Whiteness in a bottle: Alabaster perfume from Banana Republic

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

There are certain fashion brands that I associate with whiteness. Some, like Abercrombie & Fitch, have aggressively aligned themselves with whiteness. (Their catalogs are basically white supremacist porn.) Others not so much, but because preppy=white in most people’s minds, the association is there. I’m talking about brands like L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, and J. Crew.

After seeing the ad below, I think I’m gonna have to add Banana Republic to that list. Alabaster is just one of three new fragrances they’re offering this season, but is it a coincidence that it’s the only one that gets the full-page treatment? Hmmm…

I looked up “alabaster” on dictionary.com and here are the definitions:

1. a finely granular variety of gypsum, often white and translucent, used for ornamental objects or work, such as lamp bases, figurines, etc.
2. Also called Oriental alabaster. a variety of calcite, often banded, used or sold as alabaster.
3. made of alabaster: an alabaster column.
4. resembling alabaster; smooth and white: her alabaster throat.

I think the message is clear: This fragrance would be HUGE in Asia.

alabaster fragrance banana republic perfume

Share and Enjoy:

Trackbacks & Pings

In case you missed it… at Addicted to Race on 01 Dec 2006 at 2:43 pm

[...] Whiteness in a bottle: Alabaster perfume from Banana Republic: Alabaster is just one of three new fragrances they’re offering this season, but is it a coincidence that it’s the only one that gets the full-page treatment? Hmmm… [...]
In case you missed it… at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture on 06 Dec 2006 at 6:09 pm

[...] Whiteness in a bottle: Alabaster perfume from Banana Republic: Alabaster is just one of three new fragrances they’re offering this season, but is it a coincidence that it’s the only one that gets the full-page treatment? Hmmm… [...]

Comments

jae ran wrote:

As much as I loved the clothing at Banana Republic, they were, after all, the line that had its roots in white colonialist Out of Africa” safari-style many years ago . . .

Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 10:42 am ¶
Jay wrote:

Wait a minute, don’t quite a few Asians buy BR? Then again, I remember quite a few Asians buying A&F as well…

Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 11:16 am ¶
Mrs. J wrote:

I’ll sheepishly admit here that I, too, was one of the eighties kids with the colonialist BR t-shirts back in the day. My multi-cultural (Asian, Black, White) middle school clique wore them, the khaki shorts (and sometimes even those horrid vests!) because we had absolutely no idea what it represented. We just thought we were cool. And we liked going to that store in the mall with the fake dirt floor and palm trees. LOL You’d think my parents (we’re African American) would have said something to me about it, but I guess they were busy living the suburban American dream…

I think this ad is interesting because I’m not even sure that the creative directors and marketing folks over there even realize how racist it is. I think they think it’s “genius” (a term way over used in the fashion industry, if you ask me) and that they’re being “diverse”. Because looking back, they’ve included black models in previous ad campaigns without any racial overtones whatsoever. I wouldn’t be so quick to put them in the Abercrombie/Eddie Bauer/L.L. Bean catergory.

But that doesn’t mean I’m letting them off the hook.
The ad’s fine print says “…one of five modern fragrances.” I would be willing to bet money that this line will include an entire range of subliminally “racially specific” choices with counterparts to “Alabster” featuring an “Ebony” or “Obsidian” and a “Jade” or “Bamboo”, complete with Alek Wek and Devon Aoki look alikes.

Looks like somebody over there was just a little too into Survivor!

Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 12:17 pm ¶
Mrs. J wrote:

Sorry for that typo above, I meant “category”. arrrgh!:)

Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 12:20 pm ¶
MizuWari wrote:

“…I think the message is clear: This fragrance would be HUGE in Asia…”

I forget the name of the stuff, but maybe some enterprising chappie can cross-market it with that Korean skin lightening cream.

“Now you can look AND smell White!”

Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 2:04 pm ¶
justin wrote:

I have a slight suspicion that lightening creams actually have something to do with the way a certain type of skin scars every time it gets a blemish , not like the racial issues aren’t there tho.

Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 2:36 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:

Justin:

That’s the letter of how they’re supposed to be used, to “even out” skin tone due to scars, aging, or just imbalanced skin. Skin lightening is nothing new – Queen Elizabeth used pancake makeup (including heavy metals such as lead), in part to give the image of a youthful/otherworldly queen, but also to hide smallpox scars.

However, for centuries they’ve been used to lighten ALL exposed skin (usually the face, neck, and hands), not just damaged or darker areas of skin.

