I think excitement is always made more electric when it carries a crackle of nostalgia, like the anticipation of meeting up with a dear friend you haven’t seen for over a decade. It’s for this reason that I’m especially looking forward to Friday’s London launch of Andy Tauer’s new fragrance, Orange Star, because perfume launches are events I strongly associate with my childhood.
I should point out that I was never fortunate enough to attend any myself, but I did get to hear about many of them from my mum. She’s worked in perfume retail in the Middle East for quite some time, and back in the 80s, when I was still young and fragrance houses still spent ridiculous amounts on parties, she was invited to several high-profile extravaganzas, which she’d then describe to me in mouth-watering detail. There was the launch for Calvin Klein’s Escape which featured a mini-play wherein a man on horseback rescued a damsel in distress and then sailed off into the Gulf with her on a tiny raft. There was the party for Lacroix’s (much-maligned) C’est La Vie, at which the man himself signed my mum’s Spanish fan. And I’m fairly certain there was a funny story surrounding the launch of Dior’s Dune at which a synchronised swimming presentation ended in rather comical fashion. I listened to all these tales, utterly rapt, and totally unaware that decades later, perfume would still hold an important place in my life.
So even though I suspect that Friday’s gathering won’t be as dramatic as those my mum experienced in the 80s (and if Mr Tauer ever happens to read these words, I’m sure he won’t mind my saying that), I have no doubt that the evening will bring back many old memories… and, more importantly, that it’ll also create some new ones.
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