Monday, August 03, 2009

Bond No. 9 to Release Latest Andy Warhol-Inspired Fragrance

In 2007, Simon Doonan created a “Happy Warhol-idays” theme for Barneys. The holiday mailer featured Andy Warhol’s early fashion illustrations and various aphorisms, including “Making money is art, and working is art and good business is the best art.”

The most amusing items from Barneys 2007 holiday mailer were Campbell's soup cans with labels featuring his famous silkscreens pasted on them. Real soup inside! Andy would have loved the concept of pasting labels on soup cans and re-selling Campbell's Soup for $12.00 a can.

New York boutique perfumery Bond No. 9 will debut Success is a Job in New York, the latest of its series of its fragrances commissioned by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., on October 1. In keeping with the money theme, the signature Bond No. 9 bottle features dollar signs designed and silkscreened by Andy Warhol in the 1980s: coral on the front of the bottle, bright blue on the back.


Preview of Bond No. 9 Success is a Job in New York

The name Success is a Job in New York refers to Andy Warhol's first assignment as an illustrator for an article of the same name that appeared in Glamour magazine back in the 1950s. Come to think of it, the name reflects Andy Warhol's career. Born in Pittsburgh to immigrants from Central Europe, he studied art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (which has since been absorbed into Carnegie-Mellon University). He then went to New York to make it as a fashion illustrator. From there, he became famous for his silkscreens, "The Factory" with its various hangers-on, and frequently X-rated movies.

The fragrance Success is a Job in New York has the following notes:

Top notes: coriander, cardamom, mandarin, bergamot
Middle notes: jasmine, tuberose, rose, plum and pimento
Base notes: vanilla, patchouli and amber.

Fragrance is intensely personal. While Bond No. 9 describes Success is a Job in New York as genderless (other might use the term "unisex"), I found it too mannish for my liking.

Bond No. 9 Andy Warhol Success is a Job in New York will launch on October 1, 2009. It will be available at all four Bond No. 9 stores in New York and at select branches of Saks Fifth Avenue.

Article previewed at Blogcritics.

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