Politics and Perfume ...

What do we think about this peeps? This gal has just launched a fragrance created by Bertrand Duchafour ...

www.thenonblonde.com/2012/10/lets-talk-about-i t-bertrand-duchaufour.html

Wow that is so wrong, I wonder why, at this stage of his career, he prefers money over such a bad association. One thing is making a perfume for Kim Kardashian, who is only retarded, but a very different one is pleasing the daughter of a dictator. One should have principles...

Yeah, it does seem really strange to me considering that, by now, Duchaufour must have as much money as God. How could he not think that his fans would be concerned about this, too?

Hmmmm ... I'm still really on the fence here between outrage and respect for his talent. Money (whether one is richer than God or not) is a great motivator ... and by the same token the root of all evil too ...

Not really sure those are conflicting emotions, CG. I respect his talent greatly. I'm just not buying any more of his stuff because he has used it unwisely and I don't want to support that (unless he apologizes, probably).

I dont think he will apologize... I feel divided, the truth is that lately i have met some very nice fragances by him... probably i will prefer to spend my money on other creator´s works...

Well, the one thing I can say is that there's an awful lack of supporting evidence for the crimes of the Uzbek government. Snarky asides in the Independent really don't cut it for me. I do think it's interesting from a psychological/spiritual angle that people simply assume without proof that 1) the Uzbek government is bad 2) the perfumer knew it and/or had a choice.

Sometimes (ok, often) what the press "knows" is true is not. Sometimes the intel is exaggerated or wrong. Sometimes people lie. Me, I still don't have enough evidence to know what the truth is.

However, if 1) and 2) are true, I won't buy anything he designs in the future.

Eww. I wouldn't.

For a huge Duchaufour fangirl it is depressing as hell. At the same time, it doesn't seem fair to penalize the niche companies that hired him before this transpired by boycotting his work. I still crave a bottle of Mohur, and I can't see taking out his blunder on a small concern like Neela Vermeire, who is probably struggling as it is to get established.

This helped:

www.cafleurebon.com/duchaufour-on-his-trip-to- uzbekistan-bertrand-speaks-out-uncut-and-unedi ted/

So he's basically ignorant of the issues surrounding Uzbekistan... I don't claim to be all knowing but I really think he could have done a minimum of research before accepting.

I agree with the proposition that

A) Mr D is a gun for hire

B) he displayed questionable judgment in accepting this particular commission

But I doubt his reputation will sustain lasting damage.

I do realise it's kind of old news by now, but I was so caught up IRL recently that I only found out about this whole ordeal a couple of weeks ago.
Having read numerous opinions on the topic, I came away with several "questions" or rather examples of perfumers or heads of fashion houses and businesses doing basically the same thing Duchaufour did and yet never getting badmouthed for that.

The first thing that pops to mind is Amouage. The state of Oman is guilty of heinous crimes against humanity. It is one of the few countries where the so called female circumcision is practiced to this day (see wiki at your own risk)
Countless young women die every year form comlications related to this procedure, which is not voluntary, as well as genital injury sustained due to being wed at an age of 10-12 to full grown men. This is where Amouage comes from. This is the state with which Guy Robert signed his contract for "Gold". And yet little to none is said about the moral dilemma behind wearing Amouage. I wonder why and how Oman is better, cleaner and more moral than Uzbekistan.

Want more dirty perfume? Mademoiselle Chanel was a collaborationist during WWII, an antisemite and a homophobe. Not much compared to the state of Oman, right? Let's not forget about Francois Coty then, who personally gave out Jews and families hiding them in his neighborhood to the nazi troops around the same time. Still we admire L'Origan, Chypre et al without second thought.

Back to Guli though. Duchaufour might be the mastermind behind her perfumery line, but guess who sews her dresses. Dior, D&G and Gucci are her bespoke tailors to name a few. Louis Vuitton makes her luggage. And I seriously doubt she's their only dictator-daughter moneybag.
On a more affordable scale, Nike, Adidas and Reebok make their shoes and T-shirts in Vietnamese sweatshops where the workers are basically slaves in horrid conditions with monthly wages lesser than the price of a pair of those very shoes.

I'm not saying that because others have done the same thing, Mr. D can be completely absolved of the choice he made. What I'm trying to imply is that we need to look around before rushing to judgement and picking a scapegoat.