Category Archives: perfumes in movies

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

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corday_possession_bornunicornThere’s a bottle of Corday Possession on Joey Drayton’s dressing table.

According to Fragrantica, this is a floral aldehyde fragrance launched in 1937. The beautiful bottle is accented by a satin ribbon, while the oval box is decorated with a unicorn sitting in a fence. This is obviously a reproduction of The Unicorn in Captivity, one of the seven hangings from the Middle Ages known as The Unicorn Tapestries.

Thanks to Bgirlrhapsody for this (impossible for me) id.

Totò, Peppino e la… malafemmina (1956)

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guerlainmitsoukocologne_bornunicornThere’s a Guerlain flacon montre on the dressing table of the showgirl Marisa Florian (Dorian Gray). There’s no way to know what cologne the bottle contained: the disk label can’t be read and the black and white of the film doesn’t help. In any case, the choice is historically accurate: the bottle with the glass stopper was produced from 1936 to 1972.

Thanks to my friend Rocco for the id.

The Last Days of Disco (1998)

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guerlain_shalimarvintagecologne_bornunicornThere’s a bottle of Guerlain Shalimar eau de cologne (or eau de toilette) in the pharmacy where Alice gets some medicines. Even if it’s clearly stated that the story is set in the early 1980s, lots of details (especially costumes) reveal it’s actually a 1990s film. The presence of a footless chauve souris bottle is not historically accurate: it made its appearance in 1995 (three years before the film was directed), first used for the eau de toilette, later for the eau de cologne.

This is an example of “partial inconsistency,” in the sense that the perfume in question was not on the market at the time in which the story takes place, but it was at the time in which the film was shot.

Picture source.

Martha (1974)

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The iconic Christian Dior houndstooth perfume bottle appears on Martha’s hotel bathroom shelf while she’s in Rome with her father. The front label is not visible, so it’s impossible to tell what fragrance she wore.

diorellahoundstooth_bornunicornWe should add Diorella to my list of “suspects”, since the floral-chypre perfume created by Edmond Roudnitska was launched in 1970.

The pink stick on the left is Max Factor Pan Stik foundation.

Thanks to Amy in the comments for the Max Factor id.

The Bitch (1979)

thebitch_bornunicornThe “bitch” of the movie title is Fontaine Khaled (Joan Collins), the fierce owner of a trendy disco. She loves living surrounded by luxury, so no surprise to see expensive perfumes in her bathroom.

hermes_calechevintage_bornunicornThe 400 ml bottle on the left is Hermès Calèche, a woody floral fragrance created by Guy Robert in 1961.

hermes_calechevintagead_bornunicornThe refillable spray in the middle is Calèche again.

hermes_amazonevintage_bornunicornThe glass bottle with the dark red stopper is Amazone, another classic Hèrmes perfume, created by Maurice Maurin in 1974.

hermes_calecheaerosprayvintage_bornunicornNext to Amazone there’s another bottle of Calèche, the aérospray version. Amazone was marketed in aérospray version, too: the bottle is the same, but the metal details are silver, not gold.

Endless gratitude to The Scentimentalist, who pointed this beautiful perfume sighting out to me.