A spot for Maison Francis Kurkdjian 724.
I’m not interested in fixing the industry
I’m not interested in fixing the industry, I’m interested in finding ways to bypass it altogether. I'm obviously political, and as I’m sure you can tell I’m appalled by how the world is going. I don’t like this current place we’re in, and I equate it to the incessant quest for power, dominance, and money. It's really hard to even begin to approach the perfume industry with all this in mind, because while the people are good—humans doing their best in the world, like all of us—the structures within which they work are stuck, and feel rotten. It's like the plastics industry or the fashion industry. Why are we making such a song and dance about producing all this shit that's going to end up in the ocean, anyway?
— Saskia Wilson-Brown of the Institute for Art and Olfaction. Read more in Beauty Disruptor Series: Saskia Wilson-Brown On Open-Access Scent at BeautyMatter.
Rewrite the code
Actor Regé-Jean Page for the new Parfum version of Armani Code. (If you missed it, see also his talk with the perfumer Antoine Maisondieu.)
50 million years before the dinosaurs
A major group of flowering plants that are still around today, emerged 150 million years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study published today in Trends in Plant Science. This means flowering plants were around some 50 million years before the dinosaurs.
The plants in question are known as the buckthorn family or Rhamnaceae, a group of trees, shrubs and vines found worldwide. The finding comes from subjecting data on 100-million-year old flowers to powerful molecular clock techniques—as a result, we now know Rhamnaceae arose more than 250 million years ago.
— Read more in A new discovery shows major flowering plants are 150 million years older than previously thought at Phys.org. Hat tip to Jalapeno!
Into the shoes of Ernest Beaux
Commissioned by Chanel and produced by Paris-based studio Atelier Daruma, the 15-minute immersive experience puts participants into the shoes of Ernest Beaux, the Russo-French perfumer who created the iconic elixir for the fashion icon. Voicing an animated version of Coco Chanel in both English and French, the Oscar-winning actress plays the designer at the height of her Queen of Paris fame, as a 38-year-old doyenne and magnetic pole for the city’s modernist and avant-garde scenes.
— Read more in Marion Cotillard Voices Coco Chanel in Immersive VR Project ‘Rencontre(s),’ Teaser Debuts at Variety.