October 23, 2008
While my primary focus is the relationship between art and cosmetics, this Vogue article on perfume was too interesting not to post about.
The magazine reports that Sophie Matisse (yes, she's the granddaughter of the famous Henri Matisse ) has hand-painted a series of new perfumes by Kilian Hennessey. Several things caught my attention while reading the article: 1. Matisse actually painted the design on each bottle herself – this is very different from having an artist create a design and having it mechanically reproduced onto thousands of the same product. 2. There is an actual catalogue of items listing each bottle. "And just like in an art gallery, each $1,500 flacon will appear in an illustrated catalog at the counter (and online at bykilian.com), tagged with a tiny red dot upon sale."
Each comes with a beautiful box as well:
(all photos from bykilian.com)
This is such a great idea, and I wish that makeup companies would come up with something like this. The perfume bottles are refillable, and I think a refillable compact would be the logical counterpart. Of course, the paint would have to be durable enough not to flake off or fade from being thrown into a purse, but I think it could be done…it would be quite literally the intersection of art and cosmetics.