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Paco Rabanne bets 1 Million on his new fragrance for men…

Bling is in, and so is gold. Couturier Paco Rabanne had... Go

 
During this period, queens and courtesans fought over the secret formulas created by the first Italian chemists and discovered fragrance ingredients imported from Asia and America.
 
The Renaissance ushered in a new vision of the world. Architects, engineers, artists and scholars traveled all over Europe. Boosted by the influence of powerful, wealthy patrons, the arts flourished. The first treatises on chemistry were progressively replacing alchemy and its recipes. Vasco de Gama, Christopher Columbus, Magellan, all famous explorers who brought back new raw materials from America and India : cocoa, vanilla, Peru balsam, tobacco, pepper, clove, cardamom ...
At the Court, famous courtesans and influential women competed against one another with beauty secrets ... and poisons. Leaving their native Spain and Italy (and the Medicis family), foreign perfumers established shop in Paris. Soon perfumed gloves were offered for sale all over France.

 



1
Woman dressing. Ecole de Fontainebleau, around 1560.
Museum of Beaux-Arts, Dijon.

2
Spherical pomander. Germany. Fragonard.

3
Siegniorial life. Cluny tapestry. Atelier des Bords de Loire, around 1500. Detail of a woman bathing. Cluny Museum.