An enjoyable day!
I've got back from a lovely day out meeting up with Lj friends brutti_ma_buoni and daiseechain at a talk about the history of 1940s purfume in London. The event was held at Les Senteurs at the back of Marble Arch in the West End which used to be part of my old stomping ground back in the day when I worked at my first job in Oxford Circus. It was strange walking down Oxford Street (which I haven't really done in the last 10 years). The buildings all look in need of a face lift, and I can only speculate that the retailers are spending their profits on the inside of the shops rather than the outside (apart from during the Christmas lights season). However, some of the back roads behind Oxford Street, which used to be really grubby are looking rather nice these days so clearly quite a bit of regeneration has been done there.
The event itself was very interesting and included a glass (or two!) of Proscecco and little petit four cakes (delicious!). We were taken through 9 different fragrances (we were given infused paper spills to sniff and keep) with information about how they were advertised and who they were aimed at. There were associations with film stars (Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe) and certain designers and clothing lines as well as housing styles. Fragrance in the 40's was very much part of the daily routine along with your 'day' and 'evening' gloves and hat. Some of the fragrances are no longer produced, but some are still available and as Les Senteurs is a fragrance shop we could get samples if we wanted to try some of them at home. I have slightly fallen in love with Baghari by Robert Piguet which is described as an Oriental fragrance and I may have to go and buy at some point.
We had an extremely delicious late lunch (or in daiseechain's case a late breakfast) in Gail's artisan bakery while chatting about everything under the sun, and then wandered back to Oxford Circus to eventually go our separate ways.
I came home to find Mr Cee has made bread rolls for dinner which we will have with smoked salmon and cream cheese and champagne. Apparently this is not for any special reason (even though we had a house viewing today which Mr Cee dealt with and went well) - it's just 'because', and I rather approve of that idea.
Sometimes you just don't need a reason..... I think this is happy thing number 20 for this year! Happy Saturday all!
The event itself was very interesting and included a glass (or two!) of Proscecco and little petit four cakes (delicious!). We were taken through 9 different fragrances (we were given infused paper spills to sniff and keep) with information about how they were advertised and who they were aimed at. There were associations with film stars (Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe) and certain designers and clothing lines as well as housing styles. Fragrance in the 40's was very much part of the daily routine along with your 'day' and 'evening' gloves and hat. Some of the fragrances are no longer produced, but some are still available and as Les Senteurs is a fragrance shop we could get samples if we wanted to try some of them at home. I have slightly fallen in love with Baghari by Robert Piguet which is described as an Oriental fragrance and I may have to go and buy at some point.
We had an extremely delicious late lunch (or in daiseechain's case a late breakfast) in Gail's artisan bakery while chatting about everything under the sun, and then wandered back to Oxford Circus to eventually go our separate ways.
I came home to find Mr Cee has made bread rolls for dinner which we will have with smoked salmon and cream cheese and champagne. Apparently this is not for any special reason (even though we had a house viewing today which Mr Cee dealt with and went well) - it's just 'because', and I rather approve of that idea.
Sometimes you just don't need a reason..... I think this is happy thing number 20 for this year! Happy Saturday all!