31 Rue Cambon

Coco Chanel once said, 'A woman who doesn't wear perfume has no future.'  (Well, isn't that just great.  As if I wasn't stressed out enough as it is.)  Anyway, I find it rather interesting that the woman who once said such a thing was the very same woman who was also peddling the world's most popular perfume.  Chanel No. 5, ever since it was introduced in 1921, remains the world's most popular selling fragrance.  In fact, during WWII when Coco essentially shut down her couturier business, she still made piles of money on this little bottle of perfume.  Everybody wanted it, and when their bottles ran dry, they wanted more.  So it should come as no surprise that, being the very astute business woman that she was, she would say something so absolutely daft as that.  I mean, really.

That being said, maybe the lady had a point.  Clearly, it is a very serious claim to make, and one that has probably made many a fine woman squirm (myself included).  Even though any reasonable person would/should simply balk at such a claim and then continue on their merry (but is it also successful?) way.

I happen to have my fair share of perfume bottles cluttering up our bedroom, and I used to actually wear them quite a bit.  Then one day I got a job pushing rather high-end lingerie and virtually stopped wearing fragrance entirely.  I cannot stand when a woman's perfume announces her presence in a room 20 minutes before she even arrives; I find it very rude, very loud, and even very cheap (having nothing to do with the monetary value of said obnoxious scent) -- not to mention the fact that it is terribly un-ladylike.  And I also dislike when I give someone a hug and then end up wearing their perfume for the rest of the day.  (Ah, come on, tell us how you really feel.)

Despite this, I do actually like perfume.  I like it on the skin, because this is where perfume is the least overpowering.  (If you really want to smell a perfume then put it on fabric.)  I only want someone to notice my perfume if they happen to get close enough to me.  Picking out a perfume though is a very tricky business, and it is something I've been immersed in for the past few weeks.  (Even though I know better, Coco's words have been haunting me.  If I happen to be a failure in life, I'd rather it be of my own doing, instead of sheer negligence in the area of feminine fragrance.)

Strangely enough I was walking through the library with Emilia a couple of weeks ago when I spied out of the corner of my eye a book called Perfumes: The A-Z Guide.  Why, that is exactly what I needed!  I snatched the book up immediately and have been pouring/poring (both work and both are correct) over it ever since.

As a side note, if you happen to pick up this book, beware.  It will make you nearly break the bank as you realize you probably need 20 new perfumes.  So consider yourself warned.

Anyway, as I thumbed through this marvelous tome one afternoon, I stopped on a perfume I'd never heard of before (I've never heard of most them, actually), called 31 Rue Cambon (by Chanel, of course).  The name happens to be the address of her three-story fashion house in Paris, which I remember walking past in my younger days, and feeling very glamourous just by proximity, as I roamed back to my hotel.

This is the review that Luca Turin gave 31 Rue Cambon:

31 Rue Cambon ***** floral ambery $$$
I cannot remember the last time, if ever, a perfume gave me such an instantaneous impression of ravishing beauty at first sniff.  There is an affecting softness, a gentle grace to 31 that beggars belief.  Such a classical masterpiece must, by definition, be standing on the shoulders of giants, and identifying them can be a compelling game.  At times 31 brings to mind the old Chant d'Arômes, before Guerlain messed with it.  There is also a touch of the first Dioressence, that overripe, blowsy milky-fruity note of lactones that Gucci Rush took to its logical extreme.  But Chant d'Arômes was demure, Dioressence come hither, and Rush a monochrome.  Chanel's 31 does not play games, try to seduce, or attempt to be modern.  Perhaps the real precursor of 31 is that flawed masterpiece, Yves Saint Laurent's Champagne.  Champagne too was a soft, fruity chypre, but its brassy, plangent treatment of the theme suggested the decadence of a once-great lineage.  By contrast, 31 shows that in the higher reaches of art, time is suspended.  One of the ten greats of all time, and precious proof that perfumery is not yet dead.

Tania Sanchez also gives it a great review (albeit with one less star), but complains that while writing the review she had to cram her wrist to her nose several times to smell it (hence one less star).

Oh my goodness.  Sold!

And so, for the past week now I've been wearing 31 Rue Cambon and feeling rather pleased with myself.  Not only am I back on track to being successful, but I also dearly love it.  And I like the fact that it keeps me company throughout the day -- very soft, very lovely, and very perfect, really.  'Her style was a synthesis of feminine softness and masculine ease, the gossamer and the tweedy.' (Judith Thurman, writing on Coco Chanel, in a recent article from The New Yorker.) This, in essence sums up the marvelous scent of 31 Rue Cambon. 

Oh, and interestingly it is the only perfume I have worn now that doesn't cause Emilia to immediately say 'Mama wearing hairspray!' right after she gets a whiff.  So I guess that counts for something, too.  However, I'm not so sure that it is Michael's favorite.  I don't think it is interesting or unique or even modern enough for his taste ... maybe it will grow on him.

(Perfumes: The A-Z Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez.  Penguin Publishing, 2008, 2009.  And the Coco Chanel quote is from The Gospel According to Coco Chanel by Karen Karbo.  Skirt Publishing, 2009. )