Fashion and Fragrance: A Riot in Black and White [Roberto Cavalli + Geza Shoen]

I love fashion almost as much as perfume and beauty-- it all ties in together for me, which is why I was extremely pleased when Thomas (CandyPerfumeBoy) shared his chosen theme with the rest of our blogging group. Any excuse to explore these themes is just good old-fashioned fun for me.

For the past few seasons, I've been particularly impressed by Roberto Cavalli's black and white prints, which range from animal to Rorschach test inkblots to florals and leathers encrusted with sparkling embellishments. Sometimes the designs even veer towards Gaucho territory. It's a lot to take in at first glance, but it's not hard to settle into the groove of the design when you stick with it.

How I described the feeling of Cavalli's recent collections can easily be applied to fragrance, at least as I understand it. The clothes have a limited color palette-- black and white, but there are seemingly endless possibilities as far as where a design can be taken from there.  The minimalist palette does nothing to tame the explosiveness of the prints. This makes me think of raw scent elements, nothing too refined or complex. Something with teeth but not wings. One perfumer came to mind when I was looking over the Cavalli designs, and that's Geza Schoen. His work for biehl. parfumkunstwerke, gs02 from the Young Savages Collection in particular, could not be more perfect. The fragrance is clearly built on sin, but if that sounds like too much for you, don't tune out yet. It's far from overpowering, in fact, the way it seamlessly melds with my body chemistry is almost spooky. There's an effervescence at first that dissipates rather quickly, then its musk, spices and blackened aromatic elements become more active-- like a panther just awakened from a nap, or like the cork of a champagne bottle that's already been popped, and now it's time to get down.

 [gs02 just wants to ride its motorcycle without being hassled by "the man", man!]

The power and singular character of gs02 comes from its tribal earth tones. It's a gorgeous beast (with sharp teeth, no wings) that both women and men can easily wear. This is the fragrance you want to be wearing when that person you've had your eye on all night finally comes over and introduces themselves. This is also the fragrance that is a natural choice to wear to bed (take that however you want to), but I don't recommend sleeping in any of your Cavalli pieces.

Both the fashion and the fragrance I've paired together might just share the same dna. Emotional, red-blooded black and white; vibrant and very, very real and living. Is it dangerous? Definitely. And don't you forget it.

Please visit the blogs of the other participants in this group for more fashion and fragrance:
Candy Perfume Boy
Persolaise
Olfactoria's Travels
Fragrant Moments

[You can find biehl.parfumkunstwerke gs02 online at Lucky Scent as well as several other retailers in the US. A 100ml bottle is $195. Sample of fragrance was provided by company representative for my consideration]