In Random Fashion

"What makes you think I'm not interested in fashion?" -- Andy Sachs in "The Devil Wears Prada"

Aging is hell, especially as regards the body. But you knew that. If you don’t already, you will.

Bought the new Vogue (and looked at the new Elle while at the dentist).

Both mags are full of encapsulated scent strips from the big companies, the scents ranging roughly from 1)awful to 2)godawful.

Why is everything so diabetes-inducing, instant-tooth-decay SWEET?
Maybe to offset the still-ever-so au courant multiple tattoos and piercings?

And how about those thigh-high hooker boots in “Vogue?” Like the vinyl ones Julia Roberts wore in “Pretty Woman” only a hundred times more expensive?

Less said the better.

Here’s what fashion mags do for me. They tell me which “vintage” (as in old) clothes that have been buried in my closet, or jewelry tangled in the bottom of the box for twenty years, are coming back again. And I kinda like the layouts.

I saw something on a chefporn show, at a too-hip NY restaurant, where the chef lights dried oak leaves, places the stems in whatever the food is, blows the flames out and delivers the dish with the leaves still smoldering to the diner.

(Better not be any oakmoss on those leaves though.)

Black is the new black: Black Afgano by Nasomatto and Back to Black by Kilian. Former is interesting in that almost-revolting way of the super-niche; the latter, on me, is marzipan-and-powder sweet, a lot like some vintage Habanita I have, but without that one's bitter edge.

Here’s the thing though: that Black Afgano smells more like, um, the oil form than the...well, never mind. Sticky umber tar, iron wood, camel dung and kif, don’t-think-about-what’s-in-it nostalgia time; hello 1972!

I have a handful of Shalimar samples, from many vintages and in many formulations, and one of these days I’m actually going to get around to comparing them.

A kindly swapper in Latvia sent me a decant of “Explosive” by Etienne Aigner. Man. Rich, deep rose and dark and dirty base; I am so there. Notes include the usual suspects (patchouli, amber, moss.) One of those “Get out of my way!” 80’s fragrances. Discontinued, of course. Here we go again.

Eureka! I have found my floral. It’s “Odalisque,” from Parfums de Nicolai. Tropical. Not too sweet. Jasmine and iris and an edgy dark green note. Lasts, too. OK, so it’s not The Latest Thing. Neither am I.

So: What makes you think I’m not interested in fashion?




photo of Anne Hathaway in "The Devil Wears Prada" from AllMoviePhoto.com.