Ok, how many TS Eliot “The Wasteland” -quotes have you already seen in the last about 36 hours? Because I am out of original ideas at this point, this is likely the millionth blogpost with this exact title. In my defence, though, this year April really seems to be taking the piss. But don’t despair! Read on!

Have you also amassed dozens of perfume samples, and never quite wanted to toss them, harbouring a distant thought that one day you’ll try out the more interesting ones? Well, this is the day. What better than trying out a new perfume every day until the end of this lockdown at no cost? You’ll might find a new favourite to purchase once the shops are allowed open again.

Alternatively, you might not recognise yourself anymore from underneath the stench of things like Lumière Noire by Maison Francis Kurkdijan. The good thing is that other people are forced to keep their distance anyway, so they’ll be none the wiser should your experiment go awry. I hasten to add that I have nothing agains Maison Francis Kurkdijan, but I was really not feeling the Lumière Noir today.

I have one lined up for tomorrow already: Tom Ford’s Fucking Fabulous. It feels like something that would go particularly well with my current lifestyle of wolfing down the remaining cooking chocolate from the pantry that was supposed to see me through at least this pandemic. It might also be just something with a very catchy name, but some of the Tom Ford perfumes I have tried are very, very nice indeed.

I tried L’Air de Rien by Miller Harris yesterday, mainly because it was created for Jane Birkin and I thought it might lend some instant Parisian coolness to my epidemic existence. Alas, it did not. You can read an expert review of the scent here. While L’Air de Rien at first glance does contain many notes I usually like (neroli, orange blossom, amber), it felt too sweet and heavy, even. I might give it another try. Not like there’s no time.

Final point: maybe don’t toss perfume samples away just yet. They are basically mini-sized, smelly hand-sanitisers. I think. Haven’t tried yet, but I guess the logic is the same.

Many bloggers and fashion people have started to write about buying stuff during corona – should we or shouldn’t we? You can guess the arguments both ways, but it is an interesting discussion all the same, and much valid also in non-pandemic times. For your ease of reference, I’ve put together some good pieces by people who are legitimate opinion leaders in this field:

New York Times fashion editor Vanessa Friedman on “Should we still go shopping online?”

Man Repeller editors Leandra Medine and Harling Ross “Should we still be shopping?”

Disney Rollergirl (fashion editor Navaz Batliwalla) “Should we stop shopping?”

Related, for thoughts on the future of fashion industry post-corona, have a look at an interesting interview with Jean Touitou, fashion designer of the French A.P.C. in the Business of Fashion. Click here to read. It is very good. Maybe it’s his frenchness that makes him say unexpectedly candid things about the current sate of the industry, such as:

“The problem is not so much volume, it’s profit margin. Like that Jimi Hendrix song ‘If Six Was Nine.’ If something cost you one, you sell it for six and you can pay all your salaries, your rent, everything, and at end of the year you might have a little profit. But the industry is looking for nine. This is where they stretch. Do the prints in this country, the finishing in that country to save a few cents. There is too much merchandise going round the world like crazy, searching for bigger profit. It’s not Marxist theory here. There should be a reasonable amount of money-making that can be tolerated, and after that there is a red line. And they all passed the red line.”

“Maybe historians in 50 years will say, ‘Well, that period of cyber-mercantilism had to go at some point. Maybe humanity will be wise enough to think, ‘That was part of our history, we did something wrong.’ Let’s go back to the good measure, like in that Beatles song. ‘You get a shot of rhythm and blues with just a little rock and roll on the side, just for good measure.’ It’s the extra extra extra everything that has killed us.”