Madison in New York
Last Tuesday, September 22nd, we had one of our best events ever: the world wide premiere of Bond No. 9’s Andy Warhol Success is a Job in New York.
This event was very special for me because it gave me a chance to dedicate ample space and time to Bond No. 9, a line I love and a line which always keeps me close to my beloved New York City. It was as much fun to organize the event, as it was to actully watch it and be part of its unfolding.
It all started with the fact that the time came to do something very special for Bond No 9, and we wanted to tie in the Success story. The location was hard to find (where do you find something New York-like in Bucharest?), and also a theme was not easy to conceive. OK, it was going to be about the fragrances and New York, but it was not THAT easy to make it all come together.
Miraculosuly, we did find a location. It was right dead center of Bucharest, called Metropolis Center, across the street from Studio Martin. The building was newly renovated, it was all brick, metal and galss on the outside, impossible large windows and hiiiiiiigh ceilings and, better yet, one of the wings of the building was unfinished and was not going to be touched up. So it was like a warehouse with wires hanging, no floors, like a Brooklyn lofty working atelier.
And afterwards, little by little, it all started to happen: Radu and I were driving one Sunday morning (which we never do, normally, as we are home with Zoe; but this particular Sunday Zoe was away and we could have an outing for brunch), when we heard an interview n Radio Guerilla. It was with Lucian Ban, a jazz artist, Romanian but living and performing in New York, and here for the Festivalul Anonimul. Lucian Ban, together with Silent Strike, Sorin Romanescu and Dan Basu were compsing an original soundtrack called “Songs for Andy Warhol”, music and visuals blended with a lot of screen tests and shots done by Andy! How perfect!
We got in touch with Lucian and after a few email exchanges, we realized how lucky we were to have him here, in Bucharest, on September 22nd, during the Enescu Festival! So we booked him and the other guys.
We also needed a decor concept. And this is where I had some ideas, none too brilliant, like drawing a Manhattan map with chalck, on the floor, and placing tables in the certain areas of town. One day I just resorted to posting a holler on Facebook about anyone knowing any graffiti artists. Enter Stefan Cosma, as ComsiCosma. He told me he knew someone, but he asked why I needed a graffiti artist. So I told him. And on the spot, he came up with the perfect scenario: “oh, so why don’t we create a skyline of New York from cardboard, and then we hang the fragrances like they are stars over Manhattan, with dimmed lights accenting them from underneath”. I instantly loved the idea. We all rolled it out with lots of excitement.
Nadia Popescu did a wonderful invitation, with the fragrances on one side, and a drawn out map of Manhattan on the other.
It was all going so well until one day, early September, when we got word from New York that the fragrance was not going to be ready on time and we could not have it for our launch. It was going to be launched in October in America, and we thought all along that it would not be a problem to have it here in time for the 22nd of September.
For a few days, I was in agony. Nobody could guarantee that I would get it, my invitations were out, the artists were hired, contracts were signed… and I could not change the main topic of the event: the unveiling of Success. But it all came to a happy ending when the Bond No. 9 PR office kindly sent us a prototype of the bottle, together with a LAB SAMPLE of Success.
So can you believe how much of a premiere we did?
Here are the pictures. For those of you who were there, I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. 
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