Model Mona Johannesson in a new commercial for Elizabeth Arden's Red Door (1989). Red Door is being relaunched in honor of the brand's 100th anniversary. Below the jump you can see the "behind the scenes" and the new packaging.
Above right, Red Door's new packaging. Above left, the limited edition "100th Anniversary Edition commemorative sleeve". (via press release)
that was nice. Not amazing, or shocking or mostly naked. Although I gotta tell ya, if I thought going through a Red Door was going to transform me into a fancy, beautiful me…I’d paint every door in the house red! It’s going to take a lot of doors to combat my fine sweatpants/airforce tee-shirt combo…
You’ve got it all wrong; you need to leave a *bottle* of Red Door at every doorway in your house for the magic to take effect! LOL.
that’s my problem! I need to leave perfume bottles at every doorway…..the dog would be all “yay, extra chew toys!” oops.
… that dog would smell good!
maybe it would improve her dog breath….but with my luck it’d just make her dog-gassy. can’t win some days.
OK… so she’ll go about “scenting” the house everytime she lets one rip…
ack! don’t give Roxie any ideas! Already her favorite thing to do is lay right next to my desk and …..relax….*choke, cough*
I think all you need is the magic silver dress. And a bottle of Red Door.
I’m not sure if that silver dress comes in my size……
Then you have to buy 2 bottles of Red Door.
LOL….in that case, I’ll keep looking for one in my size….
I can’t believe that ad spot is 20 years old—very pretty!
No — it’s a brand new ad spot! The perfume is from 1989.
I changed it to say “new commercial”, hope that will be more clear.
Oh, that makes more sense! LOL. I was thinking, wow, the makeup and clothing are amazing! I didn’t remember ’89 as being a particularly… “tasteful” year for those things!
I was thinking the same thing – that this was an older ad. I was also impressed. I thought – this looks like something “they” would do for Kenzo – chic, tasteful, etc. Now it makes more sense to know it’s current. Still good.
I’ve been seeing this commercial on TV a lot the past few weeks. I like it – it’s not pretentious, hypersexual and dumb like most are.
Yeah. Wonder if that means it’s too dull for the target audience?
I think Red Door will be appealing to the non-teenage crowd anyway….
I wore Red Door in the late 90’s – loved it then. Surprised they’re marketing it to younger women. Wonder what the sales demographic is – do younger women really buy this?
I wonder too. And wonder if they’ve reformulated it.
I hope it hasn’t been reformulated – that would be tragic! This is my mom’s signature scent. It’s all she wears, and she would be crushed if it changed (she won’t even consider another scent!)
I may have to haunt TJ Maxx and other discounters to pick up some of the old stuff just in case. She needs her Rosiental!
you may also want to check out evil bay for some good deals too.
I’m wondering about a reformulation as well. Probably will never know, because I stay far, far away from Red Door. Wore it when it came out in ’89 when I was a jaded, Marlboro-red smoking, part-time bank teller/part-time senior in high school who felt her life was going nowhere. (Thankfully I went to college and things brightened up for me.
) I strongly associate fragrance to memory, which is sometimes a blessing and sometime a curse.
On a more cheerful note, Elizabeth Arden Red Door – the spa – will always remind me of this little old man that came into the dept store I worked at. His name was Nyle and he was a former hairdresser (not gay believe it or not) and he loved to come in and chat with all of us cosmetics girls. He was a bit senile, so he told the same stories over and over again but we – or at least I – always enjoyed listening to them. One of his favorites was about how he wondered into the first Red Door spa when it was under construction out in San Francisco. Elizabeth Arden, herself, was there dressed impeccably and actually on a ladder hammering something into a wall. She was very polite and sweet and actually offered to give Nyle a tour of the spa as it was. You could tell how star-struck he still was when he told that story, even at 89 years old.
*wandered, not wondered.
Ugh, you think I’d be better at editing by now.
You’d think we’d have a way to edit your comments by now!
Wow – that’s a cool story. The red door spa always carries a chic sentiment. I used to know a young woman in college who would always and only paint her fingernails in the red from Arden. It was cool and it worked for her.
Ohhh, I love that. I always admire people who have some kind of signature to their look and style. Like I love the whole rock-a-billy look and styles inspired by the ’30s & ’40s. I’m so schizophrenic in my tastes and interests, people have pretty much given up trying to figure out who I am or what I’m into or not. lol
LaMaroc, I know exactly what you mean. Some of the changes I call ‘development’, makes me feel better about how fickle I can be, LOL!
Well, if they’re true to their word, “same classic fragrance,” as in “same classic fragrance” doesn’t mean reformulation…
http://shop.elizabetharden.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4426567&cp=2879146.2938741&parentPage=family
I liked this! I wanted to see a bit more of the silver dress, though! Very pretty.
I wish I could stick a red door up at my job and walk right through it!
The perfume I really don’t care for.
Elizabeth Arden was a luxury and glamour brand for me as I was growing up, and is more prominent in my memory that Estee Lauder, which of course was one of its main rivals. My first makeup purchases (other than stuff I picked up from the supermarket) were from EA: a couple of eyshadow duos (which I still have) and a lipstick I think. That would ahve been mis-80s.
Later, as I got into perfume, Red Door never interested me. I wanted Chanel. Deciding I didn’t like No 5, I went for No 19 (and went through a couple of bottles of the EDT in those lovely old 50ml dab on bottles). I think my preference was was partly a colour thing. Snobby Young Miss that I was, I perceived red as slightly vulgar, and green as understated and elegant. I still have quite a bit of my last bottle of No 19 and it’s so funny to think of it as ‘vintage’, and possibly worth a bit o ‘ money on eBay.
I see Red Door all the time on discount tables these days and that is still a turn off. But I should give it a try. You only live once. Thanks for the post.
That’s a huge improvement on the old hunk-o-plastic bottle!
I like Red Door occasionally, in small doses.
Red Door may be my most-hated fragrance (along with Giorgio). I worked with a witch who doused herself in it and ruined it for me. The same thing happened with Clinique Happy – this awful woman sprayed it At Her Desk (!!!) 3-4 times a day. Gak.