The Game of Houses

I've recently read comparison of fragrance to music, an experience that can be so emotional, and which can have so much presence, yet which by its nature is ephemeral and untouchable. Esteemed fragrance critic Luca Turin has suggested that one should consider fragrance to be the background music which plays when one enters the room - though I imagine that one would not want to apply fragrance quite so heavily as that.

I think of it more as adding a fourth dimension to ourselves. Ordinarily when you meet someone you see them, hear them, and touch them (when you shake hands). Fragrance adds depth and presence in an entirely new direction, often forming powerful emotional connections. Ultimately I find that scent - like beauty - is emotion, and enveloping oneself in an exquisite fragrance can be as gratifying as wearing a beautiful watch on one's wrist.

The high end fragrance industry has expanded enormously in the past several years as so called niche perfume houses have sprung up like fragrant weeds, and established manufacturers have expanded their lines tremendously. I will touch on a few houses here:

Serge Lutens

The signature fragrance line of Shisedo's Creative Director, the Serge Lutens collection was probably the vanguard of what has now become the niche perfumery industry. His fragrances represent a singular vision and individual taste, rather than the collective brainstorming of a product marketing group and market testing. If Serge Lutens in the visionary, then it is perfumer Christopher Sheldrake who is the engineer who has brought Lutens' aesthetic to palpable life.

The collection itself, if not defined by a common accord, are unabashedly opulent, heavy with spices and almost universally sweet. Like haute couture, not all are truly wearable in ordinary life, but also like haute couture they show what is possible.

The full collection, totaling the Exclusive and Export lines, can only be experienced in its entirety in Paris, at the Salons du Palais Royal Shisedo - which will ship its beautiful bell jars of eau de parfum anywhere in Europe (only). A selection are made available in the US in the Export collecton, in less beautiful - if more practical - spray bottles.

My favorite of the collection, as far as I have sampled it, is Arabie, a fragrance rich in dried fruits and dusty spices, and touchd by a smokiness akin to fine Latakia. It is what I imagine as the scent of the Count of Monte Cristo in his decadence, with his beautiful slave girl.

Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle

Another man of vision, Frederic Malle has used his means not to create a line reflecting his own taste, but the unrestricted sensibilities of some of the industry's best perfumers. Ordinarily perfumers are handed a folio, which contains the marketing idea for a new fragrance. The perfumer then attempts to develop something which conforms to this idea, the brand identity for whomever the folio is for, working within the limits formulation price point. In the Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle each perfumer is treated like an artist, given carte blanche to create whatever they wish, with even the most expensive and rarest of ingredients.

Akin to the Serge Lutens collection, the fragarances all share the same bottle design - with scent as centerpiece rather than the market concept. Unprecedentedly, each fragrance bears the name of the perfumer rather than the line (excepting only "Outrageous" which is made exclusively for Barney's Co-Op in the US). On the whole it is very much a purists vision. Also like Lutens, it is based in Paris, though available in more places throughout the world, and will ship internationally from its website. In the US, Barney's is the exclusive dealer.

Bigarade Concentree is thus far the only edition of this diverse collection which is to my taste - but these days is what I usually wear. I had overall been disappointed with fragrances by Jean-Claude Ellena, particulary in his work for Hermes, but I wonder now if that is more the fault of the limits in which he has to work when serving a brand. Here he has created what I have called the apotheosis of citrus fragrances, the living and enduring scent of bitter oranges - nearly the scent of the grove itself, heavy with ripe fruit, with spice on the breeze like pollen.

Tom Ford

To put in one entry from the US, designer Tom Ford has made a name for himself as hired gun for grand fashion houses like Yves Saint Laurent, and the house of Gucci which he has been credited for reviving after the excesses of the 1980s. Within the fragrance subculture he is also credited with bringing a unique vision to men's fragrance, countering the "eau de hygeine" trend of aquatic fragrances that has dominated the fragrance industry since the early 1990s. YSL Rive Gauche pour Homme, YSL M7, and Gucci Pour Homme, are mass market fragrances beloved by connoisseurs otherwise obsessed only with niche fragrances.

Now having founded his own design house, his sleek yet extravagantly sensual sensibility has now found expression in his new but already extensive signature line of fragrances which is divided between the Private Collection available only at Tom Ford boutiques, and a smaller number of more widely available, mass marketed fragrances. There was quite a bit of skepticism at so many fragrances released simultaneously, but quite a bit of applause afterwards.

Thus far the only fragrance of his that I have found pleasing is, amusingly, the one most panned by the connoisseur community; the widely marketed Tom Ford for Men. With its blatant and perhaps too honest print campaign - in truth, what is your average young man thinking of when purchasing a bottle of Aqua di Gio - it has perhaps too deeply offended the high notions of the perfume community before the first sniff. I find it wraps one in a subtle sensuously soft and smoky golden aura, understated enough for the day, but tailor made for evenings.

This very brief, rushed introduction is only the snowflake on the iceberg. The game of fragrances houses extends to many other names, established and new: Chanel, Guerlain, L’Artisan Perfumer, JAR, Ormond Jayne, Divine, Parfums de Nicolai, Creed, &c. Happy sniffing.