There’s Guerlain Shalimar in the beautiful flacon chauve souris on a dressing table in Peggy Olson’s bedroom.
Created in 1925 by Jacques Guerlain, it’s undeniably one of the most famous perfumes of all times. You may remember another protagonist of the TV show (Joan Holloway, played by Christina Hendricks) wears the same perfume.
Thanks to signorina_misteriosa11 for submitting this post.
When Sylvia (Rosalind Russell) and Edith (Phyllis Povah) decide to act on the infidelity rumours about their friend Mary’s husband, they pay a visit to the cosmetic department at Black’s Fifth Avenue: there, they intend to meet the alleged mistress, Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford).
When they stop at a perfume counter, some interesting bottles can be seen.
On the mirrored table on the right there’s a factice flacon chauve souris of Guerlain Shalimar, the Jacques Guerlain masterpiece launched in 1925.
In the glass cabinet behind the shop assistant there’s a Guerlain flacon montre containing an eau de cologne.
There are two Guerlain perfumes in the bedroom Yasmin has in Beshraavi’s mansion.
One is the flacon chauve souris of Shalimar.
The other is a flacon bouchon coeur, but it’s hard to tell what perfume it contains, since the front sticker is not clearly visible.
I’m still thinking about the white ribbed bottle standing between the Guerlain perfumes. It looks familiar but all my researches have led nowhere so far. How frustrating!
When Bob (Matt Dillon) and his drug-addict crew rob a pharmacy, a factice flacon chauve souris of Guerlain Shalimar can be seen on the shelf behind him.
When Jonathan (Andrew McCarthy) first spots his creation, the mannequin Emmy, in the window of the department store Prince and Co., she’s surrounded by factice bottles of perfumes. Among them, there are Guerlain Shalimar, Vanderbilt by Gloria Vanderbilt and Jean-Charles Brosseau Ombre Rose.
Mame Carson (Jane Russell) is a millionairess with an oil empire and an unlucky love life. In the first part of the film she’s still engaged, though, and in the first musical act she’s getting ready to meet his fiancé. She likes wearing working clothes but her boudoir shows her love for furry rugs, velvet and satin furniture and perfumes! There’s an impressive display of bottles on her vanity.
The first bottle which appears in this scene is in the bathroom, where Mame’s maid, Clare (Theresa Harris) is spraying some fragrance.
On a marble counter behind Clare there’s a Guerlain flacon montre of Shalimar (see the orange red disk).
Mame takes a bubble bath, then gets changed behind the vanity mirror.
Starting from left bottom I’ve spotted a flacon quadrilobe by Guerlain, Lucien Lelong Sirocco and Bourjois Mais Oui.
On the second shelf there are Guerlain Shalimar in the flacon chauve souris and another Guerlain fragrance in the flacon bouchon coeur.
On the top shelf there are two unknown bottles, while the one in the middle is Guerlain Sous le Vent in the beautiful flacon tonnelet.
Last, there’s the unique pyramid-shape bottle of Lucien Lelong Opening Night on a shelf on the left.
There’s Guerlain Shalimar in the beautiful flacon chauve souris in Connie’s bedroom. Unusual choice for a 15-year-old girl, but I can see the fascination the whole Shalimar concept can have on a teenager.
Linnet Ridgeway’s bedroom/boudoir is lavishly furnished in white and decorated with colorful glass, mirrors and marble. Several French perfumes are sitting on her vanity, a natural extension of her flawless style.
The first bottle that has caught my attention is the Lanvin boule on the left. It’s unclear what perfume it contained, because the French maison used the same bottle for two different perfumes, Arpege (created by Andre Fraysse in 1927) and My Sin (called Mon Péché in French, created by the mysterious Madame Zed in 1924). The film is set in the 1930s, so it’s plausible for both to sit on that vanity.
The same thing can be said for the black bottle on the right, containing Lanvin talcum powder. It could be Arpege or My Sin.
The Guerlain chauve souris bottle unmistakably contained Shalimar, created by Jacques Guerlain in 1925.
Guerlain Liu black flacon tabatiere with gold accents is in tune with the Art Deco vibe in Linnet’s bedroom. The perfume was created by Jacques Guerlain in 1929.
Thanks to Karen Hatch for the id.
There are four Guerlain perfumes in Jackie Kennedy’s bathroom at the White House.
From left to right: the flacon bouchon coeur of Mitsouko, the flacon rayonnant of Vol de Nuit, a flacon abeille and the flacon chauve souris for Shalimar.
Next to them, a bottle of Bal à Versailles by Jean Desprez can be seen.
I’m sorry to say that the choice of the bottles is lazy and inaccurate. Take Mitsouko, for example: the spray version of this bottle came out in 1995, not in the 1960s. The same can be said for the flacon abeille, a spray version of which was launched in 1992. Why didn’t the prop master use original bottles? Such a disappointment for an Oscar-nominated film!
Thanks to my Instagram friend Mustapha for the id.
Mary Price Hilton (Diana Dors) works as a sales assistant at a perfume shop. There she meets Jim Lancaster (Michael Craig), the man she’ll desperately fall in love with. When they first meet, he’s looking for a perfume, but asks Mary what perfume she is wearing.
There are several perfumes on the glass counter, among which Shalimar by Guerlain.
The spectacular giant chauve souris bottle gets a beautiful shot in the same scene. Now you know where my avatar comes from 😉
On the bottom shelf of the counter there’s a set of Lucien Lelong mini bottles (see the ball-shaped stoppers) and what looks like Gardénia by Lucien Lelong. The bottle – designed by René Lalique and called Sea Star – was actually used for other perfumes by Lelong (Lilac, for example), but the white box trimmed in a contrasting colour could confirm it was Gardenia indeed.
Another shot shows a bouchon coeur bottle and a flacon montre by Guerlain. Reading the labels is impossible, so I can’t tell what they contained. The same can be said for the trademark tall bottle by Lucien Lelong, which was used for different perfumes.
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