Perfumers want your signature scent to be a mix of fragrances that can run $295 each

Perfumers embrace fragrance “wardrobing”

The thing about having a signature scent is that you buy your favorite one, and the bottle can last years. Brands love loyalty—but not that you purchase their product only once or twice a presidential term. For years they’ve solved this problem by flanking “pillar” perfumes with formulas reworked for intensity or seasonality: Calvin Klein’s Eternity has been spun off into Eternity Summer, Eternity Now, and Eternity Aqua for Her.

Now perfumers are dropping multiple bottles at once, pushing a concept called scent “wardrobing.” The hope: Customers will mix colognes to create a more distinctive trademark, much like you’d mix pieces of clothing to form a one-of-a-kind ensemble. And by “customers,” we mean millennials, who “like to change their fragrances to suit particular moods and occasions,” says Elizabeth Musmanno, president of the Fragrance Foundation.

In mid-May, Bottega Veneta released Parco Palladiano, six scents inspired by a Venetian garden that are numbered simply with Roman numerals. (They are unisex, cost $295 apiece, and, though not sold in a special box, they’re presented as a set—collect ’em all!) This follows Olfactories by Prada (10 bottles), Le Vestiaire des Parfums by Yves Saint Laurent (5), 10 Crosby by Derek Lam (10), and Jo Malone London’s Rare Teas release in April. “It would have been impossible to choose just one tea,” says Céline Roux, fragrance director. She ultimately narrowed it down to a half-dozen. <BW>