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As always, Bond no. 9’s fragrances are unique from their initial concept all the way down to the last wafting bass notes at night. This summer, New York is made bearable in all its sticky, sweltering lustiness because the Andy Warhol line is the perfumed steam rising from its asphalt and gutters. The line is a partnership between Bond no. 9 and the New York-based Warhol Foundation.
Warhol’s first “factory” was on Lexington Avenue. Unabashedly commercial in its shoecovered flacon, as was the artist whoonce said, “Making money is art,” this modern, impudent fragrance of the same name puts wood notes on top where they don’t belong, sandwiches its fruity sweetness in the middle, and bases it all on a canvas of wood and patchouli. In pop art, images, scents, and ideas are rearranged in new and surprising ways which, while they may offend some, end up changing our concept of the art form, which is just what a fragrance like Lexington Avenue does.
Fresh on top and sensual on the bottom, Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory is a work of art that starts with citrus—bergamot and grapefruit— rounded out with ’60s elixirs like incense, violet (Warhol’s favorite), and jasmine, and finally passes out on the red couch of its wooden bass notes: amber, resin, and cedar. The fragrance is a glint from Warhol’s foil-covered studio, the setting for countless orgies, works of art, and superstars… sometimes all at once. Art critics have called the Silver Factory a work of art in itself as it highlights modern narcissism for guests find themselves fascinated with their own images constantly reflected in the crinkled foil on the walls. Beauty, and fragrance by relation, may be narcissistic pursuits; so might love be if we are only looking for a partner who reflects back our best idea of self. Could it be that beauty, image, and love are all in our heads? After all, Warhol said, “Fantasy love is much better than reality love. Never doing it is very exciting.” Silver Factory is a fragrance for the artistically fearless: the man or woman not afraid to acknowledge his or her own human self-centeredness and vanity. This is not a bottle of perfume. Is it?
This is not a bottle of perfume for women. What do you think? Questions about reality abound in the art world, and artists like Warhol,
Magritte, and Dalí (who frequented the Silver Factory) purposely provoke us to think about reality. The flower motif series, begun in 1964, was one of Warhol’s most famous works. The familiar paintings are based on a photograph of hibiscus blossoms that Warhol portrayed in unexpected colors, from green to blue to wine, sometimes offsetting the flower tint so that blossoms appeared in more than one color for a psychedelic effect. For Union Square, a fragrance named for another of Warhol’s factories, the flower-motif bottle is bursting with bouquets of lily of the valley, green stems, freesia, white birchwood, amber, and musk. Decidedly feminine and fresh, it’s the fragrance for a city girl… but wait; this is pop—a bottle with hibiscus blossoms tinted blue needn’t conform to gender rules. You are not a can of tomato soup.
The Andy Warhol line from Bond no. 9 is available at www.bondno9.com. Don’t trash old bottles—Bond’s website has details on its perfume flacon denoting its recycling program.
