![]() “In the same way that you might want to be unique in the way you dress, there are people who want to be unique in the way they smell,” he says. For the typical bespoke fragrance client, he says, price is no object. Kilian Hennessy, the Cognac dynasty heir and founder of Kilian Paris, charges $35,000 to formulate a signature scent, which typically takes six months to develop. ![]() ![]() In typical times, the experience would begin with a meeting in a private atelier above Guerlain’s mirrored, art nouveau Champs-Elysees boutique now, it moves along, like everything else, via video calls and express mail. His 12-month process, yields, for the price of about $55,000, a velvet-lined box filled with 2 liters of eau de you, decanted into a collection of 20 Baccarat crystal bottles. Guerlain perfumer Thierry Wasser Stephane Cardinale - Corbis // Getty ImagesĪt Guerlain, master perfumer Thierry Wasser carries on a tradition that has been engrained in the iconic French brand since its founder Pierre-Francois Pascal Guerlain concocted the delicate orange blossom and rosemary-spiked Eau de Cologne Imperiale at the behest of Empress Eugenie in 1853. In fact, it is very likely that some scents initiated this year-or even last-will not land upon their intended pulse point until sometime in 2021. As always, the undertaking requires both deep pockets and near-unfathomable patience. It hasn’t been difficult, then, for perfumers to pivot so that samples are sent to be experienced privately or over Zoom. The creation of a custom scent involves an intimate tete-a-tete between perfumer and perfume-seeker, and because many bespoke clients are incessant jetsetters, the process has already often been partly conducted remotely. “Because of the pandemic, they wanted us to create a scent that would give them the vacation they could not have.” He is among many perfumers who report an upswing in customers eager to find a fragrance that can conjure normality, summon serenity, or recreate the frisson of human contact. ![]() “A lot of my clients who usually go to Dubai, or Marrakech or Paris or London didn’t get to go this year, and they said, ‘I want something that is going to transport me,’” says Ben Krigler of the venerated perfume house Krigler. And for a certain set, it follows: Wouldn't it be supremely luxurious to spray on a scent as unique as one’s own fingerprint? Forget the received wisdom (and marketing) that says we wear fragrance to attract others, we’ve clearly discovered the delight in wearing it for ourselves. In an atmosphere of enforced isolation, scent can provide a sense of connection-to each other, to nature, to ourselves-and what used to be a quick spray on the way out the door can instead be a meditative, Calgon-take-me-away-esque ritual, rife with transcendent pleasure. Perfume, surprisingly, has proven be particularly pandemic-proof: Sales for all things home-scent-related have surged, while traditional spritz-on-the-wrist fragrances have continued to sell apace, even when most of us are venturing out, if at all, with masked nostrils muted to the smells of the world.įor many, this has actually been a time of awakening to the power of perfume-its ability to transport our minds through time and space, to comfort us, to give meaning, even magic, to mundane moments. The last several months have shown us what we will consider to be self-care essentials no matter how dark and weird current events become.
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