Wayne James Directs Spectacular TV Ad to Promote His New Fragrance, CELEBRATION
St. Croix-born fashion designer Wayne James has directed a spectacular 60-second television ad to promote the unveiling of his new fragrance, CELEBRATION.
The CELEBRATION ad is produced in the emerging “quiltography” genre by critically acclaimed Brazilian filmmaker/photographer Daniel Lobo, who has collaborated with James on many projects for more than a decade—including photographing the covers of volumes one and two of the designer’s Manly Manners treatise on modern men’s comportment.
The ad is a veritable feast for the eyes. Voluptuous frame after voluptuous frame, the ad transports the viewer around the world in fewer than 80 seconds via the great celebrations of the globe, from Rio de Janeiro’s sensuous carnival, to India’s Holi Festival of colorful powders, to the Argentinean people erupting in ecstasy upon winning the 2022 World Cup.
“I wanted the ad to speak directly to the name of the fragrance, ‘CELEBRATION’, “ James said. “Enough with those ephemeral scents with those intangible names with their mysterious ads. I wanted a fragrance with a distinctive personality and a supporting ad that says what it means and means what it says, even if without the utterance of a single word.”
To capture in a bottle the fragrance that James had envisioned in his mind’s nose, he travelled to Grasse, France, fragrance capital of the world. There, he met with renowned perfumer Patrick Bodifee, esteemed worldwide as a great “nose,” and asked him to formulate a unique, memorable fragrance around a few key ingredients: the skins of lime and pineapple, ginger, vanilla, and passion fruit, with tantalizingly elusive hints of nutmeg, frankincense, and myrrh. Two months later, James received the test-samples. Originally conceived as a fragrance for men in keeping with James’ persona as a guru of modern men’s lifestyle, market-testing proved CELEBRATION’s appeal to men and women alike. Thus, the marketing has evolved as decidedly gender-neutral.
“We artists speak a lingua franca called ‘Artish’, “ James said. “We understand each other instinctively. And what Mr. Bodifee presented to me was precisely what I had envisioned. No redo, no edit, nothing.”
The fashion designer’s experience with young French graphics artist Pauline Lieb was similar: a few words, and voila! Simply asked to design elegant, gender-neutral packaging for the elegant, gender-neutral fragrance, Lieb selected a teal-turquoise shade of blue and paired it with accents pf metallic gold to achieve the fragrance’s exquisite packaging.
CELEBRATION will be unveiled on July 3, 2023, in celebration of the 175th anniversary of Emancipation in the formed Danish West Indies (present-day United States Virgin Islands) and will be available at select stores worldwide and online at www.WayneJamesLtd.com
Manly Manners 