Dog-gone holiday

Our guests have seemed quite shocked when we tell them that Rossi won't be joining us in QLD? Not sure why - I mean I'm sure he'd love the hot humid weather and being chained up all day while we're out and about. Sounds like a great holiday...

Me again!

Well there's just a couple of important things I've left off my last post - last night as we strolled past a cake decorating shop Trav pointed out a cake design that 'wasn't too bad' (that's a big compliment for a guy) so we'll take a photo and hopefully our friend Andrea will make a less dusty version for us.

AND... I booked a date for my really real dress fitting! Can't wait to try on THE ONE in March!

AND... tonight I'm going into town to pick up my honeymoon goodies from im boutique

 

AND...I've ordered my perfume! I chose Fracas by Robert Piguet, I'll just have to hide it well so I'm not tempted to use it until the day. Here's a beautiful description of the fragrance by model Georgina Tree

"Smells, like sounds and colors spark off emotions, especially when harmoniously combined, like musical chords. Situations and conflicts can also provoke emotions. The overwhelming feelings experienced by audiences of films or plays were already known by the classic Greek tragedians : they called these extreme changes in emotions "catharsis", which can translate as purification.

In his work "Poetics", Aristotle has analysed how the triggering of sudden intense emotional disruptions result in a feeling of renewal, restoration and cleansing. Like a beneficial storm, the cathartis or purification's mysterious psychological process leaves us refreshed and revitalized but transformed.

Works of art capable to bring us to the level of catharsis are few: poems, plays, songs, symphonies, paintings or now films they remain the legacy of giants, the Homer, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Mozart or van Gogh. They are the great timeless classics and speak a universal language. By ephemeral means, true artists have always tried to reach the universal after an often painful emotional journey through their own human natures. Results can sometimes be ambiguous as remarked British art critic Walter Pater (1839-1894) in his writings about the mystery of Mona Lisa , "this beauty into which the soul with all its maladies has passed."

Scientists now know that the sense of smell is not perceived by the cortex of the brain. Smells connect straight into the lower brain, which relates to memories and emotions. As a result, if fragrances do not have any " cognitive" effect, they can have an enormous emotional impact. The same scientists have also found out that women are more receptive to colors and smells than men.

Perfume making, like film making is a new art form. Less acknowledged than the so called "fine arts" perhaps, but a true art form nevertheless. Modern perfume making actually started in the 1920's. New chemical components called "aldehydes" opened the possibilities to create elaborate complex compositions. Aldehydes make fragrance notes "sparkle". Emotions provoked by compositions of well arranged fragrance notes are more intense.

Among the multiple fragrances available today, very few have reached the status of true classics. One of the most famous is Chanel's No.5, actually one of the first "artificial" perfumes deliberately created as a composition. There is no coincidence in the fact that Chanel No.5 has had its popularity enhanced by several emotionally very influential artists. Everyone knows Marilyn Monroe's witty reply when asked once by some journalist what she wore in bed: "Why, Chanel No.5 of course!" Andy Warhol also contributed to make Chanel No.5 into a pop icon when he created several of his world famous silkscreens with the No.5 bottle as a motif.

Less widely known but a true masterpiece, Robert Piguet's Fracas is now gaining in popularity after having for years remained a cult fragrance among the privileged and the happy few. The very concept of Fracas is intentionally disruptive and emotional. Fracas, in French means tumult with nuances that could be conveyed through words like ram, crash, blast, or irrupt. It was intentionally provocative but also intriguing. Like a mystery. Fracas puts you in a mood where you want to know more about the person who wears it: it is insolent but also spell-binding. Emotional, sensuous, carnal and very sexy. You get hypnotized and enchanted.

I discovered Fracas as a young fashion model in New York many years ago. At the time I was wearing some of Kiehl's famous compositions like "Rain" or "Smoke". I also enjoyed a fine citrus fragrance called "Love" which has now disappeared. Coming once into a studio where I was booked, I had the surprise to discover that I would work in the company of one of the models I admired the most, Donna Mitchell. She was surrounded with this fascinating fragrance and I asked her about it. She told me the story of Fracas. In the evening, when I came back home, I had bought my first bottle and started a long love story with this perfume.

Fracas was the creation of Swiss born Robert Piguet (1898-1953) one of the era's most talented fashion designers in Paris. With the cooperation of specialist Germaine Cellier, Piguet had launched his first fragrance, Bandit, in 1945. Cellier and Piguet then started to work on a completely new concept: a fragrance which would be of the utmost elegance but at the same time very provocative and emotionally charged. It came out in 1948. Piguet chose the name Fracas.

An intriguing, complex and rousing composition of tuberose, jonquil, jasmine, lilac and white iris, Fracas was too disruptive and too carnal not to provoke some hesitations and was not immediately accepted. Robert Piguet unfortunately fell ill shortly after. A perfectionist, he did not want his fashion house to survive him. After selling the expensive real estate, he generously gave a part of the money to his 400 employees and retired in Lausanne where he died in 1953.

Less strict with his fragrances, Robert Piguet accepted the continuation of his line of perfumes. But without the back-up of a powerful commercial organisation, Bandit and Fracas could not really compete with other fragrances from larger companies.

Few fragrances have been copied as much as Fracas. Its influence can be perceived in many recent compositions, which have often tried to provoke similar emotional reactions. Over the years it has remained the secret cult fragrance of many celebrities from different generations : today it is the favorite of icons like Princess Caroline of Monaco, Madonna, Uma Thurman, Courtney Love and many others." You can find the original article here.

Dress rehearsal!

On Friday night I rolled into the CBD, eager to try on my beautiful dress again! After a quick glass of Prosecco at CA de VIN with future-sister-in-law, I met wedding dress designer extraordinaire Wendy Makin, her assistant Kelly and lovely Louisa from Brides of Melbourne.

This appointment was to take measurements once and for all.

So far I've been in to BOM in November 2008 - when we decided on the dress. I expressly requested to only have measurements and alterations done by Wendy and her team, so I was measured at the time but with plans for a remeasure.

Tamra came back with me - just for some pictures in January 08 and then Louise and Mum came for another appointment with Wendy in July 08 (when there was a teensy bit of a problem getting the zip up all the way - was it my winter coat? I certainly hadn't been doing any upper body strengthening and didn't have anything to show for it!).

Tonight I was solo.

The sample dress happens to be exactly my size and I was sad to see that it had a blue biro mark right in the front of the skirt, I wonder how many times it's been tried on now, 12 months down the track? I was pleased that the zip went straight up without a problem (in fact I've lost half an inch from my waist!)and Wendy graciously took some photos of my dress with my hairpiece. She also snapped a pic for herself - so the girls back up in QLD know who they're making the dresses for, how sweet!

So it's decided, the next time I visit (in March) I will be trying on my actual dress, and then last minute adjustments will be made including adding the lace to the front of the skirt and finishing the hem.

On the way out I ducked into im boutique just to check if the lingerie I'd seen in a fashion show earlier this year had arrived yet. I was in luck! The parcel had just arrived that afternoon and I would be the first to try it on!

It was all sized Small but I was game and entered the changeroom, whaddaya know? The brand is Christies from Italy. The chemise definitely did me more justice than the cami set - but ... what was this? Was I really about to spend how much??

Oh, there's a 10% discount for signing up as a member? Well.. that reduces the pain just a touch... it's available for layby too? Hmmmm ... well ... OK Let's Do it!!!

Turns out I copped a $58 parking fine - but that really pales into significance compared to the total I'm spending on this sumptious negligie - what's another $58??

I'm thinking of wearing it for some photos to give to Trav the night before our wedding...