Vintage Perfume Indiscret by Lucien Lelong

 I love the the exoticism, glamor, mystery and drama portrayed in this 1937 shot of Loretta Young wearing a Lucien Lelong gown, photographed by Horst.

Here is Lelong's La Dame En Noir look. The black velvet and satin was just right for chic women at the height of WWII in 1945 but the sensual body hugging lines brooked no concessions to elegance, regardless of war shortages and fabric rationing.

Lucien Lelong, shown above in 1932, is my vintage crush of the week. I've been rocking his vintage 'Parfum Indiscrete' for the past few days with no sign of tiring of it yet.

Along with the more famous designers of the 20th century including luminaries Chanel, Dior, Schiaparelli  and Givenchy, Lucien Lelong was a central character at the heart of Paris fashion throughout the influential 1920s - 1940s. Balmain, Dior, and Givenchy all apprenticed with him. Lelong's fashions were photographed by avant-gardes Horst, Beaton, Hoyningen Huene, Man Ray, and Lee Miller. Never a designer in the strict sense, Lelong employed talented designers to create his visions. Yet his fashion sense was unerring; Lucien Lelong designs always bore distinctive craftsmanship, quality and style.

Lelong was a pioneer because he created many wonderful accessories specifically developed to compliment and "go with" his designs. Lelong began to produce perfumes in a large commercial scale in 1924 employing 1200 workers. He also designed many of the bottles used to house his perfumes. Although he did not personally author his perfumes, his perfumer Jean Carles never let him down. From 1924 through the 1950 and even beyond, Lucien Lelong scents were artfully conceived, thoughtfully composed and considered to be some of the most desirable of their time.

There are so many interesting twists and turns to the life of this dashing public figure yet his core is mysterious. Although he was initially tried as a traitor as a result of secret meetings with the Nazis during WWII, he was ultimately credited with saving the lives of some 12,000 French fashion industry workers and their families... Forced to close his design house in 1948 for health reasons, Lelong continued to personally produce perfumes into the 1950s. He died from a heart attach in 1958 at 69 years of age.

Now that you have a primer on LL, let's get back to the good thing, the juice! Indiscret was first released as Parfum Indiscret in 1936. Over time it emerged from the many varied scents Lucien LeLong released throughout the years as the star of the line. But Indiscret confuses some because of it's variants (and reformulations).  The scent of vintage Indiscret cologne, edt and lotion I've tried, all ranging from 1950s to 1980s, is to varying degrees green, sweet and warm. Not too heavy, approachable yet sophisticated, this fruity floral with a kick of spice dries down to a nice powdery wood and resin finish. Quite compelling!

The note list follows: (from Perfume Intelligence)
"A crisp green parfum with top notes of mandarin, neroli, tiger orchid, bergamot, white peach blossom, galbanum and orange flower, heart notes of jasmine, cypress, basil, clove, violet, ylang-ylang, tuberose, rose geranium and iris on base notes of oak moss, vetiver, patchouli, Guaiac wood, white musk and amber." Re-released in 1997.

Lucien Lelong design 1947

The vintage perfume version of the scent, called "Perfume Indiscret" and circa 1940s, is what I'm sniffing. Mine comes in the cute gyroscope presentation bottle. Perhaps the top notes are somewhat dampened over time, but it smells so beautiful and modern that I rather think it's in prime condition. The vintage parfum appears to be a more restrained interpretation of 'fruity floral'. The composition makes up for less in the way of fruit with lusciously defined arpeggios of flowers, more voluminous spices, and amplified oakmoss, resins and wood. The perfume opens with perfectly balanced citrus notes of bergamot and mandarin orange against a green resinous galbanum. The strong rich heart opens with notes of tuberose (the camphorous type I love), orange flower (the rich type I love) and ylang-ylang (the smooth type I love). Jasmine, iris, rose, geranium and I swear there is a lovely carnation or clove, rose in support. The base smells of labdanum/incense, lavish oakmoss, a touch of civet, grounded in sandalwood, tobacco. When you smell this perfume you do not think of the greens or fruits. Instead it is rich and smooth, a complex perfume with most prominent beautiful tuberose and ylang-ylang notes, against orange blossom and carnation, all standing out over a resinous, smoky, spicy sandalwood base. Glorious and complex. Although not a proper floral leather like En Avion*, there is similarity between the two scents. Those who love this rare Caron vintage may find the vintage parfum/perfume version of Indiscret worth a try.

