Dolce & Gabbana Velvet

The Rayon Road

Gustav Bauernfeind, Market in Jaffa, 1887.

At just the time when “oriental” as a fragrance descriptor is being phased out, it seems that niche ranges are becoming more and more like those tacky yet wonderful Belle Epoque orientalist paintings that showcase the wonders of the Near, Middle and Far East. Every European couture house now seems to have a miniature souk section, an exotic enclave reminiscent of Great Exhibitions in colonial days. Why? Is it the mesmeric power of oud? Is it that they hope this stuff will sell in the Gulf? (I have said many times how surprised I am at the fact that we are trying to sell fake Arab fragrances to the people who invented the genre.)

I guess this is the mirror image of Syrian markets selling excellent knockoffs of, say, Caron’s Pour un Homme, except those make sense because cheaper. D&G’s Velvet collection is not crazy expensive in comparison to other niche lines, but that’s because they’ve all gone stark raving mad, selling fragrances worth a week’s wages to young’uns who don’t know better. When niche took off twenty or so years ago, it was imagined as a playground for new ideas and a relief from the sameness of mainstream perfumery. Much of it has now become more banal and derivative than the big launches.

D&G’s Velvet Collection fragrances are composed by big name perfumers (Morillas, Flores-Roux, Cavallier), so you can expect great skill, however daft the brief may have been. I’d love to know what that brief was. Were they forced to watch Indiana Jones movies and read Henry Rider Haggard? Maybe they were given old Club Med brochures? That artificial East (and South) was explored in the 1990s by Serge Lutens and Chris Sheldrake’s brilliant series of vignettes for the Palais Royal: Ambre Sultan, Rose de Nuit, Muscs Koublaï Khan, etc. Those were works of the imagination, rich, bold and saturated, and a hard act to follow.

For paid subscribers: reviews of Zafferano, Vetiver, Exotic Leather, Sicily, Tender Oud, Desert Oud, Incenso, Blue Musk, Infusion, Amber Sun, Amber Skin and Black Patchouli.