Perfumed Fans

by: Serguey Borisov

My first acquaintance with perfumed fans happened in the Guerlain flagship boutique in 2007. Boutique sales assistants, elegant ladies and young men, were spraying perfumes onto black fans and waving them towards customers to evaluate the smells. Huge black fans instead of small paper blotters—they looked so elegant and expensive. This is partly why the new Guerlain fragrances from L'Art et la Matière collection made a most favorable impression on me.

Then I got a fragrant fan autographed by charming Majda Bekkali, instead of a perfume sample, and I could try myself the fragrant breeze of Sculptures OlfactivesFusion Sacrée Lui. By the way, three years later, this fan still smells!

presentation of Clive Christian C perfumes in Milan

Retailers and distributors of Clive Christian who were lucky enough to visit the presentations of these expensive perfumes say that fans play a major role there, too. There are no blotters at Clive Christian events. Instead, Victoria Christian and her assistants sprinkle new scents in the air and then actively wave black fans, creating a movement of fragrant air corresponding with musical accompaniment towards their clients.

Several years ago, I remember pictures of Francis Kurkdjian with a white giant fan made of perfume blotters. It turned out to be a fan made by modern fan genius Sylvain Le Guen for the 10th anniversary of Maison Francis Kurkdjian at the Grand Palais Paris—a unique 28-inch giant, perfumed with Maison Francis Kurkdjian Aqua Universalis, which was bought after the show by a collector for $20,000.

So, despite the obvious connection between wind, fans and perfumes, I could not get myself together to write this article. One of the fans on which Stephane Mallarme wrote poems dedicated and presented to Misia Natanson became the grain of sand that broke my will (read more about Misia in this article).

Japanese folding fan, 19th century, wikipedia

In the past, when pharaohs and ancient kings had enough personal servants with big fans to make a breeze, there was no need for air conditioners. The first foldable fans were invented in Japan in the second half of the 7th century. Japanese artisans borrowed the principle from nature by taking a bat's wing as a sample, and soon they made perfumed fans, with scented material enclosed between the two layers of paper. The first folding fans in Europe were imported from Asia around the 16th century, spreading from the ports of Genoa, Venice and Lisbon, and were considered to be a fancy thing with a utilitarian cooling effect. Soon fans became a status symbol and fashionable accessory throughout Europe.

Lady with a Fan, Daniel Hernandez Morillo (1856-1932)

In Europe, a fan fashion wave happened in the 18th century, until the French Revolution; so Fargeon still delivered fragrant fans, among other cosmetics and things, to Marie-Antoinette in August 1789, and after the execution of her husband Louis XV in 1793, she ordered “dresses for deep mourning” with a black taffeta fan included in the ensemble. French style and culture set the standard for good taste in Europe, so it's little wonder that they infected Great Britain, Belgium and Italy with the elegant “fan disease,” and the craft of fan-making spread throughout the Europe. Colorful and expensive, fans had become a fashion accessory, a communication medium and a luxury item. Fans' popularity brought to life a special fan language that allowed one, with only a fan, without any words, to ask a question or receive a reply. It went along with flower language, as the reverse sides of fans usually were decorated by the flower currently in fashion. No wonder flower decoration and flower perfume met in the fan.

The Lady with the Fan, Alfred Stevens (1828-1906)

The second wave of fancraft came in the 19th century, during the Belle Epoque. The industrial revolution had given new paints, cheap paper and glue, materials and machines. Cheap and synthetic aromatic materials were also among the new materials, and this accelerated perfumery's development and led to the rapid growth in the number of perfume brands. Scented fans (as well as handkerchiefs and gloves) were the very fashionable way to sense your favorite perfume constantly: fan materials absorbed perfume well, the smell lasted throughout the day and every fan could be used with the perfume again.

DeVibliss atomizer (DeVilbiss Glass Nebulizer) by hardluckasthma.blogspot.com

When doctors invented the spray atomizer (DeVillbiss, 1887) for the medical treatment of throat and then applied the atomizers to spray colognes, scented fans found their new life in perfume advertising. Inexpensive scented fan advertising went along with scented branded calendars and fragrant cards of the perfume boutiques. This perfumed fan advertising was used by many great perfume houses of the time: Eugene Rimmel, L.T. Piver, Bourjois, Rigaud, Godet, and Les Parfums de Rosine, among others. Paul Poiret, the first couturier in perfumery (Les Parfums de Rosine), promoted fragrances using fans during his fashion shows. He presented fragrant fans to all the guests before the show, and closed all the windows to make sure guests would use their fans.

you can buy this hand fan on etsy

In the early 20th century, fans started to be a canvas for creative expression: many artists and poets created unique pieces of art out of fans (Paul Gauguin, Maurice Leloir, Stephane Mallarme, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, Gustave Riom et al). Hundreds of fans were ordered by Parisian department stores like Le Bon Marche, Les Galeries Lafayette and Printemps; by cafés, bars and restaurants; by different beverage brands like Vichy, Lillet, Marie Brizard, Perrier, Benedictine, Moët & Chandon, Bally, Pernod ... it`s easy to see that drinks and refreshing aperitifs were more interested. There were collaborations, like L. T. Piver Azurea on the front and Vichy Célestins water on the back. However, fans slowly went out of fashion with the rise of modernism, and disappeared along with Grand Balls.

In the last half-century perfumed fans are rather an extinct item. They appear infrequently to promote a brand, highlighting its historical roots and connection to French history. Guerlain commissioned two exceptional fans by Duvelleroy as part of its "special collections," presented for the reopening of the boutique 68 avenue des Champs Elysees in 2014. One must say the two houses, Guerlain and Duvelleroy, share and have shared a lot. Duvelleroy and Guerlain both occupied 15 rue de la Paix. And both houses worked with Eugenia de Montijo, who for her wedding to Napoleon III sported the Eau de Cologne Impériale of Guerlain (the famous bottle with bees) and a Duvelleroy fan! Now a limited series of five bridal fans made of mother of pearl, silk plumetis and marabou feathers are available in the Guerlain boutique.

Parisian private museum Musée de l’Éventail and the Fan Museum in London are a last attempt to preserve the memory of this dying art. Still, there are several well-known fan manufacturers that deliver their goods for museum exhibitions, for haute-couture shows and antique shops, for celebrations and collectors. But the massive use of fans remains further back in history. Perfumed fans now remain in bottle and stopper designs: obscure L.T. Piver Vivitz, Corday L'Ardente Nuit, Bourjois Mais Oui, the rarest Elizabeth Arden Cyclamene and more popular Karl Lagerfeld KL andGuerlain Shalimar perfumes.

Sometimes perfumed fans replace the bridal bouquet at weddings. Some serially-made fans are still popular in Spain and carved wooden fans with the scent of sandalwood are still made in Southeast Asia. Karl Lagerfeld has not parted with his fan at fashion shows.
From time to time some brands recall the great history of fragrant fans. Recent examples includes fans made by Miya Shinma, Ladurée and B Never Too Busy to be Beautiful.
 Manufacturers of fans used to say, “The fan has only two sides but so many facets.”

Woman with fan, Milly Finch, 1883-1884

In that regard, fans are very similar to fragrances, in which beauty is also concentrated in the small volume of transparent drops which can stretch out impressively—to fill a great volume with their fragrant air and to prolong olfactiory pleasure for hours. Just as emotions are hidden in a single perfume drop, a beautiful painting is hidden in one fold of a fan.