Hey All,
Recently we showed the CHANEL S/S 2015 Haute Couture show. Here is a little snippet of what it took to make those fabulous gowns the 3D extravaganza that they are. If you love seeing some of the tricks behind the scenes then you will be mesmerised by this 2.34 minute video.
I hope you enjoy,
Portia xx
Photo Stolen Twitter
Hi Y’All,
CHANEL, Martin Scorsese and James Grey. Add actor Gaspard Ulliel into that mix and you know it’s going to be special. I hope you enjoy the interview and mini movie.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen Luxury
HI HI
As you know I love fashion and adore Karl Lagerfeld at CHANEL. This is not one of his best seasons but there are some interesting things to note. Midriffs, jewel brights and soft pastels, long skirts still around, flat heels, big outlandish hats.
To be honest the set outperformed the frocks.
Enjoy this short look at SS 2015 CHANEL
Portia xx
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Post by Val the Cookie Queen
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The Clash and subsequently Big Audio Dynamite are amongst my all time favourite bands. Mick Jones is my lyric writing hero.
Amsterdam 1985. I never go anywhere without my red lipstick. In the early days of my relationship with Chris he would ask why it was so important. I always answered the same “You just never know, I might bump into Mick Jones one day.”
Photo Stolen Pixabay
Amsterdam 1987. We were in the Paradiso at a Hoodoo Gurus gig. Which all these years on is kind of fab since they were Sydney´s coolest band, and now I´m with Sydney´s most sublime drag queen. But life IS strange. About half way through the gig, a colleague of mine from the “Melkweg” where I worked, tapped me on the shoulder. (The Melkweg is a famous concert venue and multimedia centre. It includes an art gallery, cinema, dance/theatre and teahouse. It was founded in 1970. It is known as the “Milky Way” in english.)
He asked me to leave the gig and go over to the Melkweg as the boss wanted me too look after an English band who were visiting. I had absolutely no intention of leaving the Hoodo Gurus gig. I yelled at him over the music, asking who it was. He replied “Some band called Big Audio Dynamite.” I kid you not. I leaned over and told Chris I had to leave because Mick Jones was waiting for me. I touched up my lipstick and left.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
Chris stayed on until the end of the Gurus, and then joined me. We hung out with the band for a couple of days, and they went onto support U2 at a stadium gig in Rotterdam. Don´t ask. What happened in Amsterdam stayed in Amsterdam. 🙂 It did not lead to a life long friendship, but we did get to join up with the band in 1989 for three brilliant Big Audio Dynamite gigs in Boston.
This is a perfume blog so it would do to mention what I was wearing. Amsterdam would have been
Photo Stolen instyle
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, bergamot, lemon, neroli, ylang-ylang
Heart: Jasmine, rose, lily of the valley, iris
Base: Vetiver, sandalwood, vanilla, amber, patchouli
Boston was
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon, ylang-ylang, peach and green notes
Heart: Jasmine, iris, narcissus, violet, rose
Base: Sandalwood, vanilla, Tonka bean, amber, musk
Samples of CHANEL No 5 Extrait and Samsara EdP both available Surrender To Chance
I still carry my red lipstick.
Be Prepared. You never know.
Happy 2015.
Bussis
CQ
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Post by Gabriella
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Hello perfume peeps,
As time has gone by, I have become less shy talking about my blogging and sharing my love of scent with the wider public. When I do mention my passion to colleagues and friends, I often get questions such as: “I need a new perfume. I love Coco Mademoiselle, what do you recommend?” or “What is the perfume you like the most?” Pleasingly, men are as curious as women, with most asking whether I review men’s colognes or aftershaves?
Photo stolen DeviantArt
This always brings a wry smile to my face as most of us here in perfume land have long ignored the gender divide enforced by the “men’s” and “women’s” sections of department stores. However, it did get me thinking as most of what I wear and write about are the Big White Florals and uber-feminine scents. Apart from the experiment when Mr M let me douse him in Fracas, how many non-perfumista menfolk would wear something like Carnal Flower or Fleurissimo?
So, as an attempt to address the issue, I present my top five traditional masculine scents:
The strong virile hero scent. Antaeus is a machismo concoction of bold proportions that still feels seamless thanks to Mr Polge’s genius. A powerful blend of verdant bergamot and clary sage amplified with rich spices and smooth leather. If you want a scent to put hair on your chest, this is the one.
