I want to take this opportunity to thank those of you who travelled great distances to join us at the Queen Adelaide in London for the launch of Miguel Matos’s world premiere as a perfumer, Jungle Jezebel. There were laughs, tears, spiked drinks, and cat fights. There was a dj duo who specializes in Divine. There were artists, musicians, architects, curators, activists, fashionistas, perfumistas, and equestrian show jumpers. There was a burlesque dancer, a drag queen, and there was even a hooker? It was basically like Studio 54 except better because the room smelled AMAZING, thanks to Miguel Matos.
Below is a text about Jungle Jezebel written by Kenneth Pratt. I think he really captured the mood of the perfume.
When they say she’s been around, they mean she’s really been around. As day falls to night on the docks—in Cartagena de Indias, Beira or Brest—the aroma of a fruit salad, export or import, lingers in the air and on her skin—grape, banana, peach and orange.
She knows the places whatever the port; where the flickering red neon signs can’t quite make the effort… The promise of the night stretches out before her—rose, tuberose, ylang-ylang, amber and sandalwood. She keeps her true origins a secret to be discovered by fewer people than the fingers on a hand. She enters. The chanteuse croons, “Each man kills the thing he loves.” You said it, babe, she thinks. But first she has to find him.
She descends to the basement. She feels the throb of the music before she arrives. Over one hundred and sixty beats per minute and that’s before she even gets to the base notes: vetiver, vanilla, tonka bean and, the real animal, civet. She commands the dancefloor with her high energy. It can never last. He will be just another who hurts her and breaks her heart looking for his belle du jour. But for tonight, yet again, she can be divine.
And finally, Divine performing Jungle Jezebel