Not Your Average Shrinking Violet; Tom Ford's Violet Blonde
A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR:
By Beth Schreibman Gehring
September 10, 2011
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Or "Oh, How I Miss The Big 80's"
with Roxy Video below...
I loved the late 70’s and the early 80’s. I partied way too hard, had a very sleek fast car and enjoyed many Quaaludes and too much cocaine, while sleeping with pretty much anyone I chose. Opium was never far away and I don’t mean the perfume; it was quite the naughty time for women in history. My reading material was anything by Anais Nin, especially her wickedly erotic “Delta of Venus”. I periodically met one of my lovers at his house on a quiet back street sporting a long trench coat wearing nothing underneath but my naked body. Oh my god we had such a good time; the early 80’s were unbelievably decadent.
It was also a fabulous time for fashion because Glam was still all the rage but a punk sensibility was creeping into our world giving a delightfully harder edge to my lips and cheeks. My style icons were Jerry Hall, Patty Hansen and Lisa Taylor and the September issues of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar my Bibles.
Single, spoiled rotten and still living at home, I spent all of my cash on plane trips to New York, San Francisco and Chicago, taking off for the weekend whenever it suited me. I only wore Orlane makeup and bought Diane Von Furstenburg dresses because I could. I spent one entire weekend in San Diego wrapped in the arms of a much older man who’d fallen hopelessly in love with me when he saw me for the first time in my purple qiana “slit down to there and up to here” bathing suit and red stilettos. I left on sunday and broke his heart…. I was such a brat!
Perfume began to take on a heavier sensuality around that time with releases bearing exotic names like Opium, Poison and Obsession with spicy sweet silage that lingered for days and the makeup? Who can forget those shiny pouty lips, chiseled cheeks and smoky kohl rimmed eyes? They were fabulous and I can still paint them on if I need to as well as make my hair huge. I loved the look because it was pure sensuality with a heavy dose of bondage. I even sculpted my cleavage with makeup because I could. Those days were so much fun!
In the sensible and serious 2000’s it’s pretty tough for younger women to see pictures from that time and even harder to imagine themselves living in it. The images from that time could be construed as a feminist’s nightmare, but unless you lived through it you really don’t know how strong women were then.
We’d come of age during the sexual revolution and we knew our power. Sure we got into trouble, but that hasn’t changed even today. We reveled in our gorgeousness, flaunted every asset we had and happily celebrated our sexuality.
So now that I've bared my not so secret past, I am sure that you can understand why today on a walk through Saks Fifth Avenue I fell head over heels in love with Tom Ford and his newest signature release “Violet Blonde”.
I’ll admit it. The first thing that I noticed was the advertisement featuring a fabulous Norwegian blonde covered in violets and sporting luscious, shiny purple lips and eyes, the likes of which I haven’t seen in over 25 years. Once I had gotten over my fascination with the image, I picked up the tester, sprayed a bit on my wrists and went tumbling back in time.
“Violet Blonde” is STUNNING. I don’t know if it’s what he intended, but the obviously talented Mr. Ford has created a retro yet very modern miracle of a perfume. At first blast there’s fresh violet leaf, spicy pink peppercorns and the pulpiest mandarin that I’ve ever experienced but what sent my senses reeling was the passionate white flower heart of sultry jasmine, iris, orris butter and seductive sampaquita. All of that created quite the symphony on my skin, but about two hours later the sumptuous base of suede, musk, vetiver, benzoin and cedar emerged and made this fragrance even more compelling to me.
For me, all of the romance of perfume is in its ability to conjure up memories while creating new ones. “Violet Blonde” takes me back to a time in my life that was glamorous, more than a bit irresponsible and loads of fun. I haven’t smelled anything this evocative in years and yet I can see creating all kinds of new occasions to wear it.
“Violet Blonde” is decadent and not for the faint of heart. It’s going to take a pretty passionate woman to wear it because it’s fleshy and bold. Age has nothing to do with wearing this perfume because it’s all about the attitude and if you’ve got a bit of that then you’re going to love this one. My husband, who was formerly the lover in the aforementioned trench coat story bent his head down to my cleavage for a long luxurious sniff and bit me. Hard.
I can promise you right now that if this is one of Tom Ford’s signature scents then he’s a man that I’m going to get to know much better!
Tom Ford’s Violet Blonde is available at Saks Fifth Avenue.
Author in the 80's
