95- Scents of discovery

come in hand-blown coloured glass bottles, which can be personalised with the customer’s initials. There’s also a bespoke service for customers requiring something tailored to their own preferences.

Fragrance is being aligned with time, space, philosophy, fleeting moments and emotion: Los Angeles-based fragrance brand Régime des Fleurs claims to translate classical mythology and postmodernism into scent. It also references contemporary art, 1980s Memphis and baroque interiors. Icelandic artist and perfumer Andrea Maack tries to visualise the raw landscape of her homeland as fragrance, creating scents with names such as Ion, Coal and Birch.

Fashion photographer Nick Knight recently completed a conceptual art film for Comme des Garçons, designed to evoke the brand’s new fragrance, Floriental. Andrew Cinnamon and Charlie Stackhouse, the partners behind the Manhattan-based creative agency Cinnamon Projects, have also recently pushed the boundaries further, creating an exploration

Hermès standalone perfume store, NYC

of fragrance, time and memory in a range of scents. “Our scents reflect our attempt to distill and translate image into an ephemeral, sensorial format,” Cinnamon told Wallpaper* magazine. “We discovered different hours had incredibly distinct patterns of colour, texture and, especially, subject matter.”

Fragrance is being elevated in the eyes of consumers to become more than a treat for gift-giving season. It’s becoming a credible, intellectual, luxury investment and one in which creators are pushing the boundaries. The artisanal perfume market share rose by 35% for the year ending December 2014, according to NPD Group. Meanwhile, luxury groups are focusing on elevating their fragrance offering as a credible indulgence, and one that goes beyond the celebrity endorsements of recent years.