours.

I thought it was really interesting that Warhol did not worry that his images were not perfect as the screen prints were sometimes too dark or too faded.

It's definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Oxford!
Soraya x  

Perfume Documentary Part 3

'The Smell of the Future'

The final episode of this perfume documentary focused on the international markets that are up and coming. The European and American businesses have not enjoyed tremendous success over the past few years as other regions are exploding. New customers do not want all the same thing. 

Russian's like rich and heavy scents.

Chinese want light and airy.

Brazilian's like fruity and floral scents.

Arabia like musky oriental scents that were a rage in Victorian England. 

What we will smell like in the future is likely to be dictated by the customers in Shanghai, Dubai and Sao Paulo. 

In this episode we follow the market research of LYNX's new fragrance that they will be releasing in Brazil because Brazil is perfume obsessed. The market researcher went to Brazil with a sample fragrance for men between the ages of 18-25 to test out. The main aim of this was to see whether or not the scent was memorable enough and also sophisticated enough. The first focus group was not helpful enough but the second focus group was very beneficial for the fragrance brand. It seemed that  the fragrance LYNX came up with was perfect for the Brazilian market as it was fruity and smelt like coconut which was perfect for the target market. 

Another story during the episode was with a washing clothes brand in Brazil which was rather touching. A couple with four children shared two beds and they were extremely poor but the mother said the best moment of the day was when everyone went to sleep as she washed their bedding everyday so that it was fresh and the family smelt nice and fresh as they could not afford perfume. 

I found this perfume series fascinating and I am excited to start our second module on Monday!

Soraya x

Photo credit: http://honestlywtf.com/art/the-lust-list/ 

Perfume Documentary Part 2

"Perfume is believed to be magic worked by science."

"Bottling the Memory"

This episode focused on the making of the scents following three stories - one with a unique fragrance shop owner in New York and the second was perfumer who creates fragrances for Hermes and an exclusive perfume school outside Paris. 

We first meet Christopher Embrosia who owns the shop - 'I hate Perfume' in New York. He aims to find beauty in what is real like Roast Beef and other normal day scents people smell while walking around. He is approached by a man who is an Anglican fan and wants a scent that resembles tweed, old books, old pubs and smoking pipes. 

We then meet Jean Claude Elena, a perfumer from France. He works in the peaceful woods with his lab technician and creates smells that are known as a fantasy. He makes old factory masterpieces with very expensive ingredients. Apparently Jean Claude Elena does not have to make any thing or Hermes until he feels inspired. You cannot ask Elena to create something specific he wants to surprise the brand. Elena was an apprentice at the school of noses - owned by Givaden. 

The Givaden school of noses recruit apprentices that will eventually work for big name brands. That year there were 5 years and some years they take on no one at all!

I found this episode very interesting and loved learning about all the scents and chemistry needed to become a perfumer. The final summary of episode three will be up tomorrow. 

Soraya x

Photo Credits:http://honestlywtf.com/art/the-lust-list/ 

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Perfume Documentary Part 1

Over the course of my two week reading week - we were asked to watch the BBC Four documentary on perfume to prepare for our next module. 

'Something Old, Something New'

Perfume is a multi billion dollar industry where the marketing of the product is just as important as the smell. 

The programme starts in Paris in the House of Guerlain. Guerlain sell grand perfumes which are made from ancient perfumes. The director at the time was Jean Paul Guerlain and his family had made fragrances for 183 years. The Guerlain brand have a tiny share of the world's fragrance market. Guerlain, release on french mothers with a sense of tradition who bring in their daughters to the town house store. The camera's follow a twelve year old girl and her mother as she gets her first Guerlain fragrance. The store say that "get them young and they will stay."

The House of Guerlain have old school promotional methods by inviting female journalists to the Guerlain chateau and introduce new fragrances then. Jean Paul Guerlain was asked whether he likes the big fashion houses making accessible fragrances ... he replied that he hated it. He does not like marketing in general. 

We were then introduced to the new successor of Guerlain; who is outside of the Guerlain family, Thierry Wasser who then took over the company. 

During the episode we were also taken to New York to witness the process of how the new Tommy Hilfiger 'Loud' fragrance which was targeted at the 18-25 year old age group, which was a huge success when launched. Dominant fashion labels like Tommy Hilfiger have made perfume into a fashion item. However, the sales technique for new fragrances is becoming more difficult. 

The New York Times noticed the new found hype of fragrances so have a Fragrance Connoisseur write a column for them. Nowadays, no one becomes attached to a fragrance anymore because fragrances are released more regularly now then before. Fifteen years ago, there would have been a lot less perfume launches. There were around 150 perfume launches a year but in 2011 there were twelve hundred fragrance launches. 

This is just a sum up of the first episode which I highly recommend watching on Youtube. A summary of episode 2 will be up tomorrow!

Soraya x

Photo Credits: http://honestlywtf.com/art/the-lust-list/

Tommy Hilfiger and Guerlain

The Pom Pom Keyring Craze!

Over the last few month I have seen the a rise in pom pom keyring. Many of my friends have pom pom's attached to the room keys and mine is attached to my car keys. I first saw the pom pom trend in Vogue a couple of years ago as they were advertising the Sophie Hulme pom pom keyrings, which had googly eyes and some had glasses. I love these keyring's and seeing these made me want one!

Ernie - £150

Elton - £150

Cheryl - £150

Fendi also brought out pom pom keyring's this season and their most popular faux fur keyring was the 'Karlito' inspired by Karl Lagerfeld. 

Karl - £740

Mini Karl - £630

High Street brands then adopted the trend with Topshop, New Look and Asos being the most popular.

Topshop - £6.50

Topshop - £6.50

Asos - £10

New Look - £4.99

 

I love this pom pom keyring and bag trend but I'm not sure how long it will last!

Soraya x

Photo Credit: Sophie Hulme, Fendi, Topshop, Asos and New Look

Moschino x the Powerpuff Girls

Moschino is well known for Jeremy Scott's pop art/cartoon collaborations with fast food, Barbie and Super Mario. However, this recent collaboration with the Powerpuff Girls brought back so many memories  of watching the show when I was younger. My favourite was Bubbles - the cutesy blonde pig tails girl. 

I don't tink I would wear the collection but the bags of the Powerpuff Girl's faces is something I would use on a day out in London as it is a small cross body bag and makes any outfit look immediately exciting. Seeing the release of pictures on my Instagram newsfeed got me very excited about the release of this collection.

This is my favourite collection Moschino has released so far!

Soraya x

Photos:  Moschino's  Instagram

Karl's Robots SS16

Over the weekend I was in London and the Karl Lagerfeld window on Regent's street caught my eye. This window display is to advertise the Karl Lagerfeld SS16 collection. The Karl Robot was in the middle of the window with the collection surrounding it. I loved the cartoon/lego look to the figures of Karl and his cat Choupette. 

The bags had an appliquéd Karl or Choupette or both on each leather bag and there was an acrylic clutch that has the Karl robot face on it. 

K/Robot Shopper Karl

My Instagram post 

Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner have both seen sporting the collection. Kendall Jenner uploaded an Instagram today advertising the collection. 

The Karl Robots collection was released today online. 

Excuse me, while I stare at this collection some more!

Soraya x

Photo Credits: Mine and Instagram