When Mame (Rosalind Russell) and Patrick (Jan Handzlik) first visit Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside (Mame’s soon-to-be husband) and his family in Georgia, drama ensues: they organise a fox hunt, but Mame has never ridden a horse before. Patrick explains horses can “smell fear.” Mame comments she hopes the horse “likes Chanel No. 5”, thus letting us know the perfume she’s wearing.
The Woman (Tilda Swinton) is applying mascara in front of a round mirror. The bathroom she’s in is tiled in different colours and is full of beauty products and toiletries.
Starting from the left red-tiled niche, I’ve identified:
Rochas Eau de Rochas bath and shower gel
Chanel La Crème Main hand cream
Perlier Honey Miel bath and shower cream and Thai Coco body lotion
Chanel Paris-Biarritz shower gel
Moving right, there’s the blue-tiled niche, where there are two hair products:
John Frieda Luxurious Volume Touchably Full conditioner
L’Oreal Extraordinary Oil oil-in-milk leave-in hair cream
Now there’s the washbasin counter, packed with bottles of medicines.
The first perfume bottle I’ve spotted is Hermès Eau de Citron Noir cologne.
Then there’s obviously the Chanel No. 5 factice.
Next, three products by Natura Bissé from the C+C Vitamin line – face cream on the far left, sun protection at the top left corner of the washbasin and micellar cleansing water next to the tap.
There’s also a bottle of Chanel Les Beiges foundation among the medicine bottles.
All the right part of the counter is for Chanel make-up items. So we can see
Joues Contraste powder blush
Rouge Allure red lipstick
A cream blush
Poudre Universelle Libre loose powder
Les 4 Ombres eyeshadow palette in Tissé Camélia
Palette Essentiel in Beige Clair
Les Beiges compact powder
Le Lift Lèvres et Contours firming cream.
Last, two toothpastes in a silver glass
One is Marvis Classic Strong Mint toothpaste.
The other is Verkos Kemphor toothpaste.
There’s a bottle of Chanel No. 5 on a dresser in Emma and Dexter’s bedroom.
When Angel (Indya Moore) goes to a perfume shop inside the Trump Tower for a job opportunity, a factice bottle of Chanel No. 5 can be seen in the background.
When the perfume counter is shown, some bottles of Yves Saint Laurent Mon Paris are shown. It’s a historically inaccurate choice, because this perfume (created by of Olivier Cresp, Harry Fremont and Dora Baghriche) was launched in 2016, thirty-one years after 1987, when the show is set.
I wonder why the prop masters didn’t select the original Paris, the hugely popular YSL fragrance by Sophia Grojsman launched in 1983.
Before leaving the Hawthorne School, Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson) and Myrtle Snow (Frances Conroy) comment on the smell in the air. Myrtle can’t bear it: she states Bourbon Street in New Orleans smells like Chanel No. 5 in comparison.
The opening scene of the film sees the actress Gloria Grahame is in her dressing room at the Dukes Theatre in Lancaster, UK, unpacking her toiletries and getting ready to perform in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams [1].
She takes out a can of L’Oreal Elnett hairspray.
The perfume sitting on the dressing table is Chanel No. 5.
[1] The film is based on the last years of the American actress’ life. It’s true she performed at the Dukes in 1980, but she had the leading role in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee, not in the Williams play as seen in the film.
Belles Filles is a photoshoot by Guy Bourdin released in 1977. Some distinctive elements of the French photographer’s style are present in the picture above – the dreamy atmosphere, satin clothes, high heels – along with a beautiful set of famous perfumes.
The first of the perfumes on the washbasin is Chanel No. 5, originally created by Ernest Beaux in 1921.
Next is Revillon Detchema, released in 1953.
Givenchy III, created by Jean François Latty and Raymond Chaillan, was released in 1970.
The last one is Caron Infini, in the beautiful bottle by Serge Mansau. This perfume was created in 1912 by Ernest Daltroff, but this one is the 1970 reformulation by Gerard Lefortis.
There are three bottles on the floor, too. The first is Nina Ricci L’Air du Temps, created by Francis Fabron in 1948.
The tall bottle with gold stopper is Rochas Madame Rochas, created by Guy Robert in 1960.
Last but not least, the leaf-shaped bottle of Guerlain Chamade, a 1969 creation by Jean-Paul Guerlain.
There’s a bottle of Estee Lauder Youth Dew perfume on the dresser in Johnny Vohden’s bedroom. The warm spicy fragrance, created in 1953 by Josephine Catapano, was the first released by the American cosmetic brand.
The Youth Dew iconic ribbed bottle with the golden ribbon can be seen when Johnny takes his Vietnam War tags from his wife’s jewellery box.
A refillable atomiser of Chanel No. 5 can be seen on the dresser, too.
There are toiletries and perfume bottles on the protagonist’s dressing table. Some of them are generic vanity bottles, but we can give a name to others. The tall ribbed bottle with gold cap, for example, is the Guerlain natural spray cologne bottle, used for different fragrances from 1964 to 1977.
The black bottle with gold accent, on the other hand, is by Chanel. Let me spend a couple of words on this. When I first saw it, I thought it was the spray bottle of No. 5 eau de parfum (the dip tube is showing). Later, I had second thoughts: was this bottle on the market in the 1980s? Plus, is the dip tube really showing? The picture is not that clear.
As an alternative, it could be the refillable spray canister of No. 5 eau de toilette, available in 1980 (I’ve spotted it in Stardust Memories by Woody Allen).
Thanks to Annette Flaconnage for the id.
Dorrie (Charlotte Rampling) appreciates Sandy’s aftershave. Like a madeleine, that scent brings back memories from her childhood. Sandy (Woody Allen) gets the reference to À la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust and jokingly comments he’s wearing Proustian Rush by Chanel. The reason why the French maison has never produced a perfume with such an evocative name is beyond me.
A real Chanel perfume appears later in the film, when Sandy visits his sister (Anne De Salvo). Chanel no. 5 refillable atomisers (one small, one big) can be seen on a plastic tray on her dresser.
