Lanvin launched Rumeur in the fall of 2006 under the name of a 1934 Rumeur, the work of André Fraysse. Francis Kurkdjian composed a version with no olfactory link to the old one: magnolia and aldehydes, white flowers around seringa, a base of patchouli, musks and ambroxan. The bottle, designed with Alber Elbaz, draws on an antique model found at a flea market.
Elena Vosnaki (Perfume Shrine, 2007) praises a pretty, silky revival, far from the original chypre; Angela (Now Smell This, 2008) finds only a dull, dusty, shrill bouquet.
Olfastory’s review
Perfume Shrine: a silky pink chypre
Elena Vosnaki, in February 2007, counts this reorchestration among the revivals that make the old new again: pretty, very far from the sumptuous vintage formula, it does not disappoint. She recognizes Kurkdjian’s smooth, silky signature, never sickly and never juvenile.
She welcomes a change after the flood of fruity florals and candy vanillas, a discreetly sensual trend she says she is ready to embrace. Her image: a silky pink dressing gown, ready to fall away with a single tug on the ribbon that holds it.
Now Smell This: a bouquet gathering dust
Angela, in February 2008, detects a bright floral start hinting at something cheerful, close to gardenia. That brightness soon collapses into a flat, dry center where rose, jasmine and lily of the valley blur together; she finds it hazy and shrill, like a plastic bouquet left to gather dust in a storeroom.
Within the Lanvin family, where Arpège suggests to her an afternoon dress and Scandal a pair of thigh boots, Rumeur takes the form of a pink acrylic nightgown that does not survive the wash. She nonetheless points out that many people love it.