Shiseido Exhibition on Romance & Fragrance in Tokyo {Scented Paths & Fragrant Addresses}

The art of Perfumery in the 1920s is being duly paid homage to at the international level, from Paris to Tokyo this season. In Tokyo, Shiseido Co. is organizing an exhibit titled "Romance and Fragrance" on perfume bottles and fashion plates by George Barbier, a famous illustrator from the art deco period alongside artists like Erté or Iribe. Barbier contributed illustrations to a book on fragrance entitled The Romance of Perfume by Richard Le Gallienne in 1928, from which the title of the exhibit is borrowed although the plates on show will be from two other works of his, Le Bonheur du Jour and Falbalas and Fanfreluches........

The exhibition will show 100 bottles out of the Shiseido collection of ancient Lalique and Baccarat Flacons. Since its beginnings in 1872, the company reveals that it evolved from copying French productions to finding its own personality.

A Shiseido perfume from 1919, Tsukimiso, interestingly based on a quasi odorless flower was recreated,

"Beside the perfume bottles, visitors will be able to experience the smell of a Shiseido perfume that is no longer made. The company re-created the scent of Tsukimiso, whose bottle was designed in the early part of last century, using notes found in the company's archives.

About 20 ingredients are used to create Tsukimiso, basing the smell on the image of the plant, as the tsukimiso [oenothera tetraptera] has virtually no odor," said Junichi Kondo, another Shiseido spokesperson. "Since some of the ingredients are no longer available, they approximated it using what is available in our era."

Read more in Daily Yomiuri....... 

You can also visit the Shiseido website for more information and pictures about the exhibition.