Le Parfum Sex Pistols (2010): A French Look and Sniff at British Punk {New Perfume} {Celebrity Fragrance}
Sephora France will exclusively carry a new perfume from May 2010 dedicated to the remembrance of the heyday of the Sex Pistols. It's called Le Parfum Sex Pistols (Sex Pistols:The Perfume) and was announced by Vogue France rather than Vogue UK. It looks like a French cultural project put into perfume on this side of the Euro Star railway rather than emerging from across the channel.
The packaging makes you think a bit of the design of the Etat Libre d'Orange bottles when decorated, which they do for their celebrity fragrances like for Rossy de Palma Eau de Protection and Tom of Finland...
Curiously and paradoxically, the fragrance Le Parfum Sex Pistols is reported to smell "well-behaved" by Vogue.fr , with a distinctive leather note nevertheless, making it feel more like a masculine fragrance. Otherwise, a priori you could consider it an unisex perfume.
Added 03/12/2010: the fragrance was created by perfumer Mathilde Bijaoui.
The packaging is decorated with Jamie Reid's "God Save the Queen" sleeve, the Union Jack and Scottish tartan.
In 2008 the band reunited for a series of concerts in a tour called the Combine Harvester Tour, according to Wikipedia. Although the name of the event was less explicit this time, it seemed by some accounts to be an echo of the 1996 tour called the Filthy Lucre Tour.
I have no idea whether royalties were involved for the exploitation of their name and image but this is just to say that the Sex Pistols have been back from the 70s recently to try to earn some money. Given the relatively confidential scope of the launch at French Sephora only, this looks however more like a "niche" project than a major money-making venture.
I see it more like the kind of branding operation that was carried out with the Crazy Horse cabaret by Sephora France also.
Notes: Citrus, Black Pepper, Amber, Ambrette Seed, Prune Jungle Essence, Electric Aldehydes, Heliotrope, Patchouli, Orcanox, Leather
