The Marais district — essentially the 3rd arrondissement — is a quiet area that’s becoming increasingly trendy and popular with designers. The Stéphanie de Saint-Aignan boutique is in a quiet cobbled residential street with cute shops at ground level and apartments above.
The shop is bright and uncluttered, in a modern style, with the perfumes arranged around the walls on white cupboards. There’s a dinky spiral staircase leading to an upstairs stockroom…
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New at nordstrom: Ralph Lauren Romance Always Yours.
Fragrance is not a gift for a stranger. It is not a gift for a boss, the postman, your baby-sitter, the person who feeds your cat on weekends away. Partly, this is because a fragrance gift from a person not intimately known raises suspicions that the giver is either flirting or insinuating the giftee needs some freshening up. Another powerful reason is that to buy someone fragrance, you need to know two complicated things well: the someone and the fragrance.
— Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez recommend 10 fragrance gifts for women, and 10 7 for men, in Smells good at the UK Times Online.
I’m talking about perfume. With people struggling to make ends meet, that just seems to be one of the most unnecessary items. Don’t get me wrong. I love the smell of some and don’t want to see them out of business, but personally, I would never ever consider spending $20 or more on an item that does the same thing as soap or lotion.
— Columnist Abby Brunks of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says thanks, but no thanks, in The gift I never want.
In collaboration with 826 Time Travel Mart, YOSH YOSH, 826LA has launched the Time Travel Fragrances collection:
Ever wanted to teleport yourself to a different time and place? With ten new aromatic adventures to choose from, you can be dressed up with Victorian Violets or shreded down to your loincloth with Caveman. Flash forward to 2012 if you feel like getting out of dodge? All proceeds go toward supporting the writing center at 826LA…
Look is Vera Wang's latest fragrance for women. Vera Wang, of course, is best known for her bridal wear, and the fragrances (with the notable exception of the wildly popular, geared-towards-the-young Princess) have been squarely in the bridal mold: pretty, romantic, essentially conservative. Look aims to break out of that mold. It's tied to Wang's ready-to-wear line rather than the bridal line, and purports to be “bold, seductive and captivating” and “luxurious, prestigious and modern”:*
Look is Princess’ sophisticated older sister — but it isn’t about an age. It’s about a confidence level. It’s also making the statement that we are now a fashion house which does bridal, rather than a bridal house that does fashion. And we’re not about a skintight evening dress; we’re more artsy.*
I'll admit to knowing absolutely zero about Vera Wang's ready to wear line, but if Look's juice is any indication, “more artsy” must be interpreted strictly in the relative sense.
Look opens on fresh, sheer, fruity citrus with “watery greens”; it's sweet and apple-y, but too light and crisp to approach cloying…