These are called “blotters” and used for drawing lots. They are also used to write memos or used as bookmarks. (Chandler Burr calls them “Scent Strip”s and uses each piece of paper to smell a scent… interesting.) Continue Reading…
A Rose By Any Other Name
So… here’s the thing: Auxeos is not a word. I got the root word for auxetic materials all wrong. (Going to go crawl under a rock now and then die there from embarrassment. Yes indeedy, I will.)
Now, on the one hand, one could argue that cosmetic companies make up words all the time, especially absurd quasi-French/quasi-English ones. On the other hand, auxeos is not a word.
It basically boils down to this: Laurent’s fragrance for me needs a new name. It’s something I’ve been mulling over for a little while now. I’d sounded out my husband Jon for some ideas, which gleaned nothing. To wit -
“Honey, what would you name a perfume?”
“Hm… I think I’d name it Steve.”
“?”
“C’mon! I bet there’s not any other Steves out there on the market.”
“Uh, no.”
“Okay, fine. How ’bout Craig?”
So then I was thinking, oh I know, I’ll name it “A Million Bucks.” And that way, when someone says to you, “Omigod, you smell like a million bucks!” you could be all, “Dude! I KNOW!” But that’s no good. Especially for my Canadian friends, who just won’t smell as quite as nice, what with the exchange rate and all. (Hacky currency joke! Apologies!)
Funnily enough, Nobi floats the name “Slinky” in the comments for his last post. Which… yeah. I like that. What do you all think? Does “Slinky” work?
Got your own ideas? What would YOU name a fragrance? And what might you name this particular fragrance?
(Please note, per conversations with Jon, that “Yoda,” “Stan,” and “Peggy” have already been rejected. As was his suggestion of “Jon,” because no one wants to hear they smell like the john.)
A prize draw
Leave a comment on any post in this blog from now until next Tuesday (2/13/07). You could win one of the below fragrances. Continue Reading…
Dirty Mind
“Je reviens en trois jours, ne te laves pas!”
The name of the classic perfume by the house of Worth (Je Reviens, 1932) was based on a letter sent by Napoleon to Josephine. Continue Reading…
Francis Kurkdjian @NPR
Francis Kurkdjian speaks with Melissa Block, the host of NPR’s All Things Considered, about Chateau de Versailles’ recreation of Marie Antoinette’s scent. (an article on December 22, 2006)
NPR’s story: Straight from Versailles, Marie Antoinette’s Scent
Villa dall’Ava
Several years ago, when Rem Koolhaas became one of the most talked about architects, I had the rare opportunity not only to visit one of the houses he designed, but also to stay there for a few days while in Paris. The house called Villa dall’Ava, which was completed in 1991, had received worldwide attention in the architecture world.
I had first seen Rem Koolhaas’s work (it was an architecture model) at MOMA in the early ’90s, right around the time the distinguished Japanese architect Tadao Ando had his major exhibition at the museum. Ando back then was considered to be one of the ten most important architects in the word, and Koolhaas was still on the rise. However, although I don’t remember much about Ando’s exhibition at MOMA, I can still clearly visualize the architecture model by Koolhaas in my mind.
Generally, for Japanese, precision craftsmanship means average in skill, and the architecture model I had seen at MOMA was almost sacrilege in that respect. Everything was out of alignment and irregular, hardly anything was straight. I couldn’t understand how someone could make something with such a lack of precision… and had wondered how the actual architecture would look like, especially the details of it.
An architecture model is neither a sculpture nor a painting – it is merely a tool to examine the design and get some degree of understanding of how the actual architecture will look. Much against my expectation, Villa Dall’Ava turned out to be an architectural gem. There was a strange harmony of strength and fragility. To tell the truth, I was disappointed not to find any sign of “sacrilege” there. However there was something convincing and persuasive about the design… the house was whispering in my ear, “Imperfection is beautiful.” The house felt like it has its own life. It was cold but warm, heavy but light, filled with intimate contrasts which I’ve never found in Tadao Ando’s architectures.
This is, of course, not to say imperfection would necessarily add a human touch to a work of art, but after having used my hands to create art for many years, I have finally realized that a work with impeccable finish often lacked the warmth of human ki (qi or 気).
ー１９９９年に、パリ近郊にある、レム・コールハース設計の住宅ヴィラ・ダラヴァに滞在した時の思い出と、MOMAでの建築展で見たコールハースの建築模型の印象。ー
100% LOVE
*****
The video below was added to this post in May, 2008.
