Simon Doonan Weighs In on Jersey by Chanel {Fragrant Reading}

Simon Doonan, artistic director at Barney's and author of immortal advice books such as Wacky Chicks and Eccentric Glamour, debates the semantics of the latest perfume by Chanel named "Jersey", to Jerseyans and the "American psyche." He should know, Jonny his husband is from South Jersey and the ultimate household authority on the subject.

Doonan also mentions "Poupée" by Rochas - not by Balenciaga, I believe - as an unfortunate-sounding fragrance name once it goes through the filter of the American tongue. Funny article ahead...

"He [Jonny] frequently waxes rhapsodic about his fellow Jersey-ites, their lack of pretension being the most frequently lauded trait. Jonny claims that it is virtually impossible to put on airs if you are from New Jersey. As a result, straight-talkin’ Jerseyans are in many ways the polar opposite of French people. If you are from New Jersey you could never, as Coco Chanel did, go around saying absurd things like “Elegance is refusal” and inveighing haughtily against vulgarity: “Luxury lies… in the absence of vulgarity. Vulgarity is the ugliest word in our language. I stay in the game to fight it,” said the disdainful Madame C. If you were born in New Jersey, you need not waste your life tilting against the windmills of vulgarity: You can embrace it and become Snooki, which, upon reflection, seems like a hell of a lot more fun."

Read more at Slate in Chanel Visits the Garden State`

{Photo: The Patent Spot}