Cultural appropriation or cultural appreciation?
Official descriptions for Diptyque’s Eau Duelle range from “an ode to travel” to “ inspired by a journey along the Spice Route and the ports of legendary cities: Babylon, Goa, Venice and Carthage.” The picture on the back reminds me of the Taj Mahal but maybe it’s just Mughal architecture, and many examples of it are found in North India rather than the South which is where Goa is.
I already know there will be people who say it’s appreciation, and I get that, it’s one of the reasons I like this bottle, but the mishmash of places and stories without being true to history is pointless in a world where the Internet exists and you can look things up in an instant. Eau Duelle is a vanilla scent, slightly spicy and green, woodier than other vanilla, but it’s still vanilla. It’s not a scent I’d associate with the “spice route”. The number of brands that still use “oriental” as a descriptor is many, and truly, it’s a lot of older gentlemen who probably know better but are used to describing warm and spicy scents that way. I can overlook that because truly there is no motivation to change.
All of this reminds me of a conversation I had with my aunt and uncle who work to get women on corporate boards across America, and who told me that the real way to get people and corporations to make a change is to legislate it, so maybe in the perfume world, maybe a body, like I don’t know, perfume expo organizers, need to insist that brands stop using that in their copy when they bring material to display at the show. The industry seems reluctant to change and has a fragile ego that can’t take criticism, so things will take time to change, but change is not impossible.
