Today, dear friends, we celebrate four roses:
Three human, one scent.… all fragrant!
The first is photographed above.
This is her public image (borrowed or real we cannot say).
She is the simply too beguiling Vickie Lester purveyor of archival and antique images from the silver screen machine at her internet emporium the equally Beguiling Hollywood.
Do take a peek there we promise it’s most awfully good.
Quite apart from the magnificence of her web domain, we celebrate Ms Lester’s upcoming publication of her work of fiction…
…many pages of which have been previewed to our delight on said wonderful site.
Oh yes, and Vickie’s celebrating a birthday too, so The Dandy does hope she’s settling down to tea and cakes (plural) just about now!.
As those of you who are regulars here will know, it’s not often that The Dandy takes a moment to highlight an un-perfumed personality. But really Ms Lester (and her real life self) are truly something special.
A rose the midst of the thorny business that calls itself show!
Which brings us to my second pick:
Betty White.
Why? Why not!?!
After all, how many people born before Chanel No 5 was publicly available still have a flourishing career?
How many stars have been so versatile, from presenting six hour live television shows six days a week to immortalising women of an age previously almost invisible in film and tv?
For being an icon of self-effacing, self-amused, determined dignity she’s an eternal Rose, but let’s not forget for nearly twenty years previous she was, with Lorne Greene in tow, the television queen of Pasadena’s Rose Parade too:
But where’s the scent today Mr Dandy dear?
I hear you holler.
Stop right now, that kind of screaming is strictly…
For it is the perfume that Hubert Givenchy de Givenchy wanted to name after his muse and the world’s favourite gamine star but was forbidden by Audrey Hepburn from doing so, thus giving the fragrance its monicker.
A floral aldehyde starting crisply: metallic as the snap fast of a handbag clasp, a seque into fruit cocktail rose made up with iris powder, a dry down into sweet sandalwood, talcum musk and the merest hint of grass and salt and earth.
L’Interdit is the very epitome of middle last century chic.
Refined, reserved, starched: a work of crafted artifice.
Like Hepburn in Hubert by Avedon.
Roses all.
Perfumed and perfectly delectable.
Happy Birthday our very own Hedda!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy.
The Perfumed Dandy. 
Happy Birthday to Vickie Lester! And congratulations on the book! I’m looking forward to reading the excerpts and exploring her site. And hooray for Betty White! She’s just great. I haven’t smelled L’Interdit in a million years, but now I very much want to again.
Dearest Lily
Oh do explore… I’m sure you’ll enjoy the wonderful words and pictures over at Vickie’s place.
As to L’Interdit, make sure it’s an old one if you’re after rose… the note seems to have been eradicated from all versions after about 2003.
As to Betty White… what a wonder, and of course, forever Rose!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
Vickie, Betty (is it odd that I had a crush on her in The Golden Girls as a pre-teen?!) and Audrey, what a magnificent trio! Such a gracious and warm tribute to Ms Lester, Esteemed Dandy. Her birthday has just gained an extra glow. And how is it that you so elegantly sum up L’Interdit in so few words? My chapeau is off to you, sirrah. Oh, and may Betty stay afloat for many more years yet.
Yours, George
Dearest George
What a wonderful crush!
Jeanne Moreau, but in her later “The Clothes In The Wardrobe Phrase” was one of mine. Surely we were simply ahead of our time…
Just like the splendid Ms Lester!
As to L’Interdit, it is a perfume essentially of economy, so it seems appropriate to render it a streamlined fashion, at least for now.
God bless the good ship Betty and all who sail in her!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
You are too, too, beguiling! And to be in such wonderful company… Words cannot express darling Dandy. It sound like L’Interdit for me — what a pleasure to be introduced to the scent in your prose. It will now be, perhaps, the only perfume I wear. I’m sending you some Yankee Kisses and a huge hug for your rosy thoughts, Vickie
Dearest V… ahem… Miss Lester (Ma’am)
Happy Birthday!
Yes, vintage L’Interdit, is quite a thing, though perhaps like Audrey you should consider rotating it with Chamade, Joy and Ivoire among others.
Impeccable taste that lady.
Like yourself.
*Bows*
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
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Wonderful post, dear dandy. I do love it
XOXO
Dearest Luixe
Thank you.
I always know The Dandy’s done something right when I receive your seal of approval!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy