My friends don't want to smell like their maids

Originally Posted by paintrman

I just want all the people of the world to smell wonderful! Actually, I am trying to get everyone addicted to the fragrance bug.

Originally Posted by greyhueofdoubt

-Perfume is not really something that you talk about with people who would otherwise see your expensive suit, car, pool, cellphone, haircut, etc. Those people who do find out what you're wearing either secretly don't care, already want to get you in bed no matter what, or do know and understand what you're wearing. The last category cannot honestly happen to people more than a few times in a lifetime.


-Ben

Originally Posted by czesc

frederic malle lives in a world completely different from the one most of us live in... I don't blame him for what he said at all... its completley natural to think and talk like that when you live in 10 million dollar palaces and use a learjet like a car... and if you happen to be a maid and you read this and get mad... well... hey! thats just the way it works.

Imagine Malle saying that in a totally sneering voice, and THEN it becomes offensive.

Originally Posted by The_Giraffe

Woh, do you honestly think that Malle lives in a $10 million dollar palace? I REALLY doubt that. I read somewhere that his company rakes in about 1 mil a year. So yea, the guy is comfortable, but I don't think he's filthy rich either. Please correct me if I'm wrong and he is in fact filthy rich.

Originally Posted by Indie_Guy

Also, I wanted to add that as a waiter, I'm at about the same rung on the professional ladder as a maid...

And I get obviously a perverse thrill in wearing Creeds, L'Artisans, Comme des Garçons...and yes, Malle's Vetiver Extraordinaire to work. I know I mentioned it once--the first time I wore a Creed to work... it was Original Vetiver. And as I was reaching over a table to move a water glass, the man at the table started looking me up and down. I started to walk away but he called me back. He looked at me intensely for a moment, as if something was not quite right... then he just said it "Pardon me for asking you this...but do you come from MONEY?"

Originally Posted by DrBubba

I'm confused. You want your friends to smell like Frederic Malle's maid? Or someone else's maid?

Or wait...you want Frederic Malle's friends to smell like YOUR maid?

Frederic Malle's maid should want her friends to smell like Geir Ness's chauffeur. And her gardener to smell like Henry Cabot Lodge's publicist.

(Note: Neither Henry Cabot Lodge nor his publicist (or either of their maids) were available for comment at the time of this printing.)


Now....what is it you're offended by?

Originally Posted by Sillage6

I would like to clarify M. Malle's statement to me. His implication upon further questioning when I interviewed him was to differentiate the differences between mass lower-priced fragrances worn by the masses and exclusivity with higher-priced prestige fragrances amongst affluent fragrance consumers who want something unique. His comments came from friends and inspired the concept for his company.

Mr. Malle was very generous with his thoughts and time and his concept is truly unique.

I hope this satisfies all your queries!

Marian Bendeth

Originally Posted by Indie_Guy

I was taken aback by it. It was the kind of comment that a lot of people would take offense to, but I enjoyed the directness. So I asked him to elaborate.

He said something like, "well I have a hunch that your family has money and you're just kind of 'slumming it' by waiting tables. There's something about you that just tells me that you come from old money."

Originally Posted by hirch_duckfinder

"My friends don't want to smell like their maids"- said frederic malle as reported by
Marian Bendeth

(see front page)

What a stuck up, elitist, unpleasant man. Not an attitude I want to buy in to.

Originally Posted by DrBubba


Frederic Malle's maid should want her friends to smell like Geir Ness's chauffeur.

Originally Posted by Paul G

Scentimental didn't write that. That's the article title........

Having previously had a cleaning woman come in once a week, I can safely I also didn't want to smell like her either

Originally Posted by DrBubba

Just about anything that anyone would say in a totally sneering voice would be offensive.

Given the tone of the article and the lack of contextual support from the author (Then with a sneer and a uppity little snort, Malle said, " Maids stink!"), I just simply can't see the point in assuming he meant anything offensive by it, nor can I even get offended by it as it stands.

I don't want to smell like a mechanic, a garbage man, a fry cook, or a bartender. Not any SPECIFIC person who happens to BE of that profession, since we all know Indie Guy is a bartender and probably smells great. However, I was also a bartender and I know that most bartenders generally tend to smell like beer past a certain point in their shift (depending on which bar and/or what TYPE of bar they work at...I worked at a college dive bar...I stunk...you did not want to smell like me...end of story). I imagine that at some point in the day, garbagemen smell fabulous, or at least some of them do, however, for a good portion of their day, I'm sure they smell like something I don't want to smell like.

He's not talking about anyone specific. He's using a generalization and a similie to get a point across. Maids, at some point, will smell like cleaning supplies, dust, and floor wax, furniture polish, and probably sweat. Malle wants his friends to not smell like that. (If he did, he'd have created Demeter Fragrance Library instead of his company, no?)

What's wrong with that? Peronsally, i think its a little strange for people on a fragrance forum to read so much into a scent-maker or fragrance company owner's comments that they think he's making some kind of social commentary and attacking the working class when all he's doing is presenting a justification for why he got into what he does. For god's sake, he simply saying he wanted his friends to smell nice. He didn't say he wanted his friends not to smell like Mary, that shiftless cretin that cleans his troilet and is barely fit to lick his shoes. He didn't say he didn't want his friends to smell like a member of any particular race or country. If he had, then I'd definitely see the point. "Oh wow! Frederic Malle said he didn't want his friends to smell like Albanians! The outrage!" (Note: no offense meant if there are any Albanians on the forums...I picked your country at random...I imagine there's no "National Smell" for Albania, hence my point...that would actually be worthy of being offended by if he'd said something like that...if you ARE here and ARE Albanian, you smell great, I'm sure...which is the whole point).

I think the people who are freaking out over what he said are simply reading WAY too much into it and looking for something to freak out about.

It would be the same thing if somehow, someone were to become outraged at Marlen's last article about Jasina and tried to claim that he was making some sort of social commentary about Singaporeans, simply because they had lots of cheap and discontinued fragrances at that store.