"When people say to me, 'Well, you objectify women,' [I say] I'm an equal opportunity objectifier. We had a lot of magazines reject the female version [of the campaign], so the male version is going to get rejected even more."
— Tom Ford, talking about the ad campaign (yep, there is apparently a "male version") for Tom Ford For Men in Tom Ford's Secret Fragrance Ad! at Radar. If you missed the background to all this, see Courting controversy, part 2.
Tom Ford for Men just “arrived” on the perfume scene and the fragrance has taken a back seat to its advertising campaign. Love it or despise it, the ad campaign, photographed by Terry Richardson [ed. note: if you want to see those ads, you’ll find links here], has gotten a lot of media attention. I don’t have much to say about the naked oily woman with red lips and fingernails, and the “perfume-bottle-as-penis” images, but thanks to the advertising, when I hear ‘Tom Ford for Men,’ even after wearing the scent, I don’t think about “the juice” — I think about the ads’ glaring photos: a woman’s big boobs and her shaved genitals. Should advertising loom so large over the product being hyped?
Tom Ford for Men sounds complex “on paper”; its ingredients list includes citrus, lemon leaf oil, mandarin zest, bergamot, basil, ginger, violet leaf, orange blossom, grapefruit blossom, tobacco leaf, black pepper, amber, cedar, patchouli, vetiver, oak moss, leatherwood and cypriol. Tom Ford for Men on skin smells much simpler than it sounds. It opens with a fresh citrus accord (bracing, not “cold”) and violet leaf, and proceeds quickly to the heart of the scent, where amber, cedar, ‘leatherwood,’ and especially patchouli, dominate. There are hints of oak moss and tobacco leaf in the fragrance but I don’t smell basil, black pepper, ginger or blossoms; all these well-blended notes may contribute to the slightly sweet and sprightly aspect of the fragrance. After you think Tom Ford for Men has played itself out, it suddenly “sinks” into a darker, murkier world — a world of unclean muskiness…
Whatever Sean John is up to with his new commercial, Tom Ford has possibly taken things a step further. The front page of the Tom Ford website currently says "Sexually Explicit Images, Click here to Continue". If you click (and gosh, who could resist?), a series of sexually explicit images (duh) flash past at a rapid pace. Most of them involve a naked woman holding a bottle of Tom Ford For Men, his upcoming fragrance, next to one or another key parts, shall we say (this being a family website), of her anatomy. If you want to see some of the still advertising shots, check out this one at Perfume Smellin' Things, or this one at BellaSugar.
The Sean John and Tom Ford fragrance lines are both under the Estee Lauder umbrella.
Voile de Fleur is the new Eau de Toilette version of last year’s Black Orchid from Tom Ford, who is making up for lost time, apparently, by launching a grand total of 15 (!) new fragrances this year. Voile de Fleur is advertised as a lighter take on Black Orchid, with added white floral notes and “a warm effervescent modernity”.
I really liked Black Orchid — not for myself, exactly, as it isn’t my style, but I thought it was terrifically well-done, and its sexy, bombshell quality stood out in last year’s sea of insipid releases. A quick check of the reviews at MakeupAlley, however, reveals that not everyone agrees with me. Black Orchid has a dismal “would buy this product again” rate of 38%. Ouch! Further investigation, however, reveals lots of 5 lippie ratings (the highest) and lots of 1 lippie ratings (the lowest, as MakeupAlley doesn’t have the option of awarding a 0). This is the classic picture of a love-it-or-hate-it fragrance.
So what of Voile de Fleur? Well, the heightened emphasis on the white floral notes is evident from the start…
Tom Ford is preparing to launch Black Orchid Voile de Fleur, the new Eau de Toilette version of last year's Black Orchid fragrance:
Black Orchid Voile de Fleur offers a new twist on the iconic original, blending the essence of textured florals with a sexy and sophisticated sensuality in a sparkling eau de toilette.
The alluring potion of Black Orchid is given a warm effervescent modernity with this new entry…