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'You peoples of the world, smell this city!
In the 90s, Berlin was said to be the most exciting city in the world. A city in a state of sudden awakening, where anything was possible, anything could happen and anything did happen. Wolfgang Joop has always felt an affinity with it, so it can be no coincidence that he named a perfume after 'his' Berlin immediately after reunification. Although today it is hard to understand why he decided to compose this perfume exactly as he did.
What does a city smell like, what does Berlin smell like? Like the blossoming lime trees along the famous boulevard in Mitte named after them? Certainly, yes. Like the vomit on Kotti later sung about by Peter Fox? That too, actually. After the hookers on Oranienburger, the cars on Avus, the chai latte on Kastanienallee (which didn't even exist in 1990)? That's also true. Or after bright garden flowers and ripe fruit, as Wolfgang Joop found it in 1990?
Joop's Berlin is a fragrance that was considered the highly contemporary essence of the then still young 90s. It has an irresistible radiance and a glow, is full of confidence and optimism, and conveys the outbreak and awakening of the Berlin attitude to life at that time. Despite its many ingredients and their multi-layered orchestration, it seems almost clean and full of that effortless elegance and light-footed cosmopolitanism that simply worked well in 1990.
Berlin is a youthful fragrance, it has the casualness and coolness that were to characterize and define the perfumery of the 90s. It transcends the conventional, established scent that the 80s would have made of stone fruit, carnation and white flowers, interpreting them in a fresh and exciting way - and yet only in nuances. It is the freedom and the brightness, it is this glow that defines it - sweet but not cloying, self-confident but not overwhelming - and unheard of at the time.
Conclusion: "You people of the world, look at this city!" is Ernst Reuter's most famous quote - in front of 350,000 Berliners who came to hear him in 1948. 'And smell it!' one would like to add. Because Joop's Berlin smells of light and sun, the expanse over Tempelhofer Feld, the meadows along the Havel, Dahme, Panke and Spree rivers, the bohemian atmosphere at Tacheles, the glitter of the TV tower at night. And very much after 1990 - wistfully beautiful, but over.
What does a city smell like, what does Berlin smell like? Like the blossoming lime trees along the famous boulevard in Mitte named after them? Certainly, yes. Like the vomit on Kotti later sung about by Peter Fox? That too, actually. After the hookers on Oranienburger, the cars on Avus, the chai latte on Kastanienallee (which didn't even exist in 1990)? That's also true. Or after bright garden flowers and ripe fruit, as Wolfgang Joop found it in 1990?
Joop's Berlin is a fragrance that was considered the highly contemporary essence of the then still young 90s. It has an irresistible radiance and a glow, is full of confidence and optimism, and conveys the outbreak and awakening of the Berlin attitude to life at that time. Despite its many ingredients and their multi-layered orchestration, it seems almost clean and full of that effortless elegance and light-footed cosmopolitanism that simply worked well in 1990.
Berlin is a youthful fragrance, it has the casualness and coolness that were to characterize and define the perfumery of the 90s. It transcends the conventional, established scent that the 80s would have made of stone fruit, carnation and white flowers, interpreting them in a fresh and exciting way - and yet only in nuances. It is the freedom and the brightness, it is this glow that defines it - sweet but not cloying, self-confident but not overwhelming - and unheard of at the time.
Conclusion: "You people of the world, look at this city!" is Ernst Reuter's most famous quote - in front of 350,000 Berliners who came to hear him in 1948. 'And smell it!' one would like to add. Because Joop's Berlin smells of light and sun, the expanse over Tempelhofer Feld, the meadows along the Havel, Dahme, Panke and Spree rivers, the bohemian atmosphere at Tacheles, the glitter of the TV tower at night. And very much after 1990 - wistfully beautiful, but over.
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