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Notes11/05/2020
2020Antiope
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2020Antiope
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8
Memories of a picture book childhood
I grew up with the advertisements for TOSCA in the 70s; not a fashion magazine - apart from Vogue; this big one floated off to designer heaven as soon as it appeared, to look down from there on the common housewife life - which my mum didn't read or leaf through.
TOSCA Eau de Cologne in the femininely curved, higher blue and gold bottle was on every German console at the time, it seems to me. This fragrance is as unmistakably German as 4711 Eau de Cologne and, like this one, is for me inseparably linked to the 1970s; you can hardly get more German than that. As a standard and basic article in every drugstore, the whole range was elaborately and attractively draped and presented in the shop window; usually the whole shop window was lined with royal blue fabric. Eau de Cologne, soap individually and in various gift packages, powder etc. embodied the bourgeoise non plus ultra. Of course, there were also perfumeries; but these were rather entered by ladies and gentlemen of the "Hautevolee", as an appropriate purse was a prerequisite. My mum only entered these temples of luxurious beauty when she was looking for a gift for one of the permed and perfectly made-up wives of one of my father's bosses.
Although TOSCA was also sold there, it always remained in the back of the pack and was seen more as a giveaway; treated with the knowledge that the German housewife, with the largest representation in percentage terms, had a purchasing power that could not be ignored.
In doing so, one does the fragrance a little wrong; all ingredients are carefully selected and delight the nose. The initially citric qualities are so reserved that I would call them at best "hunches" and, in contrast to the well-known freshness, which has the same ingredients in its fragrance description, even "disappeared" hunches.
Jasmine, lily of the valley, narcissus; all flowers with beguiling scent blossoms, are unusually gentle and complement each other equally with the roses. I have never sniffed Ylang Ylang as a plant in nature or in the botanical garden. As a mention in various perfumes it is of course known to me, but as an ignorant person I have to refrain from commenting on it here.
A little bit of patchouly has been thrown by the little magic fairy with a kissing hand and together with the warm and balsamic final chords it is no wonder that TOSCA has conquered a firm place among the best-selling fragrances in Germany over the decades.
Consciously kept in a certain environment for a long time, the sales strategy worked out and was extremely successful! It was not until the end of the 70s, beginning of the 80s, when modern, sophisticated and completely new compositions of expensive French and American fragrances were established, that TOSCA lost more and more attention and desire to the cleverly advertised and magnificently presented sisters from France and the USA. Fashion photography had adapted and now set a high-gloss, elitist direction.
In the 1980s everything became more opulent and wasteful; mainly design oriented - and exorbitantly expensive. I remember an article in the Spiegel, the cover story of which was a jacket costing several hundred marks, and which asked uncomprehendingly and almost accusingly whether the clothing industry had failed to notice that not every employee had a manager's salary!
Design and designer fragrances had become a matter of course; pitifully and with a slightly contemptuous smile, people now looked down on the housewives' stand and so TOSCA disappeared from the back shelves for a whole generation. Only with the new, modern advertising campaigns at the end of the 1990s, beginning of the 2000s with self-confident, cheerful, independent young women in suits, did TOSCA once again enter into vibrant life and has since then probably found a little more connection.
Nevertheless, I can't help but notice that TOSCA has not lost its slightly stale touch. Probably also because I immediately recognize the classic housewife scent in this perfume and see my mom in the kitchen preparing a hot lunch for my sister and me after school and then doing our homework with us. In the evening, when my father came home from the office, he was cared for and looked after and she cooked again. I grew up like a bird in the nest with a mum who was there exclusively for my father and us children. And surrounded by TOSCA.
It is probably because I cannot appreciate the fine, mild Aldhyde fragrance for this reason; it is simply inseparable from my mum's celebrated and contented housewife existence, which I took for granted as a child and against which I rebelled wildly as a teenager, as I could not and did not want such a life at a man's side! (And also have not lived!)
TOSCA Eau de Cologne in the femininely curved, higher blue and gold bottle was on every German console at the time, it seems to me. This fragrance is as unmistakably German as 4711 Eau de Cologne and, like this one, is for me inseparably linked to the 1970s; you can hardly get more German than that. As a standard and basic article in every drugstore, the whole range was elaborately and attractively draped and presented in the shop window; usually the whole shop window was lined with royal blue fabric. Eau de Cologne, soap individually and in various gift packages, powder etc. embodied the bourgeoise non plus ultra. Of course, there were also perfumeries; but these were rather entered by ladies and gentlemen of the "Hautevolee", as an appropriate purse was a prerequisite. My mum only entered these temples of luxurious beauty when she was looking for a gift for one of the permed and perfectly made-up wives of one of my father's bosses.
Although TOSCA was also sold there, it always remained in the back of the pack and was seen more as a giveaway; treated with the knowledge that the German housewife, with the largest representation in percentage terms, had a purchasing power that could not be ignored.
In doing so, one does the fragrance a little wrong; all ingredients are carefully selected and delight the nose. The initially citric qualities are so reserved that I would call them at best "hunches" and, in contrast to the well-known freshness, which has the same ingredients in its fragrance description, even "disappeared" hunches.
Jasmine, lily of the valley, narcissus; all flowers with beguiling scent blossoms, are unusually gentle and complement each other equally with the roses. I have never sniffed Ylang Ylang as a plant in nature or in the botanical garden. As a mention in various perfumes it is of course known to me, but as an ignorant person I have to refrain from commenting on it here.
A little bit of patchouly has been thrown by the little magic fairy with a kissing hand and together with the warm and balsamic final chords it is no wonder that TOSCA has conquered a firm place among the best-selling fragrances in Germany over the decades.
Consciously kept in a certain environment for a long time, the sales strategy worked out and was extremely successful! It was not until the end of the 70s, beginning of the 80s, when modern, sophisticated and completely new compositions of expensive French and American fragrances were established, that TOSCA lost more and more attention and desire to the cleverly advertised and magnificently presented sisters from France and the USA. Fashion photography had adapted and now set a high-gloss, elitist direction.
In the 1980s everything became more opulent and wasteful; mainly design oriented - and exorbitantly expensive. I remember an article in the Spiegel, the cover story of which was a jacket costing several hundred marks, and which asked uncomprehendingly and almost accusingly whether the clothing industry had failed to notice that not every employee had a manager's salary!
Design and designer fragrances had become a matter of course; pitifully and with a slightly contemptuous smile, people now looked down on the housewives' stand and so TOSCA disappeared from the back shelves for a whole generation. Only with the new, modern advertising campaigns at the end of the 1990s, beginning of the 2000s with self-confident, cheerful, independent young women in suits, did TOSCA once again enter into vibrant life and has since then probably found a little more connection.
Nevertheless, I can't help but notice that TOSCA has not lost its slightly stale touch. Probably also because I immediately recognize the classic housewife scent in this perfume and see my mom in the kitchen preparing a hot lunch for my sister and me after school and then doing our homework with us. In the evening, when my father came home from the office, he was cared for and looked after and she cooked again. I grew up like a bird in the nest with a mum who was there exclusively for my father and us children. And surrounded by TOSCA.
It is probably because I cannot appreciate the fine, mild Aldhyde fragrance for this reason; it is simply inseparable from my mum's celebrated and contented housewife existence, which I took for granted as a child and against which I rebelled wildly as a teenager, as I could not and did not want such a life at a man's side! (And also have not lived!)
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