National fragrance day: Perfume isn't just about the smell, but the sell
Alexander Fury rounds up a clutch of perfumey products that leaves nothing lingering about the nostrils
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Your support makes all the difference.Monday is national fragrance day – which doesn't mean a huge amount as it's a promotional excuse to shift yet more of the smelly stuff we're set to be spending some £2bn on by 2017.
As those figures attest, perfume isn't just about the smell, but the sell. So how about a clutch of perfumey products that leaves nothing lingering about the nostrils – like this Limited-edition Jimmy Merris print (1 - see gallery below), inspired by pinchbeck perfumes in a Peckham pound-shop (profits in aid of Studio Voltaire, which supports emerging artists.)
Merris' work – like those perfumes – is a reflection of a more expensive product, a 1985 silkscreen of a Chanel No. 5 bottle by Andy Warhol. Meta. Most famous of them all, that rectilinear Chanel number has been transformed into everything from birthday-cakes to a proliferation of lookalike phone cases. The original (re)interpretation was this plexiglass minaudière (2), designed by Karl Lagerfeld in 2013 and bearing a genuine Chanel label. It's still available via vintage dealers, but for a five-figure sum. And selling out fast. Donatella Versace offered her own spin for spring 2016, using images of vintage scent bottles as unconventional prints (3); all Versace, of course.
But what if you're keen to hide your fragrance antecedents? The old-fashioned Atomiser (4) is staging a comeback – making your perfume spritz stylish whether it's Chanel or "Chamele."
Enough of non-scented stuff that resembles perfume. How about perfume that looks anything but? Moschino's "Fresh" (5) styles itself as a litre of Cif, but is far kinder to skin.
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