Heya POSSE!! Portia from AustralianPerfumeJunkies and I have a question…… So I’m trolling through YouTube the other day and I come across this Muppet Rainbow Connection video. At the start Debbie Harry is applying fragrance and she has three bottles on her dressing table, NONE of which I can identify. Can anyone help?
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
Debbie Harry & Kermit The Frog – Rainbow Connection
When I was a kid/teen the only lady to ever grace my bedroom walls was Debbie Harry, I had two ENORMOUS posters of her and played her music ad infinatum. I have met Ms Harry a couple of times, she came and saw the show in Piccadilly, London at the opening night of a new club back in the 1990s and then a few years ago she was in the audience with her crew at the Sydney Opera House and after our show she came backstage to have a chat and a laugh. Both times she was really sweet and friendly to someone (me) who is really nothing but a blip on the entertainment landscape compared with her and I will always be grateful.
What are your Debbie Harry Memories, and what the hell are those frags on her desk in Rainbow Connection?
I hope your day is lovely and fragrant,
Waft on Posse,
Portia xx
I can’t make the bottles match, but according to The Perfumed Court, Debbie Harry liked Tabac Blond. I find that a perfectly credible idea.
http://theperfumedcourt.com/Products/Celebrities-Sampler—What-Famous-Women-Wear—Womens-Pick-your-own-Celebrity-Sampler-Pack—Over-230-scents__CELEBRITIESSAMPLER.aspx
Love your Debbie Harry stories, Portia! Blondie’s music was great – couldn’t get enough of “Eat to the Beat.” Thanks for the video and glad the perfume mystery is solved.
Hey Bobbie,
They are pretty tame Debbie Harry stories. Sadly I met her 10-15 years after the madness calmed. One day I’ll tell you my Grace Jones story, that’s a little wilder
Portia x
The only time (well one of the only times) when I wanted to murder my older brother was as a yoof the family were in a record shop and Mom was allowing us to choose our allotted albums for purchase. I picked up a Blondie disc and my older brother bleated to Mom “but that’s a PUNK band!” This after a TV “expose” about the evils of punk. To paraphrase E. F. Benson, had that disc had a razor edge, I would have, with a sense of duty accomplished, slit his f$&king throat with it.
Oh Tom,
What a beautiful family moment. You should write to your brother and give him a grownups serve.
Portia xx
We were lucky to see her in D.C. when she was singing with the Jazz Passengers. Small club, great music and a conga line to “The Tide is High” at the end of the show. Sooo fun!
SHUT UP!! They never did a conga line. That is one of the best things I’ve ever heard of at a gig. How freaking fabulous.
What fragrance were you wearing for it ElizaC?
Portia xx
Howdy, Portia! Great post — love, love, love Debbie Harry and Blondie. She always seemed like a very cool but nice person, so glad to hear that you found her so. As for the perfume, seeing that flat, circular disc atop the bottles, my first thought was Faberge’s Babe, but after poking about a bit online, none of the Babe bottles I saw had that metal ring between cap and bottle. Or maybe they were just prop bottles? 🙂 And the mystery continues …
Heya Ann,
Wonderful to see you as always. So glad you like the post and the content. She is a star, you would love her. Kind of fey, like a fairy lost on earth.
I love the mystery part……
Portia xx
Totally on the right is a Cabochard extrait by Grès (little grey bow included), there ‘s a Hermes bottle in the middle indeed. Poooh, one little mystery solved I guess.
Greetings Portia!
Illdone
WOW!! Cabochard Extrait! Nice pick up Ildone.
Greetings right back to you, clever chickie!!
Portia xx
My God how young and beautiful she is in the video!!!! She always seemed like a nice person. Although she posed cool and distant, she had that beautiful sincere smile (and the shape of her lips is WOW!).
I loved Blondie’s music and Debbie’s soft and clear voice from the first album on. I dyed my hair and wore it the same way and dressed as much as possible her style. It was some kind of posh punk style. And of course my walls were covered in her posters. Thanks for bringing back the nice memories.
As for the bottles, the one she applies is very likely the old Hermes, but the other two I’m not sure…there was a girly scent back then called My Melody and it had a similar cap like the two others but I doubt that Debbie would use it 😀
Hey Neva,
Yes, she does look fresh. I am so happy that i’ve brought back some happy memories for you. Blondie music always makes me smile and she was so chic. One of the posters I had of her was in a beige woolly jacket all done up and walking in the country, she looked free and happy. It wasn’t a cutting edge look or anything but her hair and that outrageously gorgeous face made it very now, no matter what she wore.
My Melody, why not. Fragrance wasn’t like it is now. People wore great scents and some of the cheapies from that era are excellent.
Portia xx
The first and third bottles are clearly the same bottle in two different sizes, and they don’t look like anything I know from the period (that song was recorded in 1981): they resemble Dior Dolce Vita, but the neck and stopper are wrong and also that dates from 1995, so I have no idea, although frankly if Debbie Harry had gone into the future to buy perfume I would not be at all surprised. They might be commercial bottles that were sold empty. I think I’m on firmer ground with the middle bottle, which appears to be Hermès, and if it is, the only thing it could be is Caléche.
I was OBSESSED with Blondie and Debbie Harry in the late seventies and early eighties,and I guess I never really grew out of that obsession: Fell in love with “Heart of Glass” in 1979, bought the album, bought their two earlier albums, followed them until they broke up in 1982, bought all their subsequent albums after they regrouped in 1999….
Hey Robert Matthews,
OOOOOH! It could be a Caleche!
I love that many of us adored Blondie, she was sweet and naughty and so cool it hurt. Still is.
Heart of Glass!! I loved doing Debbie Harry numbers, she had such a way with a lyric. Heart of Glass, Call Me, In The Flesh and The Tide Is High were all numbers I mimed in shows at one time or another.
Portia xx
I grew up with a mom who was a little submissive and a lot hippie, so when it came time to rebel, I started with music. I loved Hendrix, Joplin, Dylan and The Band…but I hadn’t seen anything like Debbie Harry. She wanted nothing to do with peace love and understanding. She had the world by the balls, with a knife to it’s neck, it’s back to the wall and bared teeth. Parallel Lines was the beginning of my musical rebellion…and that journey led me to uncompromising broads like Joan Jett, Patti Smith, Pat Benetar and, later, Bikini Kill and Sleater Kinney. I have no idea what that perfume is…but I would put money on it being just sweet enough to lure some unsuspecting frog into a salted pot. If I had to guess.
WOW!! What a wonderful musical ride you took LaDona. Isn’t it fabulous that something so intangible changed your life? Also interesting that you maintain a love for something quite different and also intangible, perfume.
Poor Kermit, he always picks the tough girls.
Portia x