I've been asked to do many "celebrity" fragrances in my time. To date, I've turned them all down. What did any of these people really have to add to the already hyper-crowded world of perfume? To my mind, virtually nothing. Then I met Alan.
My first encounter with him was in June 2000. In fact, he presented me with the first of my four Fragrance Foundation Awards. Apparently he was intrigued with my work as he began visiting my former East Village shop whenever he had the time. Over the years we became friends and I realized that Alan has extraordinary talent and style. And he is very kind, funny, generous to a fault, perfectly unique and totally fearless. These are all qualities I very much admire. So when I was asked to create a scent for him, I instantly agreed. This time, it all made sense. I knew we could have a good deal of fun with this project and so we did.
Our first go round with Cumming the Fragrance was good. People loved it but there were many problems - it wound up being mass-produced which none of us were terribly pleased with and we got a little carried away with some additional products. And the scent was sold by others which became very complicated indeed. Also at the time, Alan was (and still is) EXTREMELY busy and I was just beginning my new company so unfortunately neither of us had the time to give the project as it really deserved.
Fortunately much has changed since then. I'm still growing at a wonderful rate but I'm now firmly established. Systems are in place and the Ducks are in their proper rows. So when Russel was doing inventory a while back and found an enormous tin of the original fragrance compound in the storeroom, I realized the time was right to redo the fragrance but this time, just as Alan and I intended. We both have a knack for reinvention - hence the name 2nd Cumming. Same wonderful scent - brand new better format.
And unlike any other "celebrity" fragrance I can think of, Alan and I decided to give ALL profits from the project to various charities. We both know how lucky we are to be able to do this. And since the "global economic crisis" (which I am NOT going to rant about any longer) there are more organizations than ever that do critically necessary work but are lacking the necessary funds to carry on. My personal pet project at the moment is funding the Smoke Free Project that I attended last year. This group was instrumental in helping me in my battle to quit and I found out a while back it was in danger of being shut down due to state budget cuts and general lack of funds. I decided this was NOT going to happen.
So naturally I am encouraging everyone to buy, buy, buy! Not my usual way of going about things but in this case, I have no qualms about pushy salesmanship.