Fragrantica lists the following accords:
Top: Lemon, lime, coriander, myrtle, clary sage, and bergamot
Heart: Thyme, basil, rose and jasmine
Base: Patchouli, castoreum, labdanum and oak moss
The epitome of effortless elegance. Eau Sauvage is the Adam of the men’s fragrance world that spawned the Eve of Diorella. To me, the luminosity of the citrus, verdant herbs and something a little sinister and sexy underneath it all means the scent trumps more modern citrus and cologne compositions despite the current watered-down reformulation.
Fragrantica lists the following accords:
Top: Lemon, basil, bergamot, cumin, lavender and fruit
Heart: Jasmine, rose, carnation, iris root, coriander, patchouli and sandalwood
Base: Oak moss, vetiver, musk and amber
It is just that good. Say lavender and bergamot and I usually run a mile, hence why you’ll never find me raving about Jicky or Bois du Portugal. New York, however, took me from hate to love when we were searching for a new scent for Mr M as I think it is the smoothest, most well- rounded of the combinations on the market. Plus there’s a candied, powdery vibe to the lavender, which makes manages to be both sexy and snuggly.
Fragrantica lists the following accords:
Top: Bergamot, amalfi lemon, cloves, lavender and green notes
Heart: Thyme, cinnamon, pepper, paprika, patchouli and cedar
Base: Amber, vanilla and leather
Debonair in a bottle. A quintessential fougere with piquant notes of rosemary and clary sage, what strikes me most about Pour Homme is the quality and depth of the musk in the drydown. It’s earthy, animalic and seductive, like snuggling into your man’s chest after a heated, passionate night.
Fragrantica lists the following accords:
Top: Rosemary, clary sage and brazilian rosewood
Heart: Tonka bean, lavender and geranium
Base: Honey, amber, musk and oakmoss
The scent of boyfriends past. Probably a bit OTT now, but god, how I loved this back in the day. Even though it was pretty much ubiquitous in the early 1990s, Polo stood out for being a brooding Heathcliff of a scent amid the onslaught of flimsy aquatics and calones. Deep greens, herbs, spiky woods and a powerful wallop of pine makes this not for the fainthearted.
Fragrantica lists the following accords:
Top: Artemisia, basil and thyme, with spicy notes of cumin, coriander and cloves
Heart: Conifer woods, decorated with notes of patchouli, oakmoss and vetiver
Base: Leather, tobacco and thyme
So what are your top ‘traditional’ masculine scents? Ladies, do you wear any of these? What was the scent that broke the gender divide perfume wise for you once you got past department store classifications?
With much love till next time!
M x
All photos stolen Fragrantica unless specified
Hiya APJ Crew,
I hope your Christmas/ Holiday Season has been fun. Our Christmas Day was very relaxed. We vowed to not leave the house and had our mate Matt (Jin’s BFF) over for lunch and presents.
Today was Boxing Day and I started out the day in recent but not current Shalimar EdP. It was a perfect accompaniment to the organising potato salad, drive, present opening and lunch at Kath’s family home with parents and nieces. We had a wonderful time with Jin manning the BarBQ and doing a delicious sliced & marinaded steak, bacon rashers, onion and breakfast sausages. We had yummy sesame seed knot rolls, garden salad and potato salad, served with lashings of left over ham off the bone. Lunch was really fun and it’s always excellent to catch up with Kath’s family who have adopted me since my parents died and my sister stopped communication. I love them because they are good people who time seems to fly when I spend it with them. I love them because when we’re together I am home.
Then we went for a SWIM!! Sadly I forgot to take pics today, sorry. Here is one that Kath took
I had grabbed a vintage 7.5ml bakelite purse spritz of CHANEL No. 5 parfum as I ran out the door, knowing we’d be swimming. It was the perfect after swim spritz.
Photo Stolen CHANEL
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, bergamot, lemon, neroli, ylang-ylang
Heart: Jasmine, rose, lily of the valley, iris
Base: Vetiver, sandalwood, vanilla, amber, patchouli
I enjoyed it so much that tonight I spritzed again and I wanted to share my joy in wearing this maybe 1970s or 80s parfum. It gushes out of the gate with a dark fizzy aldehydic rush that is more animalic and growlier than the current parfum, but maybe my parfum is a little old because the opening is slightly muddled compared to the clear bell of fruity fizz that my modern one exhibits. Sexier and more luxurious than the current version (which I also love BTW) there is something cozier and more feral about the vintage.
