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Q&A With Tom Ford On His Private Blend Line

post #1 of 17
1/2/09 at 8:37pm
Thread Starter 
Some short interview I found on the web. I thought it might be of interest to a few. Nice to hear he personally enjoys wearing Tobacco Vanille & Japan Noir himself.
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post #2 of 17
1/2/09 at 10:00pm
Thanks for the link, nsamadi.

I'm currently on a Noir de Noir kick - from a recently arrived bottle split. Its amazing IMO.
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post #3 of 17
1/2/09 at 10:21pm
Tobacco Vanille is so far my favorite that I have tried. Have not sampled Japan Noir yet
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post #4 of 17
1/2/09 at 10:30pm
Hm, interesting. Now I wish they'd tell us which Holt Renfrew stores will be carrying the Private Blend line?
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post #5 of 17
1/2/09 at 10:44pm

I don't think I've ever heard a more glib set of answers. Entirely appropriate I suppose since my personal impression of the entire line is that it is essentially glib. I am not a great fan of Tom Ford's own line, but since he's such a great fan of himself and of his own line, I doubt he'll lose any sleep over it.

scentemental

P.S. I did like his answer about his dog's ears.


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post #6 of 17
1/2/09 at 10:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by scentemental View Post

I don't think I've ever heard a more glib set of answers. Entirely appropriate I suppose since my personal impression of the entire line is that it is essentially glib. I am not a great fan of Tom Ford's own line, but since he's such a great fan of himself and of his own line, I doubt he'll lose any sleep over it.

scentemental

P.S. I did like his answer about his dog's ears.



I like some of the Private Line fragrances, but I thought the same thing. A case in point is this Q/A snippet:

What inspired The Private Blend Collection?
After making Black Orchid and Tom Ford for Men I found that I had 12 separate and fully developed scents ready to go. ..

What does that mean anyway ?
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post #7 of 17
1/2/09 at 10:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by zztopp View Post

I like some of the Private Line fragrances, but I thought the same thing. A case in point is this Q/A snippet:

What inspired The Private Blend Collection?
After making Black Orchid and Tom Ford for Men I found that I had 12 separate and fully developed scents ready to go. ..

What does that mean anyway ?

Like I said, "glib":

1. Readily fluent, often thoughtlessly, superficially, or insincerely so
2. Showing little thought, preparation, or concern
3. Marked by lack of intellectual depth
4. Having only superficial plausibility

scentemental

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post #8 of 17
1/2/09 at 11:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kopah View Post

Hm, interesting. Now I wish they'd tell us which Holt Renfrew stores will be carrying the Private Blend line?

The Toronto Holt has the entire line (less Italian Cypress and Arabian Wood).
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post #9 of 17
1/2/09 at 11:27pm
It reminded me of another (video) interview of his that I found. That was interesting to me only in that it was the first time I'd heard him speak, but it was the same story - he was "on message". Like this selection from the link above:

Quote:
When I created Private Blend, I really challenged the perfumers to find pure ingredients that had extraordinary depth and personality.

Not exactly revealing. The closest thing to him coming clean that I ever saw was a gay online mag interview that I stumbled on - I should have bookmarked it. Even there he was only giving up answers to direct questions, but at least he was answering them. Nothing fragrance-related, unfortunately, or I'd go looking for it.

I think it would be great to see him interviewed by somebody with some real fragrance knowledge. I happen to like what I've smelled so far, and I would like to hear him talk for real about the Private Blend Collection.
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post #10 of 17
1/3/09 at 7:41pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Omega Man View Post

The Toronto Holt has the entire line (less Italian Cypress and Arabian Wood).

Do you know how much the 50ml & 250ml bottles sell for?
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post #11 of 17
1/3/09 at 10:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nsamadi View Post

Do you know how much the 50ml & 250ml bottles sell for?

$210 for the 50ml. Didn't bother about the 250ml.
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post #12 of 17
1/4/09 at 11:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nsamadi View Post

Some short interview I found on the web. I thought it might be of interest to a few. Nice to hear he personally enjoys wearing Tobacco Vanille & Japan Noir himself.

I'm surprised to hear that Tom favors Japon Noir. I have samples of both Japon Noir and Bois Rouge and find them to be almost identical, except that Bois Rouge lasts far longer on my skin. Japon Noir fades out on me within two hours, while Bois Rouge is still going strong after six hours. Anyone else find this to be true?

I rarely hear anyone mention Bois Rouge and I think along with Tobacco Vanille, it's one of the best in the line in terms of sillage and longevity.

Jim
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post #13 of 17
1/4/09 at 12:20pm
Tobacco Vanille is a great fragrance. I have not had a chance to try the other private blends yet, but on this one Tom Ford is a winner in my mind.
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post #14 of 17
1/4/09 at 12:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by scentemental View Post

Like I said, "glib":

1. Readily fluent, often thoughtlessly, superficially, or insincerely so
2. Showing little thought, preparation, or concern
3. Marked by lack of intellectual depth
4. Having only superficial plausibility

scentemental


Long story short, a Lutens interview would not come across so glib. Ford is other things, as well as a "parfumeur". I am not sure which is the single key word for him; celeb or parfumeur.

Tobacco Vanille is great though.
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post #15 of 17
1/4/09 at 12:39pm
Considering how smitten I am with Tobacco Vanille at the moment (just with a 0.5ml sample), it wouldn't be a bad idea to try the other Private Blend offerings.

There was a whole set of Tom Ford Private Blend that just sold for over US$1800 on ebay. Each bottle was 50ml, so a total of 750ml juice. I wish it were a basenoter who got this and organised a split of the whole lot :-)
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post #16 of 17
1/4/09 at 1:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by zztopp View Post

I like some of the Private Line fragrances, but I thought the same thing. A case in point is this Q/A snippet:

What inspired The Private Blend Collection?
After making Black Orchid and Tom Ford for Men I found that I had 12 separate and fully developed scents ready to go. ..

What does that mean anyway ?

I think what he meant was that while they were developing Black Orchid and Tom Ford for men, they kept all the proposed and revised formulas. To my nose Noir de Noir smells very close to Black Orchid. I would bet money that Noir de Noir was developed while putting together Black Orchid. So maybe the other scents were actually accords developed while coming up with them as well. That would explain why they claim that you can layer the private blends.

Im also willing to be that they came up with Arabian Wood and Champaca Absolute while developing White Patchouli. Although they don't smell the same per se but they do have a similar feel.

I like a lot of his line but the more I hear/see him the less and less I like the man himself. He comes across as a real jerk in all the press I have seen.
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post #17 of 17
1/4/09 at 3:14pm
Oh come on... what do you expect from an interview with what an in store magazine? Hard hitting revelations? Can you imagine how bored he must be of answering questions? I think Serge Lutens' selection of Grenouille as the perfumer he'd most like to know was pretty glib! I think the meaning is clear that the private selection scents came about in development of Black Orchid and TF for men. Noir de Noir seems closer to the latter than to the former to me. Like them or not, I think actually he deserves some real credit for launching so many scents at the same time rather than doing the industry thing of withholding creativity for the sake of what the market will bear. As high price as these are you can bet the profit on them doesn't touch what most fragrances will clear that are put out according to traditional protocol. And he certainly doesn't come across as a jerk in this interview as far as I can tell. And I don't think he is a jerk. As far as I know he's had the same boyfriend for a long time, an older guy who has recently been hit with cancer. I'm not sure whose remark it was that "he does straight so much better than gay" or words to that effect, but he's no more in the closet than any other designer. Of course he's not a "real designer" or a "real perfumer" which makes it all the more amazing what he has managed to accomplish. A joke he's not.
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