#perfume documentary

The BBC created a 3 part series on the perfume industry which I watched to aid me in my course.

‘Something Old, Something New’ was the first episode in the series. The setting: Paris, naturally. As I watched the screen, I was taken into the House of Guerlain, a famous French perfumery that personified everything French and decadent. The House relies on tradition and doesn’t conform to modern ways of selling perfume as seen in stores like Macy’s. Instead it encompasses the idea that a daughter is introduced to perfume by her mother.

Smell is considered to be our most primitive and least understood sense. Perfume (or liquid luxury) manipulates this sense and exploits our feelings.

The consistently booming perfume industry has now reached a flat line in recent years. As perfume has become more of a fashion item, more and more have been produced which has led to market saturation as consumers become overwhelmed with choice.

The documentary revealed the process Tommy Hilfiger used to penetrate the market with the creation of ‘Loud’, a perfume aimed at adolescents. The idea of fusing music with the fragrance to create liquid rock ’n’ roll was a good representation of the brand which continually uses this genre of music in their fashion shows. The bottle was circular and rigged to resemble a vinyl disk. Although the bottle was quite unusual, not much thought was put into the women’s perfume which was made an unimaginative pink.

‘Bottle the Memory’ focuses on the perfumers. The opening sequence states perfume is magic captured by science. Its job is to capture a moment which is possible as scent has a close connection with memory.

The role of the perfumer is to be a mixture of a scientist and a poet. The simple act of breathing in and out is an important part of their work.

Interestingly, the documentary says that people want to divorce themselves from their own smell as much as possible. They use perfumes as an unseen mask.