'Thou Shalt Smell Fabulous'

BBC Perfume Documentary response

Part 1: 'Something Old, and Something New'

'Something old...'

The first episode of this perfume documentary series focused on the contrast between Old Guard perfumeries and commercial brands fragrances…

Founded in 1828, Guerlain is one of the world’s oldest fragrance houses. This brands most famous scent is ‘Shalimar’ which was created almost a century ago. However, perfumeries similar to this are reliant on traditionalists to invest in their products. ‘Get them young and keep them for life’ was the term used in the film to describe the business of a young person in such a perfumery. Ancient houses have only tiny shares in the fragrance market unlike big corporate brands. This is because of the need to stay true to the brands heritage. Jean Paul Guerlain kept tight to family tradition; he didn’t like large-scale marketing and only did so by inviting journalists to his house to ‘mention’ a new launch.

Their signature scent ‘Shalimar’ remains unchanged since 1921 with the new guard Passa stating “…you can’t betray the book (recipe book)”. As globalisation became increasingly hard to outrun, the new guard had plans to create a modernised ‘Shalimar’. This would ease Guerlain into the more corporate market, appealing to a younger and less traditional audience.

Being a very Franco-French brand, Guerlain has no relation to a younger target

market and with the growth of commercial brand fragrances the future of Guerlain is questionable…

'...and Something New'

Opposing Guerlain are the commercial brands, throwing out thousands of launches annually to consumers. Viewers were taken thought the creative process of launching of a fragrance for Tommy Hilfiger. They were marketing to ‘Generation Y’ who were branded as being ‘creative’ therefore this was the direction the launch went. The team behind the fragrance launch wanted to fuse music and scent in the hope that their target audience would buy into the narrative. Rock’ n ’Roll was the chosen route, so they had to create a scent this translated into. The team created moodboards and collages surrounding story when applied to the 2000's. The fragrance team chose the base notes of; Roses, Patchouli, Tobacco, and Lychee. The fragrance team had several features to think about during the process; the idea, advertising campaign, bottle design, packaging, and brand ambassadors.

However, the fragrance team pulled off the launch successfully taking into account the integrity of the narrative they were trying to sell. The bottle resembled an LP, in a circle form with ridges; the bottle top referenced the knobs on an amplifier and the packaging had a sleeve where the bottle slipped into creating an interactive experience for their consumers. The launch ambassadors they chose were The Ting Tings and Daisy Lowe, both apart the rock scene to tell draw in the young audience they were targeting.

Part 2: 'Bottling the Memory'

Christopher Brosius owns his own perfumery in New York but it has a twist because it holds no convention scents inside its bottles. He describes conventional perfume as an ‘ethereal corset trapping everyone in the same unnatural shape, a lazy and inelegant concession to fashionable ego’. Some examples of the scents he has bottled are; roast beef, ‘Russian’, earth, and even a musky unwashed body. His clients come to him and ask him to conjure up a certain scent. His client who featured in the documentary wanted him to find the scent of England.

His process is quite conceptual; he asks the client what England smells like to them. After this Christopher does further research into the scent and its individual components. It takes months to create the perfect mixture of chords and notes which he then refines and produces the finished product. England in a bottle. He finds true beauty in the real. Scent has the ability to transport a person to different place and time because subconsciously we remember scents from memorable events in our life. It isn't until we smell the scent again that we remember the memory.

Elainer who was also interviewed for part 2 of the documentary finds beauty in fantasy as he believes "the illusions and the dreams are always more beautiful(than reality)". His creative process is much less linear than Tommy Hilfiger's fragrance team or Christopher Brosius as he ties a much more emotion to the scent. He specially creates scents for individual clients based on personality. He believes smells have texture, warmth, and character.

Part 3: 'the Smell of the Future'

Part 3 followed Ann Gockley, a scent forecaster whilst she created a new scent of Lynx/Axe in Brazil. She raised the importance of location when producing a fragrance, as what works in one place won't work in another. For example climate effects what a region looks for in a trend; Russian wants a heavy & rich scent, China wants light & airy, whilst the Middle East want a woody & spice centred fragrance.

Scents are built off of consumer profiles and demographics. Brazil is an LEDC when compared to other countries Lynx is sold in. With Brazil being what Gockley described as 'scent literate' they have to tailor the scent specifically for the region to make the most of the demographic, as they buy a lot of fragrance with their money.

#Perfume #Guerlain #TommyHilfiger #Creativeprocess