In honor of this post being my 1,000th post on Basenotes (how time flies...) - I present the 3rd and final installment of the Luca Turin article.
I also (as promised) posted 2 pictures from the magazine of Mr. Turin and his office that's described in the article. The 1st one is a shot of his VERY cluttered desk, mostly just paperwork and a few bottles/boxes here and there. The 2nd pic is Mr. Turin sitting at a very scientific looking contraption in front of his shelf of hundreds of fragrance bottles.
There is a 3rd picture which I did not post today (I will post it later this week). I might title the thread "Guess what's on Luca Turin's shelf" - because the picture is the same shelf in the 2nd picture, but Luca is not in front of the shelf. So you can so the entire shelf unobstructed. I'm sure you BN sleuths/bottle enthusiasts will enjoy deciphering the scents on Mr. Turin's shelves.
Enjoy the rest of the article. The article (and futhermore Basenotes itself) has allowed me the opportunity to acquaint myself with so many people who are passionate about scents (and people like Luca). Here's to 1,000 more posts!
Mike
Author: Susie Rushton
Magazine: Fantastic Man
Contact: www.fantasticmanmagazine.com (If you like this article, why don't you support FM magazine and buy a copy on newstands now, or even better subscribe - I am in no way affiliated with the magazine, just an admiring fan and FM reader)
The age-old division between the art and science cultures is vaporized in the person of LUCA TURIN. He recounts how his mother was amazed to discover his talent for writing when he began to publish perfume criticism in 1992. She couldnt believe you had right brain skills as well as left? "Yes, in fact I think those were her exact words." Yet it is for the joy of the scientific endeavour that TURIN reserves his most fervent evangelism. "You know, science is a really difficult profession. There's nothing like it. A lot of people feel sorry for nerds. But," (he lowers his voice to a whisper) "they're having the best time. Imagine figuring out something really important in science. Not only is it a work of the imagination, it's also true. A novel can't be true. A painting can't be true. It can be great. In science, things can be both great and true. That's a drug, you know. If you ever taste that stuff once, you're finished."
For those addicted to TURIN'S brilliant depiction of perfumes however, next year offers an opportunity to binge: he is currently writing a guide to 1500 fragrances, due to be published next spring. "Well, with some of them I'll only write three words. With something like MITSOUKO you can either gas on about it or just say 'Go buy it. Put the book down and RUN'."
As he is ever obliging with a recommendation, I ask TURIN if he'd mind making suggestions for the following occasions when the correct scent is required?
How about, dumping a lover?
HOUBIGAN'T's DUC DE VERVINS so she'll be glad to see me go.
Vacuuming the house on a Sunday afternoon?
"That funny sun-dried tomato smell of HOOVER exhaust is just too good to mix with anything."
When giving up smoking?
"TABAC by MAURER AND WIRTZ"
A transatlantic flight?
"BEEF or, perhaps, CHICKEN by DEMETER."
What about some neglected classics that readers of FANTASTIC MAN might want to re-discover?
TURIN starts poking around on the three-tiered shelves crammed with approximately six hundred glass bottles, "Well JESUS CHRIST. What about JULES by DIOR," says TURIN gleefully, reaching to the back of a middle shelf. It's so sexy.
We both spray our arms. It smells really shitty.
"Yep. It's got a ton of civet and a sweaty note." He holds his forearm across his face. I can't believe they get away with that now.
"They are getting away with it!" TURIN yells. ''God bless them! Listen. The first five minutes may be bad, but then you can't live without it."
What about something a bit melancholic?
"NEW YORK by PATRICIA DE NICOLAI is another sad and lovely one. It's sexy in a melancholy way. In a Let's see if by making love you can make me smile' kind of way."
Although it seems likely that on most days he'd usually have half-a-dozen fragrances spritzed about his person, TURIN declares that he currently favours CALDEY ISLAND LAVENDER. "I like its abstraction. It's quiet and nondescript." On the whole he doesn't like what he terms "cutesy-pie" modern male fragrances (making exception for 'lovely carroty' DIOR HOMME).
So what does today's very masculine guy wear?
"I think," pronounces TURIN, straightening himself to full height in the centre of the room, "that the really masculine man, if he's really not worried, if he has really no problems - no need for chest-wigs or penis-extensions - then he sprays a pffft of JOY BY JEAN PATOU. Or go for any old GUERLAIN. Pre-WWI is the criterion. That's what you do. Not that I'm a super-masculine guy, but the occasions when, just for fun, I've put on GlORGlO, nobody's ever said. 'This is a woman's fragrance.' It just smells great."
If the distinction between masculine and feminine fragrances completely arbitrary?
The main difference is that the feminine fragrances are intended to be loud. You should aim for an aura about an inch deep. So as a guy you shouldn't over-egg it. But, you know," - and it's the biophysicist who concludes, exultant at the self-evident fact - "everything in culture is arbitrary."
