A. Let me begin with some words from perfumers and people in the industry.
Odors are words, and perfume is literature.
Jean-Claude Ellena
A fine perfume is not the result of “industrial technology,” but of an aesthetic exploration in which artistic sensibility is used to blend dozens of aromatic materials into a beautiful, distinctive olfactory form. That beautiful, distinctive form will surely bear the perfumer’s individuality.
Edmond Roudnitska
Perfume is absolutely not memory and sex. Perfume is beauty and intellect. Perfume is not a smell, but a message contained in a bottle. That message is written by the perfumer and read by the person who smells it.
Luca Turin
To their words, I would add that today’s perfume industry is market-driven. Whatever anyone says, and whether or not you like the scent, 90% or more of the perfumes on the market are copycat fragrances or products of market testing; however much you like their stories, most are added after the fact. Ideas that perfumers think would be interesting are rejected, and the resulting scents end up somewhat alike. Worst of all, a perfume is not released because the perfumer has decided, “It is finished!” The deadline is the signal that it is finished.
In Japan, people tend to say, “Huh? What is wrong with that? Everyone likes different things, right?” But that is why perfumers are in such a weak position. Their scents are copied because there is no such thing as copyright for fragrance. So, if you ask what distinguishes perfumes that speak to us from those that do not, my first point is whether the perfumer was able to create something truly satisfying.
My second point is whether there was a director who could guide the perfumer well. For the reasons above, some perfumers decide, “Then I will start my own brand!” Few of those ventures succeed, and most end up folding. Leaving aside the question of how few perfumers there are in the first place, success is more likely when someone steers the work than when perfume is left entirely to the perfumer. Think of Sheldrake and Lutens, the perfumers and Frédéric Malle, or Calice Becker and Kilian. It is like making an interesting piece of writing even more interesting through editing.
My third point is whether trends are part of the thinking. To borrow the idea of putting your whole soul into a single pitch, perfumes into which a perfumer has genuinely put time and soul are timeless and remain on the market no matter how many years pass. These days, some people call everything a masterpiece: this one, that one, all of them. But I believe a great perfume can withstand the weight of time… Why can a fragrance be discontinued so casually? As for brands with many discontinued fragrances… that tells you something.
