part iii
So when I found Robert Piguet's Fracas sitting forlornly on my dresser, dressed with the dust of years of neglect and bad memories, I looked at it with hope. With hope that all the women of the world were right when they said that Fracas was their one true love; a classic that transcends all time, all bounds of fashion and fad, a true tuberose that bespeaks of elegance, femininity and timeless beauty. And so hopes sometimes become dreams and dreams become reality and here I am bathed in my Fracas, remembering to the detail the first time I drew in its ominous fumes and was choked back by a flower I knew nothing about. I imagine had I loved it the first time, I may not have looked elsewhere. I may not have one true love, but can tell you of the many others that have left their indellible marks on me.
The power of scent is unmatched by any other sense. It keeps memories locked, unseen in old vaults and yet unleashes them in vivid form and in great detail when called upon by the nose. It's Proust's memory with madeleine and tea, it's Grenouille's obsession to douse himself with the smell of humanity, it's giving a first bad encounter another chance to show that it is actually a multifaceted composition. Scent brings you to new worlds, real or imagined just by a note, or an accord; a whole bouquet. What other sense could bring you to tears as you walk into a bar and all of a sudden smelt your beloved long gone grandfather's tabacco and whiskey wafting above the end of a workday? What could bring back the sharp feeling of loneliness and fear of boarding school other than the fragrant steam rising from a cup of darjeeling and milk? What could bring more joy and happiness than your son's scent left on a sweater sitting on the front passenger seat of your car? The power of scent conjures up not only emotions and memories but something beyond all of these that is somehow incomprehensible to our feeble minds. We are only so fortunate to have the addition of an olfactory - although not as complicated as a blood hound's - but functional enough to take us beyond the here and now.
7:27 AM | |
