The Annette Green Perfume Museum: Fashion Makes Scents Exhibition

Belle Époque

Belle Epoque Orientalism Americana
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Modernism perfume bottle Space Age
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La Belle Époque (the Beautiful Era) culminated in the convergence of many historical modes and industrial advancements showcased at the Paris Exposition of 1900. When such industrial products were combined with steamship and railroad expansion, fashion and fragrance enterprises became global markets.

Stylized floral and whiplash motifs created a Rococo-sense of movement on dress. This combination of artifice and opulence was embodied by the S-bend corset and the ornamental dressing gown: garments which highly influenced romanticized evening dress for the rest of the century.

In the heady atmosphere of la Belle Époque, favored fragrances blended scents such as tuberose, jasmine and orange blossom - the exact botanicals found encircling embroidered skirts and adorning chapeaux. Nostalgia does not elude contemporary shoppers as ribbons and laces still bedeck fashionable dress and flowery scents maintain prominence.