New at aedes: By Kilian line now available for pre-order.
New at sephora: Diesel Fuel for Life.
C.O. Bigelow Chemists ~ shopping for perfume in New York
Founded as an apothecary in 1838, C. O. Bigelow Chemists has thrived into the twenty-first century as an unlikely, but very popular, combination of neighborhood drugstore and high-end beauty emporium. Its aisles are crowded with long-time local customers waiting for their prescriptions to be filled at the pharmacy, as well as visiting aficionados of luxury toiletries, hard-to-find home fragrance lines, and unusual perfumes.
Through an agreement with Limited Brands, the Bigelow brand name is used on newly developed products sold at Limited Brands’ various stores (Henri Bendel, Bath & Body Works), and Limited Brands has opened several shops under the C.O. Bigelow name in other cities. This original location, however, is still independently owned by the same family that bought the company in 1939…
Five real men
GQ has teamed up with Calvin Klein Fragrances to launch their newest fragrance, Calvin Klein MAN with a nationwide search. Five men will be chosen that best epitomize the Calvin Klein MAN: Sexy, Stylish, Sophisticated, Socially Aware and Smart. This first-ever nationwide search will be conducted in department stores nationwide and on-line. The five lucky winners will have their stories and photographs featured within a 2008 issue of GQ.
— You can apply at gqconnects; applicants will be accepted through 11/30. (via prnewswire)
Perfume and Silk Stockings
A few nights ago I watched Silk Stockings, a musical set in Paris. It stars Fred Astaire as a movie maker and bon vivant, and Cyd Charisse as a Russian commissaire sent to Paris to bring home a famous Russian composer whom Astaire has hired to write the score for his new movie. The main subplot of the movie is how Charisse is transformed from a stern Communist who cares more about seeing Paris’s sewer system than Cartier to Astaire’s champagne-drinking, couture-wearing bride.
In my favorite scene, Charisse is alone in her Parisian hotel room. She cancels a meeting, turns Lenin’s photo face down, hesitates, and then pulls out a pair of silk stockings she had hidden in a cabinet. She yanks off her Soviet woolen tights, wafts the silk stockings against her bare legs, then dances (so, so fabulously) through the room…