I also (as promised) posted 2 pictures from the magazine of Mr. Turin and his office that's described in the article. The 1st one is a shot of his VERY cluttered desk, mostly just paperwork and a few bottles/boxes here and there. The 2nd pic is Mr. Turin sitting at a very scientific looking contraption in front of his shelf of hundreds of fragrance bottles.
There is a 3rd picture which I did not post today (I will post it later this week). I might title the thread "Guess what's on Luca Turin's shelf" - because the picture is the same shelf in the 2nd picture, but Luca is not in front of the shelf. So you can so the entire shelf unobstructed. I'm sure you BN sleuths/bottle enthusiasts will enjoy deciphering the scents on Mr. Turin's shelves.
Enjoy the rest of the article. The article (and futhermore Basenotes itself) has allowed me the opportunity to acquaint myself with so many people who are passionate about scents (and people like Luca). Here's to 1,000 more posts!
Mike
Author: Susie Rushton
Magazine: Fantastic Man
Contact: www.fantasticmanmagazine.com (If you like this article, why don't you support FM magazine and buy a copy on newstands now, or even better subscribe - I am in no way affiliated with the magazine, just an admiring fan and FM reader)
The age-old division between the art and science cultures is vaporized in the person of LUCA TURIN. He recounts how his mother was amazed to discover his talent for writing when he began to publish perfume criticism in 1992. She couldnt believe you had right brain skills as well as left? "Yes, in fact I think those were her exact words." Yet it is for the joy of the scientific endeavour that TURIN reserves his most fervent evangelism. "You know, science is a really difficult profession. There's nothing like it. A lot of people feel sorry for nerds. But," (he lowers his voice to a whisper) "they're having the best time. Imagine figuring out something really important in science. Not only is it a work of the imagination, it's also true. A novel can't be true. A painting can't be true. It can be great. In science, things can be both great and true. That's a drug, you know. If you ever taste that stuff once, you're finished."
For those addicted to TURIN'S brilliant depiction of perfumes however, next year offers an opportunity to binge: he is currently writing a guide to 1500 fragrances, due to be published next spring. "Well, with some of them I'll only write three words. With something like MITSOUKO you can either gas on about it or just say 'Go buy it. Put the book down and RUN'."
As he is ever obliging with a recommendation, I ask TURIN if he'd mind making suggestions for the following occasions when the correct scent is required?
How about, dumping a lover?
HOUBIGAN'T's DUC DE VERVINS so she'll be glad to see me go.
Vacuuming the house on a Sunday afternoon?
"That funny sun-dried tomato smell of HOOVER exhaust is just too good to mix with anything."
When giving up smoking?
"TABAC by MAURER AND WIRTZ"
A transatlantic flight?
"BEEF or, perhaps, CHICKEN by DEMETER."
What about some neglected classics that readers of FANTASTIC MAN might want to re-discover?
TURIN starts poking around on the three-tiered shelves crammed with approximately six hundred glass bottles, "Well JESUS CHRIST. What about JULES by DIOR," says TURIN gleefully, reaching to the back of a middle shelf. It's so sexy.
We both spray our arms. It smells really shitty.
"Yep. It's got a ton of civet and a sweaty note." He holds his forearm across his face. I can't believe they get away with that now.
"They are getting away with it!" TURIN yells. ''God bless them! Listen. The first five minutes may be bad, but then you can't live without it."
What about something a bit melancholic?
"NEW YORK by PATRICIA DE NICOLAI is another sad and lovely one. It's sexy in a melancholy way. In a Let's see if by making love you can make me smile' kind of way."
Although it seems likely that on most days he'd usually have half-a-dozen fragrances spritzed about his person, TURIN declares that he currently favours CALDEY ISLAND LAVENDER. "I like its abstraction. It's quiet and nondescript." On the whole he doesn't like what he terms "cutesy-pie" modern male fragrances (making exception for 'lovely carroty' DIOR HOMME).
So what does today's very masculine guy wear?
"I think," pronounces TURIN, straightening himself to full height in the centre of the room, "that the really masculine man, if he's really not worried, if he has really no problems - no need for chest-wigs or penis-extensions - then he sprays a pffft of JOY BY JEAN PATOU. Or go for any old GUERLAIN. Pre-WWI is the criterion. That's what you do. Not that I'm a super-masculine guy, but the occasions when, just for fun, I've put on GlORGlO, nobody's ever said. 'This is a woman's fragrance.' It just smells great."
If the distinction between masculine and feminine fragrances completely arbitrary?
The main difference is that the feminine fragrances are intended to be loud. You should aim for an aura about an inch deep. So as a guy you shouldn't over-egg it. But, you know," - and it's the biophysicist who concludes, exultant at the self-evident fact - "everything in culture is arbitrary."