*En Avion was released by Caron in 1929. It features notes of orange tree blossom, neroli, jasmine, rose, clove, carnation, opoponax and precious woods.

The house of Lucien Lelong has an active online site where you can read more history of Lucien Lelong and buy modern interpretations of Indiscret and many of their other classic perfumes of yore.

The Vintage Perfume Vault, where the scent of yesterday's vogue lives.

images:

perfume ads hprints and various ebay sellers
fashion shots google images

Perfume Bottle Copy Cats: Perry Ellis 360 and Lucien LeLong's Tailspin

Today I am bringing another example of copy-cat bottle designs. This type of perfidity seems widespread in the perfume world with numerous perfumes housed in bottles that are copied from other designers. In the past perfumers worked with the most accomplished glass artists of their time to create painstakingly crafted vessels deemed worthy of the juice contained within them. Check out the bottle I found on the on-line Shiseido museum, a beautiful commercial bottle, a copy of an even finer one made by Baccarat for Elizabeth Arden's "It's You" perfume in 1939. It is truely an exquisit presentation deserving of a high end luxury perfume. Yet predictably, there is a low end Avon copy of this design somewhere although I can't locate a photo for you.

A cheap container speaks volumes to the consumer and what is says is not good, especially if the perfume is touted 'high-end'. Perfumes have long been considered luxury products so it is a shame to see the declining quality of packaging; it hints at the same cheapening of the contents
inside. When niche or exclusive perfumes come to me in cheap packaging, I feel a stab of betrayal. I spent money for something I hope is a magical elixer that will transform me but the packaging rudely wakes me from the dream- it makes me feel that someone might be producing the whole thing in their kitchen sink and printing the label on their ink jet printer- which is definitely not what I want to think about when I'm buying something that to enhance me, seduce me with its mystique.

Today's example: Perry Ellis 360 parfum produced by Parfums Stern, Paris... At first
the bottle appears charmingly unique.

But then I happened upon the bottle shown below while shopping at Passion for Perfumes (see links, where to buy and no I'm not affiliated). Lucien LeLong's Tailspin is housed within a "gyroscopic" bottle nearly identical to the Perry Ellis one. In this case, there is a flat brass topped stopper and dauber, while the Perry bottle has a glass stopper and no dauber. Also the Lelong bottle is an actual gyroscope, while the Perry bottle follows the lines but the entire base of the container is filled with perfume and a small dimple on the bottom allows it to stand up.

The Perry Ellis perfume bottle is pretty but it's not original and knowing it is a copy, makes it even less appealing. The Lelong bottle is much more complicated (the perfume is housed within an inner bottle, so it remains upright while the gyroscope could be rolled across a flat surface) and it seems to be an original design, and therefore it seems more desirable and more luxurious, something one would want to hold, play with and contemplate with each wearing of the perfume. I hope modern perfumers learn the value of luxury and reach out to new designers to create more of the types of bottles that made bottle collecting such a passion for perfume lovers.

I have seen photos of some of the new Guerlains, which come in shockingly plain bottles, despite the little badge at the base, they look cheap to me.... I should not single Guerlain out, they are by no means the only ones, but honestly I would never spend big money on something that comes in a cheap rectangular bottle that could be hair spray, when I can go back into time to have something that was made with care, and is truly fine. Yet some of the modern perfumes smell wonderful, and they deserve the best in bottles as well. If not the future of perfume bottle collecting is going to be very dim indeed.

The Vintage Perfume Vault, where the scent of yesterday's vogue lives.