Three more upcoming perfume books for 2014: The Collector of Dying Breaths by MJ Rose, Rare Perfumes / Parfums Rare by Sabine Chabbert & Laurence Férat, and Past Scents: Historical Perspectives on Smell by Jonathan Reinarz.
A novel of suspense from MJ Rose, author of The Book of Lost Fragrances…
No. 5 Culture Chanel by Jean-Louis Froment, Chanel: Livre d’Artistes by Irma Boom, Chemistry and the Sense of Smell by Charles Sell, Complete Abandon by Norman Isaacson, La Note Verte by Jean-Claude Ellena.
Also, Kathleen Tessaro’s The Perfume Collector comes out in paperback next month, and a new (US?) edition of Roja Dove’s The Essence of Perfume comes out in June.
Published last November, No. 5 Culture Chanel by Jean-Louis Froment was released in conjunction with the No. 5 Culture Chanel exhibition…
As a bit of a unicorn chaser, some beauty: designer and book maker Irma Boom shows off the book — all embossed images and text, no ink — she made for Chanel No. 5 and the No. 5 Culture Chanel exhibition.
You can read more about the book at Wired. It will go on sale at Amazon next year.
Once or twice a year, someone will ask why I’m so fascinated with perfume — or, more bluntly, why I’m willing to pay more than $100 for a bottle. I have an answer ready: It’s a piece of art that you get to carry with you all day instead of leaving on/above the mantle.
It’s a half-truth. I also wear perfume when I can’t pile on enough cashmere, or black eyeliner, or gin flasks to keep up with my mood. That’s when I reach for Bottega Veneta, or Dior Poison, or Jean Patou Joy. Because, as Yesterday’s Perfume blogger Barbara Herman so aptly states in her book Scent & Subversion: Decoding a Century of Provocative Perfume, “Perfume’s power is that it has one foot in the elevated world of language, and one foot in the primal, emotional, visceral, and dreamlike.” They say what I really want to say, in a cut-to-the-chase, non-HR-involving language…
When I mentioned to a friend and colleague that I was reading Cult Perfumes: The World’s Most Exclusive Perfumeries, she thought it a pity that the book isn’t a scratch-and-sniff (or, more practicably, accompanied by a set of sample vials). If you’ve ever smelled a Lush store from a mile away, you can see the quirky appeal: the atmosphere within — or roiling out of — a fragrance shop is quite telling.
Even so, Cult Perfumes tells a lot for a book that is technically meant for the coffee table. Author Tessa Williams, a British journalist whose byline has appeared in Vogue, Marie Claire and Elle, catalogs the past and present of 26 “extraordinary niche perfumeries throughout the world,” with quick nods to 15 more in the back. Gorgeous art is peppered throughout, including historic advertisements, snapshots of the shops, and, of course, lots and lots of gorgeous bottles…