Today added to the salt, sun and chlorine, mixed with the joyful summer holiday air of a Sydney Boxing Day (the day following Christmas Day when once servants and tradespeople would receive gifts, known as a “Christmas box”, from their bosses or employers) it was the perfect blend of sophistication and joyous animal delight.
Photo Stolen WikiCommons
You know I can smell very little of the singular notes in CHANEL No. 5 parfum, for me it is a gorgeous and complete smell where the whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts. Not only the smell, which was one of my Mum’s scents, but also the fabulous history and all the women who have been given, who have bought, who have lived a little part of the No 5 fable. It feels like you are part of a crew that can be smelled as they waft by in almost every country in the world. From that brilliant genius and dastardly racist Gabriel Coco Chanel, through many of the world’s most beautiful and talented women in advertising, the G.I.s that bought it for their girls from 31 Rue Cambon through the tawdry days when it became a drug store perfume and now back out the other side where CHANEL is again one of the eminent fashion houses and CHANEL No. 5 is an affordable buy into that magical dream.
Photo Stolen Flickr
Further reading: Australian Perfume Junkies and Bois de Jasmin
Essential Mall Australia has $148/7.5ml modern parfum refill
Surrender To Chance has vintage CHANEL No. 5 samples starting at $10/.25ml
What do you feel when you wear CHANEL No. 5? Which fragrance leads you into a fairytale?
Portia xx
Hey Hey Fumies!!
The other night I was reading Perfume Shrine and they had this question. I found it so interesting what everyone had worn. We talk a LOT about the newest, freakiest, skankiest and get really hardcore on the blogs every year but to see what everyone really wears, in real life, is great.
So I’d like to put it to you APJ.
My first answer is what I put up on Perfume Shrine but that was written off the top of my head and I have been thinking hard about the answer. What I will do is put up my previous answer and the more realistic one…
Hey There,
I LOVE these questions. Would you be terribly offended if I asked the same question at APJ?
Here are my most reached for..
Shalimar by Guerlain
Fleur de Male by Gaultier
Coco by CHANEL
Mohur by Neela Vermeire
Liberte by Cacharel
Portia xx
Perfumeshrine said…
Portia,
you’re very welcome to repeat this on Australian Perfume Junkies! Thanks for adding your contribution here. And so please tweet me the link when you’re done so I can RT 🙂
After consideration answer:
Shalimar by Guerlain
Amoureuse by Parfums DelRae
Ombre Mercure by Terry de Gunzburg
Mohur by Neela Vermeire
Liberte by Cacharel
I did wear Fleur de Male and Coco quite a bit but Amoureuse and Ombre Mercure were really easy, elegant and unusual things to wear for work, so I would often grab them through the whole year.
Now it’s your turn. What were your most reached for fragrances in 2014?
Portia xx
Hey Crazy Cats,
One of my favourite European royalty stories is the Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) of Austria. When I first visited Vienna in the 1990s the story was much less Disney-ised than it is now. She was considered a bit crazy, headstrong, ungrateful and had some wonderfully naughty escapades. Now they gloss over the madness and make her out to be a misunderstood saint. I liked her better before, more real, more human.
Karl Lagerfeld and the CHANEL crew have come together with some pretty top flight names, Pharrell Williams, Cara Delevingne & Géraldine Chaplin. It’s kind of stupid but also very engaging and fun. The clothes are spectacular in themselves, everything else is background anyway. Sadly, the song is not single worthy, but it is oddly cool.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen GooglePlus
Hiya APJ Crew,
We are home!! Three weeks whirlwind tour of the United States of America went by like a fabulous, crazy, fun filled, roller coaster ride. One of the most action packed and intense holidays of my life. So much so that when I look at my pics there are hardly any!! Basically these are all the shots I took. Though trying to keep these in chronological order I think they have moved around and it was all such a blur that I honestly can’t remember what happened when.
Starting with NYC because it was the easiest to grab photos from. I hope you enjoy the ride.
Portia xx
At night we met up with Brian who helped us find our way to dinner on the tube. We went to Lombardis (?) Pizza and dined with the lovely Lucy R. It was an excellent way to meet NYC.
We thought it was important to see the Statue of Liberty so caught the Statten Island ferry early on Thanksgiving Day. It’s FREE! Got some great shots and had some fun and silly time together on the trip. I was a bit tired and grumpy at this point.
