Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Saint Laurent

Without Yves Saint Laurent, France is a little more naked than usual. Talking of nakedness, recall the magnificent statement of this gay guy who seemed to understand women in a sublime fashion:

Nothing is more beautiful than a naked body. The most lovely clothes to attire a woman are the arms of the man she loves. For women who cannot achieve such happiness, I am available.

Personal anecdote : YSL played a major role in the French perfume business. Once upon a time, I was driven mad by a Parisian maiden named Valérie who was perfumed by a product named Kouros, designed theoretically for males. What a diabolical idea that a female might wear such a perfume! Thankfully and harmoniously, my body ended up becoming an intimate friend both of Valérie and of Kouros.

4 comments:

  1. Once upon a time, I was driven mad by a Parisian maiden named Valérie who was perfumed by a product named Kouros, designed theoretically for males. What a diabolical idea that a female might wear such a perfume!

    I always wear perfumes for males. I thought I was a bit bizarre, but in fact a lot of women do this.

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  2. Now I know what contributed to my enchantment, not so long ago,in a Parisian café with an enticing Latin name.

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  3. Have you read The Emporer of Scent?

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  4. Scents are the subject of the novel A rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans, published in 1884, which inspired Oscar Wilde's Portrait of Dorian Gray. An English translation, Against Nature, can be found on Amazon. When I was an adolescent back in Australia, long before thinking about France, this famous novel thrilled me. Its content and style have been superseded, you might say, by Patrick Suskind's brilliant Perfume: Story of a Murderer.

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