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09/23/2023
loewenherz
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The banalization of the word fame in a fragrance
There was a time - only half a lifetime ago - when 'fame' conjured up images of a diva dressed in billowing sable furs on the gangway of a private plane, her arm full of long-stemmed red roses and her eyelashes curled into a pompom (I borrowed the latter from Max Goldt). She waved graciously to the cheering crowd in a flurry of flashbulbs and called down: 'You were a wonderful audience!' Whether it was an actress or an opera diva is almost irrelevant - as is the fact that people may think differently about sable coats and private planes in 2023. In any case, THAT was 'Fame'.
Today, fame means that an eighteen-year-old with made-up horns in a rag that was shipped halfway around the world in a container by Wish or Shein especially for this one clip generates a hundred thousand likes and ten thousand new followers on TikTok in an hour for a seconds-long dance sequence in a boho backdrop in brass, dusky pink and fake fur. Not that waving from the gangway doesn't still exist, but 'fame' in 2023 is much shorter-lived and therefore more banal than it was almost half a century ago. You may or may not like that.
Paco Rabanne's Fame packs this tendency into a perfume. Here is a fragrance that recognizes and acknowledges its own lifespan - it would be more accurate to say 'its product cycle' - as fleeting and short-lived as it is. Here is the pursuit of the maximum number of (order) clicks within the two or three years it has - and nothing about this fragrance has ever wanted to be remembered. Fame is ephemeral fast fashion in its purest form - like all of Rabanne's since 1 million, and this is perhaps the only one that will ever actually be remembered.
Fame is one of those fruity-metallic fragrances with the - I hesitate to use the adjective 'classic' - triad of fruit plus synthetic-sweet plus warm. They all draw their distinctiveness from their top notes, just as a TikTok video only has a few seconds to attract attention. Here, they have opted for something called mango, which has been grafted onto the same interchangeable, primarkesque base as its unfortunate sisters and brothers. It performs well during the top note, as it has to until PayPal or credit card details have been entered.
Conclusion: four perfumers are supposed to have been involved in this little breeze? Oh please!
Today, fame means that an eighteen-year-old with made-up horns in a rag that was shipped halfway around the world in a container by Wish or Shein especially for this one clip generates a hundred thousand likes and ten thousand new followers on TikTok in an hour for a seconds-long dance sequence in a boho backdrop in brass, dusky pink and fake fur. Not that waving from the gangway doesn't still exist, but 'fame' in 2023 is much shorter-lived and therefore more banal than it was almost half a century ago. You may or may not like that.
Paco Rabanne's Fame packs this tendency into a perfume. Here is a fragrance that recognizes and acknowledges its own lifespan - it would be more accurate to say 'its product cycle' - as fleeting and short-lived as it is. Here is the pursuit of the maximum number of (order) clicks within the two or three years it has - and nothing about this fragrance has ever wanted to be remembered. Fame is ephemeral fast fashion in its purest form - like all of Rabanne's since 1 million, and this is perhaps the only one that will ever actually be remembered.
Fame is one of those fruity-metallic fragrances with the - I hesitate to use the adjective 'classic' - triad of fruit plus synthetic-sweet plus warm. They all draw their distinctiveness from their top notes, just as a TikTok video only has a few seconds to attract attention. Here, they have opted for something called mango, which has been grafted onto the same interchangeable, primarkesque base as its unfortunate sisters and brothers. It performs well during the top note, as it has to until PayPal or credit card details have been entered.
Conclusion: four perfumers are supposed to have been involved in this little breeze? Oh please!
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