From Gale Hayman, Beverly Hills in a Bottle : Fragrances: Giorgio co-creator says her new ‘floral-Oriental’ scent is for women who are ‘aware of their femininity.’
Ten years after she helped create the blockbuster Giorgio fragrance, Gale Hayman has a new perfume, Beverly Hills, on cosmetics counters.
If Giorgio was the walloping, knock ‘em dead scent that symbolized the assertiveness of the emerging female, Beverly Hills represents a softer woman “who doesn’t have to apologize for being strong and also is very aware of maintaining her femininity,” Hayman says, adding: “She can run a company wearing pink, if she wants.”
It could be said that the new scent goes along with a new, softer Hayman, who runs her own three-year-old cosmetics company, Gale Hayman Beverly Hills (in Century City), wearing if not pink then pea-green shorts and sweater to the office.
She says her first year in business for herself was very difficult. “I wasn’t used to dealing with the business decisions. I was used to being responsible for the creative,” she explains.
But, she says, her second year has been better. “Now my company’s fun. My products are selling past projection.”
There are still some challenges. Nordstrom, which had carried Hayman’s color cosmetics since fall, 1988, dropped the line earlier this year because sales had fallen off, a spokesman said.
But the selected Bullock’s stores that have been carrying Gale Hayman cosmetics in Southern California since May 1, are “doing a nice business and we’re considering expansion to additional stores,” said Kathy Waugh, Bullock’s vice president of public relations.
On the personal side, after a widely publicized, contentious divorce seven years ago from her husband Fred, her former partner in the Giorgio retail and fragrance empire, Hayman now says, “My life is together. There is a man in my life and I am very happy.”
There are no imminent plans for marriage, Hayman says. But, she adds, “I believe in marriage and I look forward to being happily married again. Romance and stability definitely are back. Men have changed too. There’s a modern man out there (who is) . . . very strong man (and) very sensitive and he doesn’t sacrifice his macho (image) by crying or doing the dishes or feeding the baby.”
Her new fragrance is a “floral-Oriental” scent. Hayman describes it as less aggressive than the powerful Giorgio blend, which was sold to Avon in 1987. The new perfume sells for $165 per ounce, $50 per ounce for cologne. Both are available at Bullock’s in Southern California.
The bottle is an eye-catcher, with a gold and black enamel leopard-shaped cap (that matches her leopard print cosmetics packaging). Hayman hopes the bottles will become collectibles, but even she is astounded to report that at Macy’s, New York, where the scent was launched earlier this summer, orders have been taken for the gargantuan display pieces, which sell empty for $500.
