Anita Berber painting by Otto Dix
“There’s a lover in the story
But the story’s still the same
There’s a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it’s written in the scriptures
And it’s not some idle claim
You want it darker?
We kill the flame.” ~ Leonard Cohen, You Want it Darker?
Brooklyn-based natural perfumer Irina Adam of Phoenix Botanicals has been awash in decadent inspiration of late. I can’t say as I blame her: my well-worn, crumbling and dogeared copy of Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories looms ominously over the head of my bed, as do recordings of Nina Hagen, Ute Lemper and Lotte Lenya. I roundly suspect that she’s a devout Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht-lover like myself. Never mind the likes of artists such as Georg Grosz and Otto Dix – those who documented the seedy underbelly of Berlin nightlife preceding (and throughout) WW2. When that fey tiny-mighty sent me her latest perfume, Phantom Rose – a fragrance which draws breath from the singular personage of cabaret artist Anita Berber – what was I supposed to do? I was prepared. Painting, cadence and melody danced in front of my eyes, ears and nose the way the red shoes danced before their lame penitent in Hans Christian Andersen’s grisly tale.
Anita Berber Memorial Plaque outside her flat in Berlin via Wikipedia
Anita Berber was a transitory flame extinguished by age 29, likely due to raging tuberculosis contracted while performing abroad. She was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave in Neukölln, a borough of Berlin. This description, however, renders short shrift to the performer: Anita was equally proficient and scandalously renowned as a dancer, actress and writer. She broke the glass ceiling at 16 when she left Dresden (where she had been living with her grandmother) for Weimar Berlin to embark upon a cabaret and subsequently a film career. There she became one of the first to perform wholly nude or garbed in androgynous costume such as tails and tux. Anita inspired Marlene Dietrich, who was numbered among her myriad lovers, both male and female. Along with her trademark luridly red bobbed coiffure, heavily kohl-rimmed eyes and thin rosebud-drawn red lips – which inspired painter Otto Dix to render her eternally decadent for future admirers – her vices were legion, if vices they be.
Anita Berger in tux and tails via etsy on Phoenix Botanicals site
Anita was unabashedly alcoholic. I refuse to resort to cheap shots when referring to her sexual preference fluidity: anyone familiar with this particular historical period should be aware of the prevalence of cross-dressing, polyamorous activity and overall dearth of restraint in the pursuit of pleasure.
still from Netflix Babylon Berlin, Season 3 via Dailyexpress©
The most sedate citizens of Berlin revealed themselves otherwise in Weimar nightlife, and if you haven’t yet experienced them, I would highly recommend both the book Babylon Berlin by Volker Kutscher and its portrayal on Netflix’s current selfsame series as excellent points of reference. If not that, then simply watching the classic film Cabaret (based upon Isherwood’s Berlin Stories) may impart some of the desired background flavor.
This prefaces Irina Adam’s perfume Phantom Rose, because her fragrance is based upon a genuine libation that Anita preferred and indulged in to excess. Luxe, louche and lascivious: the artiste’s custom was to imbibe a solution of ether and chloroform combined into which she stirred a white rose. Honey and cloves were added to the potion in order to make it more palatable; Anita would then devour the white petals infused in all the above. She was addicted to both opium and morphine: again, not unusual at the time. So many were compelled to find escape from the harsh unrelenting reality of the 1920s and abject poverty.
photograph of Anita Berber, Queen of Depravity via etsy
Irina addresses all of these elements and brings them to teeming life: the narcotic element of poppy, dulcet heady rose petals, indolic honey redolent of sex. All those boîtes, rat-holes were smoke-filled dens of iniquity, mirrored in the perfumer’s employment of tobacco, boozy rum and cognac notes. Poppy and copal tones merge the unholy and sacrosanct integrally. Oudh is the mystery nuance – depths of decadence, intimating depravity in concert with patchouli. This coupling also points to an overall animalistic nature and even the general lack of hygiene among the populace: poor sanitation, less than adequate plumbing and bathing facilities (folks would pay to use a public bath once a week, sharing the bathwater).
painting by artist Nadezhda Illarionova via Kaca Ljubincovic
You may deservedly believe that I’m painting a dire picture, and you are not entirely amiss. What needs saying is that Phantom Rose may teeter on the fringe of debauchery, but it retains a whisper of hope. Far from being a heavy floriental or a cloying scent, Phantom Rose harbors the vestige of feathers which moult from ascending angels’ wings. In the drydown the perfume is gentled, soft-hearted and forgiving. There remains an evanescent quality which belies the weight of its components. It sings with the unique attenuated loveliness of the soiled dove.
Notes: white rose accord, rose de mai, opium poppy, honey, clove, rum, tobacco, cognac, roots, dark patchouli, copal resin, oudh
Perfume sample kindly provided by the perfumer: many thanks! My nose is my own…
~ Ida Meister, Senior Editor and Natural Perfumery Editor
Phoenix Botanicals Phantom Rose via Irina Adam
Thanks to the generosity of perfumer Irina Adam, we have 5ml bottle of Phoenix Botanicals Phantom Rose for one registered reader worldwide; (you must register or your entry won’t count). To be eligible, please leave a comment with what you enjoyed about Ida’s review and where you live. Draw ends 4/24/2020
A collaboration with Gretchen Heinel, who contributed to the artistic direction
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