For Thanksgiving Dinner we had the buffet at The Roosevelt Hotel where we were staying. The Roosevelt is a great choice for a hotel in NYC if you want some where central and reasonably priced. DO NOT go there if you like to take baths, they are DISGUSTING and they flake & peel while you’re in them. We did get 2 upgrades because of the baths and ended up in a suite with a view ( the bath was still freaking shit though). Thanksgiving Dinner with the two most important people to me in the world, pretty special. We all gave thanks for each other and our incredibly blessed lives. BTW I had the best Apple Pie of my life here, nothing before it even prepared me for how incredible it was going to be.
The staff at the Roosevelt were excellent, at every point we were treated with courtesy and friendliness, I recommend you stay there if you like to shower.
Jin had a secret New York City agenda that we were unaware of until we arrived. He had to see Carrie Bradshaw’s stoop from later series of Sex and the City. While there he also wanted desperately to lean on the pole and have a Marlboro Light (even though he doesn’t smoke. This resulted in head spins and delirium). There was a very lovely young girl doing exactly that and Jin asked if he could have one of her ciggies. One happy boy…. Around the corner is the Magnolia Bakery where Carrie would sit and have cupcakes so off we went to indulge. We did get to Friends building but I forgot to take a picture.
All this stuff is right near Christopher Street, the home of the Gay Rights Movement. It was here that the famous Stonewall hotel was where the Lesbians and Black Drag Queens took on the NYC Police and rioted. Interestingly it was the day of Judy Garland’s funeral.
That evening we wandered through Central Park and got 40 minutes in the Guggenheim. I took them to the first floor where we saw some very interesting Impressionist works from the Thannhauser Collection, Wang Jianwei: Time Temple sculptural pieces and ZERO: Countdown to Tomorrow 1950s–60s. Clearly we didn’t spend a lot of time with them but it was nice to see a couple of impressionist works that were new to me, particularly a Picasso, Woman Ironing (La repasseuse): Paris, 1904.
Photo Stolen Guggenheim (Problem using image, get in touch)
OSSWALD welcomed us with open arms. Josie and Clement were incredibly kind, helpful and funny. It was a fantastic get together. Birgit and Michael of Olfactoria’s Travels, Poodle who is one of our APJ North American correspondents, Brian, Gaia and Ori of The Non Blonde, Abdulla and Miryam (working for the Qatar consul in Dubai on their honeymoon), Francesca, Daisy of CoolCookStyle, Arielle from Scents of Self, Kevin Guyer (ex CHANEL), Patty (FleurDeLys) and others. I am so embarrassed to have forgotten a couple of names, please PM me with them because I would love to put you in.
What did I buy? Long have I had Cozé by Perfumerie Generale on my radar so I bought a 30ml (bravo for the smaller sizes Pierre G) and Liquer Charnelle by Huitieme Art in 50ml, also Pierre G.
Then we hit Bergdorf Goodman. I had a mission. The CHANEL counter. When I told the girl in CHANEL in Sydney the Pure Perfume is not a real term but a marketing invention she refused to serve me so I thought FUCK HER! Hideous creature! So it was a New York City must do. The Parfum &Eau are now happily in my collection. BLISS!
On our last day in NYC Carlos J Powell of the Goodsmellas and Peace, Love & Perfume and I organised to meet up in Brooklyn at Twisted Lily. We wanted to do a couple of LIVE Video Sniffs, check them out if you get a chance. we are complete freaking idiots. What a great time.
Eric who owns the store was friendly and welcoming and the range is excellent.
I met my next boyfriend too, Rich from Goodsmellas, hubba hubba!
Straight from Twisted Lily we returned to the Roosevelt Hotel, checked out and then I bought this signed Lithograph and we left the USA till next time. What a wonderful city NYC is, chock filled with Ah May Zing people and places. This is just a mini snapshot, we did SO MUCH MORE!
Be well crew,
Portia xx
All photos my own unless specified.
Heya Fashionistas,
It looks like New Romantic is even newer! This is one of my all time favourite fashion trends and I am thrilled to see it back on the runways. Thanks CHANEL and Karl Lagerfeld. This time it’s fun, quirky, silly and beautiful. The jewellery alone is enough to elicit a gasp. Here I’ve given you the edited version and the making of.
Enjoy.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen ThisIsJaneWayne (Problem using image, get in touch please)
View the full film of the CHANEL Métiers d’Art 2014/15 show at http://youtu.be/4X86geNxxlA
Australian Perfume Junkies 