Then some in-house people refused to mess with the formula and walked out, at which point Guerlain brought in the great Edouard Fléchier to fix the problem. He appears to have worked on it for a couple of years. Two days ago I got the new stuff, and it gives me great pleasure to report that Fléchier has done the impossible.
— Luca Turin likes the newly reformulated Guerlain Mitsouko. Read more in NZZ Folio.
Actually, it's already old news for anyone who reads the fragrance forums, but in case you missed it, Luca Turin's latest article in NZZ Folio basically says: save your pennies, you're going to need all six of the new Les Exclusifs de Chanel perfumes...
In my opinion, these six permanently change the landscape of perfumery by proving that there is, after all, a modern Grand Manner.
and if that isn't enough,
Every one of these is as good as it gets...
Thanks to Erin for the link!
Luca Turin fans will be happy to hear that his next book, Perfumes: The Guide, is due out from Viking in April 2008. The book will be co-authored with Tania Sanchez, and promises to…
…include reviews of more than 1,200 fragrances, from “Undoubted Masterpieces” to the “Monumentally Awful.” (via publishersweekly)
The Guide will feature all-new material (it is not an English translation of Turin's out-of-print Parfums: le Guide) and will be sized to allow readers to carry it along with them while shopping for perfume…
As an interesting corollary to last week's Sexy Perfumes poll, check out today's Sunday Times (UK), which has a great article by Luca Turin on perfumes as romantic bait:
Can perfume really help a woman get her man? After all, by the time a guy is hooked, it matters little whether she’s wearing Novaya Zarya’s Lights of Moscow or Chanel’s Cuir de Russie. There’s little hard evidence to suggest scent is any more powerful than other dating tactics, such as laughing at his jokes and showing a bit of cleavage.
Yet the power of attraction is one of the foundations on which the fragrance industry is built — spray on our perfume and you’ll be irresistible.
Read the rest here. More reading: Marcello's review of Luca Turin's Secret of Scent.
The Guardian has a review of Luca Turin's recent book release, Secret of Scent:
...we swoop through a surreal, synaesthetic landscape, guided by the perfume industry's maverick Willy Wonka: 'Over the next hill now and into properly fruity territory, leaving the Brahmsian browns of damascones for the Mozartian colours of esters.' His topography of perfume is landmarked by allusion - to Miles Davis, the 'brown noise' of waterfalls piped into offices, the visual effect of varnish on old master canvases. It is an admirably sustained feat of evocation and if the cumulative effect is a little heady, there is real poetry here to stimulate our jaded perception.
Read the rest of the review here. More reading on Now Smell This: an interview with Luca Turin, Marcello's review of Secret of Scent.