I’ve watched the DIOR and Versace FW 15/16 shows and they left me cool to say the least. Here at CHANEL Karl Lagerfeld has brought us a redefined vision of the CHANEL suit and some really interesting fabrics and shapes. The shoes are freaking KILLER and I also love the severe uber Desange bobs that seem to be laughing at the 90s. For every frock I love there are 10 I merely like and three I loathe. Interesting that the last two frocks resemble some shapes and treatments of DIOR’s Belgian designer Raf Simons work over the last few seasons.
This is the whole show and pay attention at the start, there are some very interesting people at the gambling tables. If you get bored FF to the last 5 minutes, that’s where my favourite stuff happens and I really love the final wedding outfit.
This week we had something super extraordinary happen. You may know that I run other businesses beside Australian Perfume Junkies (though APJ remains largely a labour of love it is a business) and one of those businesses is an event company called Turbo Trivia. In Australia the game Trivial Pursuit was a very popular board game and from that pubs & clubs started hosting versions of the game in-house as a great way to get families and groups of friends into their venue for 3 hours. They eat & drink and spend some quality time that by-passes all the angst of family because everyone is focused on a game and eating. It’s amazingly popular here and at least every second hotel has a trivia night.
Back in the first couple of years of this century my life as a showgirl seemed to be slowing down and while looking for a sideways step to keep me employed I had the idea to bring the trivia format to a gay crowd. It all seemed like a simple and fun idea that, if successful, could keep me working in my chosen career (DRAG) until I died. Well, it has been very successful, interestingly the concept works for all groups gay, straight & inbetweenies, and now I have 3 girls working regularly as well as myself. It’s a great way for newer girls to learn microphone skills and how to manage a room and we are also constantly in demand at Fundraising Events and Work Functions. The dream is to have 20 Turbo Trivia nights running weekly in Sydney and we are half way there.
If you’re reading this and you’d like Turbo Trivia in your venue or for your function get in touch. We also sell weekly Q&A if you’d like to host your own event. portia (underscore) turbo (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) au
Please click on the link below to read our most fabulous write up ever. To say I was blown away is the understatement of the year. It was a surprise and a complete delight to be featured in this article alongside so many Sydney Icons that I personally love.
When I was a younger person Calvin Klein always had a great diffusion line of clothes. I would often choose a Calvin Klein T-Shirt, jumper or belt and his frags were what my friends wore. I loved to smell them and really liked the advertising etc but never did I think I wanted to wear the Calvin Klein fragrant dream. To be honest a part of me was a little sneery at their oh-so-mainstream tastes. It’s only now, when everyone has moved on from the scents that I am finding my way to wearing them. NOW I really like a whole bunch and they bring back fabulous fragrant memories of friends long gone, and some still in my circle who don’t smell like this anymore.
You probably know that my partner Jin is from South Korea. It’s exciting for both of us when it becomes a destination for the world stage. Here is a particularly fun look at the CHANEL team taking their Cruise 2015/16 runway show on the road. Lovely sound bites from Gisele Bündchen and Kristen Stewart and at the end the incredible, eternal Karl Lagerfeld.
Today we are taking a bit of a break from fragrance because I have a confession to make. OMG! I am completely, madly and deeply in love with Chris Pratt. He should come hang with the crew and me. Like every day, forever.
Below is a video of him being mildly amusing and super dreamy.
In the comments tell me what you think Chris Pratt should wear as fragrance. I’m thinking something super delicious, up to date and edible like Christian Dior’s newest prive, Fève Délicieuse. He would smell killer in its sweet, resinous, caramel. MMMMMMMMM
I was lucky enough to smell a couple of these lovelies in Chicago with Musette from Perfume Posse last year and I fell madly in love with Oriental Express and quite liked Supra Floral too.
Photo Stolen YouTube
Chyprissime, Fougere Furieuse, Oriental Express, Over The Musk, Supra Floral are the five Les Exceptions and I think they are definitely worth a sniff.
I am LOVING this bottle. So freaking beautiful. The notes sound like they might overload my sweet spot but I am going to force myself down to the shops to try it anyway. That bottle makes it all seem worthwhile.
The ad is straight out of the 1980s, enjoy,
Portia xx
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Raspberry, lychee, passion fruit
Heart: Bulgarian rose, violet, lily of the valley
Base: Praline, vanilla, patchouli
Chance has been given a quick facelift by Olivier Polge with its newest flanker Chance Eau Vive. I tried Google translate but the closest I could get was Eau Vivre = Living Water. That works well enough for this language trog.
Fragrantica gives these featured accords: Top: Grapefruit, red orange, providing citruses Heart: Jasmine, white musk Base: Vetiver, cedar, iris
CHANEL usually does amazing ads. Whenever one pops up in my YouTube feed I get excited so of course I clicked on this one. It’s not really what expect from a CHANEL production but it is fun and silly and what it lacks in glamour it makes up for in cutesy. I’m clearly not its target audience and that’s cool.
Love them or hate them it’s hard to ignore One Direction. With their catchy tunes, fun matesy boys club attitude and perfectly produced handsome, on trend good looks they are a force to be reckoned with. I quite liked their first offering Our Moment, the sweet but not disgustingly cloying opening to the lingering forever toasted almond dry down. It was way better than I expected.
I haven’t tried the new one but the ad came out yesterday. Sadly Zane has moved on but the remaining four guys are here and camping it up again, my favourite is Niall anyway.
Fragrantica gives these featured accords: Top: Green notes, mandarin, peach, basil, bergamot, lemon Heart: Spices, coriander, sandalwood, orange blossom, jasmine, oakmoss, cedar, rose Base: Amber, musk, civet, vanilla, vetiver, incense.
It’s the damp herbal first blast of Obsession that I adore. Yes, there are softer, easier things to come, but that dark, slightly bitter opening is for me, addictive. After that I get spices of course, although not the florals.
The base for me is mostly amber and vanilla, with incense keeping things cool and dry. The vanilla is far from being sweet and foodie – which is just how I like it. I wear the modern EDT, the stuff you can get for a song just about anywhere perfume is sold.
Obsession is usually classified as an oriental, but through its marketing, Obsession rejects conventional oriental fantasies and metaphors. We get no lacquered spice jars, no souks, no Buddhas or Indian princesses etc. Obsession does not weave sentimental fairy tales; it is about nothing but sex.
The early TV ads were directed by Richard Avedon and make you feel as if you have wandered on to the set of some weird modernist play. Everything is in monochrome, but clearly the scene is vibrant with sexual obsession. In one, an older man laments a young woman (played by South African model José Borain) who has left him (“Was it me? Did I somehow driver her away?”).
In another, that woman is the object of obsession for a beautiful teenage boy (“ … the whispers at my bedside … her arms … her mouth … her amber hair … and oh, the smell of it.”).
The early print ads were shot in Puerto Villata, Mexico, by Bruce Weber and feature, in blue sepia, two (or three) naked, entwined bodies.
Famously, Kate Moss also modelled for Obsession, but that came later, in 1993 when she was 17. Shot by Mario Sorrenti and still in monochrome, the location was a shack on the beach: “Just me and him and loads of film,” Moss later recalled. The ads speak to the photographer’s obsession with his model. Moss was his girlfriend at the time but the relationship did not survive.
All of these ads are edgy. “You walk a fine line, especially in advertising,” Calvin Klein admitted, “if you try and do something sensual.” Sometimes I find them more disturbing than, say, Tom Ford’s quite sexually explicit ads for his perfumes.
Photo Stolen CHANEL news
Australian Perfume Junkies 