But I had to do a lot of smelling. Oh my God, a lot. You're thrown into a world you're not skilled at and you just have to go with what you like and you hope everyone else likes it.
— Tamara Mellon of Jimmy Choo on developing the first Jimmy Choo perfume. Read more at Tamara Mellon Unveiled Jimmy Choo’s First Fragrance to Reporters by Having Derek Blasberg Interview Her Onstage at New York magazine.
Am I the only one who finds that comment disconcerting? I know it’s not neurosurgery, but somehow I want my perfume to be made by professionals!
Just adding: Yes, I know she’s not the one mixing up formulas in the lab.
The Jimmy Choo license is with Inter Parfums, so undoubtedly they had creative direction people working with Tamara Mellon. Still, this is how most perfume gets made -> in the name of designers or celebrities who don’t necessarily even know if what they’re producing is any good. And as we know, it very often isn’t.
Adding: so to my mind, it is disconcerting largely because it is honest. Most of them (designers & celebrities) aren’t.
So true!
Nope, I agree with you. It would be good to have someone more adept at sniffage at the helm. On the other hand, maybe it is just her confidence level (in scent only) speaking. She is, most probably, amazing at organizing and getting things done.
Just because someone isn’t “trained” doesn’t mean that they might not be able to discern what smells good or bad —training or no, that’s still a very subjective area ( take most of Bond no9 for example…blerggg) I appreciate her honesty in an industry rife with manipulation.
That is quite so. I think the bigger issue is that if you’re not terribly familiar w/ the perfume market, you might have no idea how derivative / generic your new perfume is.
Adding that 25 years ago, it was probably not all that hard to have some idea of what was already out there. Today, forget it. We can’t keep up, and we’re trying! I’d guess Tamara Mellon is not smelling 7-20 new perfumes a week in order to keep up with what’s on the market. So, face it, she is at the mercy of the professionals she has sold her company’s name to. And we know they don’t always help, because those professionals want to be sure they make money from that name that they’ve paid good money for. It is not a good system for producing greatness.
“not a good system for producing greatness”
LOL! Robin, I think that one just slipped into my mental quotable quotes file…
Her favorite fragrance is Opium? Oh, dear. Well, who am I to talk– that used to be one of my favorites, too. Maybe it’s a good sign. At least she didn’t say she didn’t wear fragrance.
LOL — true! Or that she’s allergic to it.
That crossed my mind, too – I HATE Opium, but it is at least distinctive and un-ditzy.
i remember ages ago reading an interview with her in vogue UK and she mentioned she was wearing l’ombre dans l’eau. so, y’know, could be worse ..
Maybe I’m just cranky this morning, but why make a perfume? It certainly isn’t going to rise to the quality of their beautiful footwear. I know, I know, it didn’t stop Coach or Prada or anyone else, but Jimmy Choos were my first shoe love and somehow I expected more. Silly, huh? lol
The profit margins are huge.
Because someone who wonders into their store might be able to afford a $150.00 scent but not a several hundred dollar pair of shoes.
Or, even better, someone might wonder in to sniff the perfume and convince herself that she really does need a a several hundred dollar pair of magenta shoes.
Or because someone who lives 80 miles from a store that carries the shoes would like some of the brand’s product but does not want to order shoes over the internet.
And maybe because she enjoyed learning about perfume while doing all that sniffing.
Ok, ladies, I see your points. It probably WAS just me being cranky this morning.
A lot of smelling. Darn.
🙂
I would give my left eye to be thrown in a world like that. She can have my job and I’ll take hers!
Elsewhere in the article, she says “We felt like the timing was right, because we’ve transformed from a shoe brand, which is our core, to a lifestyle luxury brand,” she explained to her friend. “Fragrance gives a woman identity. When a woman comes into the room, you might recognize her by smell. Or if she leaves her scarf behind and you pick it up, you smell her.”
This is a very old fashioned view of how a woman wears a perfume. If you smell a woman, the moment she walks into the room, she probably is wearing too much perfume.
Except it works better if you think of it in the sense of a gallery opening or cocktail reception than walking into an insurance office cubicle farm.
While a “dressier” perfume might be more appropriate to “social” events, that doesn’t mean it should be so strong that everyone in the room notices it the moment you walk in, just as your voice should not immediately drown everyone else’s voice, unless you are the President or Ethel Mermen.
Isn’t a scent nicer, when its a private conversation between yourself and those next to you, or between yourself and someone breathing your skin?