The usage has been prevalent among some minorities in North and South America, in Africa, in Asia, etc. and both the advertising and sometimes the connotations of marketing have had racial overtones. It’s similar to the way pomades and gels for African-American men have been advertised in the past (and to some extent still are): “wild” hair is “tamed” into something “respectable” – i.e. more like hair texture of a European native.

Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 2:42 pm ¶
Jennifer wrote:

I refuse to analyze marketing ads. Wastes my time when I can go out and make it a better world.

Alabaster perfume may get the whole page treatement because its BR’s most expensive prefume. So they’re generating all this advertising to make profit out of their most expensive product.

I wouldn’t read too much on this add. Just something most people would see in a magazine and then flip to the next page.

Just my 2 cents.

Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 3:35 pm ¶
Marsha wrote:

Aaah! Just to think, a year ago they were plugging their Memoirs of a Geisha line…

http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/arts_culture_media/pc_memoirs_of_a_geisha_1005.asp

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2005-11-07-geisha-tie-ins_x.htm

Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 5:32 pm ¶
Kai wrote:

Speaking of fancy fragrances with sketchy names…

Check out the new fragrance from Kenneth Cole: Black.

Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 7:13 pm ¶
SolShine7 wrote:

I don’t wear slothes from A&F, Banana Repbulic or any of those other stores you listed. I just like their clothes. But A&F is the only one that disgusts me with their raunchy ads.

Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 10:10 pm ¶
Y. Carrington wrote:

“masculine notes of incense, exotic woods and black suede”

For some strange reason I see every hipster white guy and his brother racing to get this cologne. Maybe it’s just me.

Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 10:50 pm ¶
AVGoodsell wrote:

I think people are reading too much into an uninteresting perfume ad. There are greater issues out there…

Posted 01 Dec 2006 at 10:56 pm ¶
merq wrote:

I’ve gotta say, I’m with most of the people who don’t read this as particularly offensive (without the “I’ll go out there and make me a better world, Maw!”).

It’s one thing to avoid disturbing racial overtones, but as a black man, it irritates me when non-blacks are so afraid of offending me that they stubmle over describing shoes I would simply call black.

Alabaster… not necessarily about whiteness, in my opinion.

Just like Kenneth Cole’s “Black” isn’t something I see as racial, either. A lot of my clothing/footwear comes from KC (I’m 6′6′, size 15 shoe… they’re one of the few stores that cater to folks my size) and I know that black is almost the signature color of Kenneth Cole.

Not attacking whoever brought it up. Just wanna clear up a misconception (’cause you know it always comes down to “those minorities blaming everything on race”).

Posted 02 Dec 2006 at 3:08 am ¶
Kai wrote:

I don’t think “Alabaster” or “Black” are offensive either. They’re just fyi’s for folks who like to track language and culture. I certainly don’t see any angry tirades against them. More like a quick chuckle.

Cheers.

Posted 02 Dec 2006 at 5:40 am ¶
Stefanie wrote:

A note on Kenneth Cole’s “Black”:

I recently bought some cologne and noticed that some of the bottles said “Armani Code” and some said “Armani Black Code”, but I thought they looked otherwise like the same fragrance. I asked the sales lady about this and she said that the bottles labled “Armani Black Code” are older shipments. They eventually dropped the “Black” to call it simply “Armani Code”, but the two fragrances are the same. She said that the reason for this is that there were several fragrances coming out at the same time with the word “Black” in it (like “Kenneth Cole Black” or “Polo Double Black”), and they wanted to stand apart. From my perspective, black is seen as a chic, strong, elegant, minimalist color and that’s probably the image trying to be conveyed with these “Black” products.

Posted 02 Dec 2006 at 2:56 pm ¶
Megan wrote:

“From my perspective, black is seen as a chic, strong, elegant, minimalist color…”

I agree with you completely Stefanie. Perhaps it is the art student in me, but when I think of black as a colour those are the things that come to mind first.

Posted 04 Dec 2006 at 3:12 am ¶
island girl wrote:

I don’t think it is racist. Reviewing a bit more, I think I can see a trend in the naming or a certain theme to their perfumes. If you’ll look at their perfume collection, they have ones they named jade, slate, alabaster, rosewood, and another wood/tree name, essentially names of building materials/medium (Someone from architecture or interior design can help me with this). Who knows what they’ll name their next perfume? Maybe they’ll name the next granite, marble, or, you know what I mean.

Posted 17 Jul 2007 at 9:04 pm ¶