Finding your true color
The Benetton fashion philosophy has always been about colors, the brighter and louder, the better! A family-founded fashion brand that can now boast of 6,000 stores spread over 120 countries, Benetton is truly a global phenomenon. From an initial collection of colorful sweaters created by founder Luciano Benetton that were sold around Treviso in the Veneto region of Italy, back in 1965, Benetton and its independent partners now generate a turnover of over two billion euros. Womenswear, menswear, children’s apparel, toiletries, kitchen accessories and fragrances, the Benetton Group is known for its United Colors of Benetton, Sisley and Playlife. Recently, Colori — its new line of young, energetic fragrances — was launched in the Philippines, with SM Department Store as its strategic retail partner.
Rosso and Giallo (Red and Yellow) for women, Verde and Blu (Green and Blue) for men, the names are Italian in origin, but the spirit, the images hinted at, and feelings inspired are, as with all things Benetton, universal in nature. Its iconic stitch logo appears on the bottles as an unfinished stencil, and the spray design of the colors signify the spontaneity the scents aspire to evoke. Printed on the back of the boxes are some of the color’s experiential associations and feelings. For Rosso, it’s Berries, Power, Passion and Petals, and the fragrance has citrus top notes of mandarin, citron and passion fruit; while the heart notes are floral: peony, syringa and jasmine. At the bottom, it’s patchouli and vanilla. With Giallo, the color of sunshine, it’s Summer, Energy and Gold! Top notes of red fruit, anis and a dash of spearmint, are rounded out in its heart by lotus, rose, violet and peach, with base notes of tonka bean, vanilla and musk.
For the men, Verde is about hope, mint, football and nature; so the top notes of grapefruit, cardamom and melon, blend with middle notes of nutmeg, geranium and violet, all pegged to the bottom notes of cedarwood, gaiac and benzoin. With Blu, it’s denim, jazz, and calmness — top notes of lemon and lavender combine with heart notes of basil, rosemary oil and clary sage, all underpinned by cocoa bean, cedarwood and patchouli. All four scents are available in 100 ml. botttles, and to jumpstart the campaign, and emphasize the youthful elements of the Colori line, Benetton has joined hands with the UAAP! They’ve assigned colors to the member universities, and have thrown their support behind selected UAAP programs.
Epic tales and humor
The novels today all have the potential to be little classics over time. The Passage is a futuristic vampire tale set in the US, but with a serious literary bent, while Thousand Autumns is set in 19th-century Japan, historical fiction as its most intriguing and beguiling. With Little Hands Clapping, the bizarre and macabre evolve into a piercing, yet humor-laden commentary on alienation, obsession and modern life in Germany.
The Passage by Justin Cronin (available at National Bookstore): Enter the future, Justin Cronin-style, and find that it’s very much like today, but with deep, disturbing differences that assault our sense of recognition. There’s a vast set of characters and narratives that eventually converge at a secret facility in Colorado that’s testing what can only be described as a “vampire virus.” Inmates from death row are given reprieves when they volunteer for testing, and against all this, is a six-year-old girl named Amy who may or may not be the vaccine, or the virus in its most potent natural form. From this initial story, we fast forward 90 years, where Amy still looks like a mere 16-year-old, and we find that the virus has spread. Disturbing and exhilarating, this is one masterpiece!
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (available at National Bookstore): It’s 1799 Japan, the Dutch monopolize trade with this fortress nation, and the only point of contact between Japan and the outside world is via the island port of Dejima in Nagasaki. Jacob de Zoet is a lowly clerk who is seeking his fortune by joining the Dutch East Indies Trading Company, and it’s his story and how he gets enmeshed with a Japanese woman/scholar and the decline of Dutch colonial fortunes that make the “meat” of this enthralling novel. A drastic shift from the novels we’ve come to expect from David Mitchell, this is a relatively unilinear tragic love story, and a dissection of misadventure, corruption and world politics, as set in the early 19th century.
Little Hands Clapping by Dan Rhodes (available at Fully Booked): Open with a scene of a man with a spider in his mouth, his noting the panic of the spider as it realizes it is trapped, and how the man chews the spider with relish — and you know you’ve entered a rather strange and off-center world. This reminded me of the first time I read The Grotesque by Patrick McGrath. But with Dan Rhodes, there’s also humor, softness and even romance. It’s a delightful unforced comedy set in a Museum of Suicides, with offbeat characters that had me stifling laughter throughout. It’s the matter-of-fact tone that sets this apart, leaving us doing mental double-takes as we realize what is transpiring in these pages. A highly recommended black comedy that works on various levels.
