Tabu by Dana is a women's fragrance created by French

perfume Perfume (, ) is a mixture of fragrance, fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), Fixative (perfumery), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agre ...

Jean Carles Jean Carles (12 January 1892 – 8 July 1966) was a French perfumer who worked in Roure Bertrand Fils et Justin Duppont in Grasse (now part of Givaudan) in the early 20th century. He was the founder of the Roure Perfumery School () and served as ...

in 1931.

Origins

The House of Dana was a

ry established in 1932 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Spain by lawyer

Javier Serra Javier may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Javier, in video game '' Advance Wars: Dual Strike'' * Javier Rios, a character in the Monsters, Inc. franchise. * ''Javier'' (album), a 2003 album by the American singer Javier Colon, known ...

. It was later headquartered in Paris. In 1940, it relocated to the US during the

German occupation of France during World War II The Military Administration in France (; ) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zone in areas of northern and western France. This so-called ' was established in June 19 ...

. Carles worked for

Roure Bertrand Roure may refer to: People with the surname * David De Roure (born 1962), British professor * Luis Alvarez Roure (born 1976), Puerto Rican painter * Marta Roure (born 1981), Andorran singer and actress * Martine Roure (born 1948), French politi ...

, a company associated with fashion houses such as Nina Ricci,

Christian Dior Christian Ernest Dior (; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer and founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Dior, Christian Dior SE. His fashion house is known all around the world, having gained promi ...

Elsa Schiaparelli Elsa Schiaparelli ( , , ; 10 September 1890 – 13 November 1973) was an Italian fashion designer from an Italian nobility, aristocratic background. She created the Schiaparelli (fashion house), house of Schiaparelli in Paris in 1927, which she ...

and

Cristóbal Balenciaga Cristóbal Balenciaga Eizaguirre (; ; 21 January 1895 – 23 March 1972) was a Spanish fashion designer, and the founder of the Balenciaga clothing brand. He had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "th ...

Ingredients

Carles used an exceptionally high dose of patchouli (10%), which he combined with clove (carnation), oak moss and benzoin (vanilla effect). Other notes include Bergamot, Neroli, Orange, Coriander, Narcissus, Clover, Rose, Ylang Ylang, Jasmine, Cedar, Sandalwood, Vetiver, Civet, Amber, Musk. Supposedly Dana told Carles to "make a perfume a prostitute would wear". It was one of the first "oriental" scents created in the perfume world and one of the heaviest. It was the inspiration for the later orientals Tuvara (1948) and Youth Dew (1951).

Advertising

The long-running print advertisement of Dan's Tabu reproduced the 1901 painting '' The Kreutzer Sonata'' by

René-Xavier Prinet René François Xavier Prinet (31 December 1861, Vitry-le-François – 26 January 1946, Bourbonne-les-Bains) was a French painter and illustrator. Biography Born to a family of notables from Franche-Comté (the Prinet notaries originally fr ...

, inspired by the novella of the same title by

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

, showing a violinist, overcome with passion, breaking off his performance to embrace his female accompanist. The advertisement's tagline was "Tabu, the forbidden fragrance". People looked at the advertisement and linked the embracing couple with the fragrance.

Gallery

File:TabuPolvos.JPG File:TABU colonia Dana.JPG

References

{{Reflist Perfumes