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The period from 1951
to 1969 was one of upheaval, transition, and innovation. For
20 years the only constant was change. While the world celebrated
the end of World War II, it saw the beginning of the Cold
War. It watched the beginning of the space race, and the beginning
of a march to end racism. It watched the Berlin Wall rise,
Vietnam fall, and mankind reach out and touch new worlds.
Although this period was marked by turmoil, there was a pervading
sense of optimism. People wanted to move away from the past.
They wanted political and social change. This time would become
a renaissance for the arts, for fashion, and for fragrances.
In 1953, following the return to floral fragrances, Estée
Lauder launched Youth Dew, a bath oil that doubled as a perfume,
and revolutionized the industry.
Unlike the light fragrances of the day, Youth
Dew used strong, long lasting oriental fragrances. It quickly
became an everyday perfume and was endorsed by such stars
as Gloria Swanson and Joan Crawford. Sales skyrocketed worldwide,
and companies took note of Estée Lauder's windfall and followed
suit. They increased their budgets, held mega-launches, and
flooded the market with designer imprints. But Estée Lauder
would remain an industry leader through innovative approaches
in product development, such as the introduction of Aramis,
the first line of prestige fragrance and grooming products
for men, and later with Clinique, a fragrance-free line of
skin care products designed for specific skin types. As fragrances
evolved to reflect the times, so too did their presentations.
Designers became more artistic and creative,
and the bottles themselves became works of art. Rather than
representing a company, bottles began to symbolize the fragrances
or even the people they were designed for. In 1950, Lancôme,
an industry leader throughout the 1950s, launched Magie. Magie's
small rectangular Baccarat bottle was a return to the designs
of the turn of the century, but with a twist. It came in a
small box covered with leather or satin and was topped with
sequin stars.
By 1952, when Lancôme introduced a new perfume
called Tresor, Magie was an industry leader around the world.
In an effort to take advantage of Magie's success, Lancôme
offered two different presentations, each containing a bottle
of both Magie and Tresor. The first presentation, Jumelles,
fused two tiny, elegant bottles together, each labeled with
their fragrance, which came in a box that resembled a binocular
case. The second presentation, Les Danseurs, was two bottles
in one.
The evolution of fragrance continued when Christian
Dior launched Diorrisimo. This classic, trend-setting perfume
was created by Guy Robert, and launched in 1956. It set a
fashion for floral perfumes with its spring-like green note.
The fragrance was originally sold in a flacon made by Baccarat,
but is now designed by Guericolas.
In the 1950s, Rochas Perfumes was a thriving
company. In fact, it was so successful that Rochas closed
his couture house in 1953. Marcel Rochas unexpectedly died
two years later. His wife, Helene Rochas was given charge
of the company, and in 1960 released her first fragrance,
Madame Rochas. The fragrance, the first to bear the name of
a living woman, is a classic aldehydic-floral perfume. The
flacon is a replica of an 18th century bottle by Baccarat.
In 1969, a true revolutionary, Paco Rabanne,
began asserting his influence on the fragrance evolution.
After shaking up the fashion industry with dresses of metal
and plastic, Rabanne joined Roure Bertrand Dupont to create
Calandre. Rabanne brought his artistic flair into the creative
aspects of the scent. He wanted to create a fragrance "so
avant-garde that it would shock." His aim was to create a
fragrance that captured the essence of love.
Based on this theme, his team added notes to
signify the forest, the ocean, and even the leather seats
of a sports car. Rabanne allowed this theme to determine everything
about his fragrance. His influence further blurred the line
between fragrance and fashion, and fragrance and art. The
perfume industry thrived through the fifties and sixties because
it adapted to a changing world. It excelled not just through
industrial savvy, but through artistic ingenuity as well.
For unlike industry, artists don't simply react to society,
but rather reflect it, and help direct it.
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