You’re dressed to the nines: a carefully crafted outfit complete with shoes that function as splendidly as they look, and punctuated with the right amount of accessories that say you’re all about the fine details. From the first glance of the ensemble, it’s obvious that you know who you are and what you like. The aesthetic is set. What more can elevate it? The right scent.
That’s the idea behind fragrances guided by luxury fashion houses. Yes, they’re often thought of as entry-level introductions to a fashion house—an affordable way of immersing oneself into its tenets—but conceptually, they act more like final touches to a look. The final accessory, if you will.
It is counterintuitive, however, to complete a head-to-toe Dior Men fit with a Dior fragrance—it says little about you as a person than you’d think. As is the case with style and fashion, it’s not so much about what you wear as it is about how you wear something.
Master perfumers may sometimes take inspiration from the fashion house but more often than not, the fragrances tend to stand on their own. They remain true to the spirit of the house they’re crafted for, yet hardly are they literal manifestations of a certain collection or fashion creation of the house. And that means that these fragrances are as malleable as fashion, capable of being paired and layered to suit a mood or occasion.
Subtle nuances rank high in fashion. The simplest and most minimal of fashion creations should never be taken as the easiest to execute—the more seemingly minimal a piece is, the more technical the craftsmanship needed.
The latest expression of the Hermès H24 eau de parfum is a strong representation of the notion. Formulated by the director of creation and olfactory heritage for Hermès Parfums Christine Nagel, the H24 Herbes Vives revisits the original with a more vegetal vision. The result is a greener fragrance brought about by a combination of fresh herbs the likes of parsley, hemp, and sorrel while still retaining that slightly metallic signature allure of H24. The latter is reimagined with Physcool® that adds a hint of mint to the mix.
Francis Kurkdjian interprets Dior’s iconic New Look spirit as a fragrance, reimagining it as an encapsulation of the term for today. The top note consisting of a soaring aldehyde strikes with a clean, almost sterile, hit that is then grounded with the earthy characteristics of frankincense. What gives the La Collection Privée Christian Dior New Look even more body is the base amber accord for a completely balanced fragrance that hardly overpowers.
Maison Margiela’s Replica From The Garden is essentially a bottled memory of harvesting tomatoes in a rich and healthy garden. Hence, the freshness of tomato leaves is matched with bright green mandarin, patchouli, and geranium essences for a truly green concoction. It’s fresh but not cutting, so much so that you’d smell like a bush; rather, a spritz of the very best of nature.
For more intense flavours, these latest selections offer more body and depth that are best suited to be worn on their own. Take the BOSS Bottled Elixir for example. The eau de parfum is a more elevated take on the popular eau de toilette original that’s become part of a starter pack for men venturing into fragrances. Just like the original, the overall fragrance is warm and heavy. Incense and cardamom top notes combine with earthy vetiver and patchouli before being rounded with cedarwood essence and labdanum absolute. It’s typically what one would think of as a masculine fragrance but amped up in intensity.
YSL Beauty’s new MYSLF eau de parfum is its take on “new masculinity”. While it is as bold and heavy as other masculine fragrances, there are hints of vibrant freshness. A bergamot accord serves as its top note, giving off that freshness while a middle orange blossom heart dials down the citrus with sweetness. And for that depth typical of masculine fragrances, a woody accord of Indonesian patchouli and Ambrofix.
If rich, leather-inspired scents are what you feel, add that luxurious complement to your fit, the Noir Kogane eau de parfum by Armani/ Privé deserves a spot in your fragrance rotation. The leather base is topped with sharp elemi and pink pepper, with saffron and frankincense adding on to the intensity. But if the first spritz is intense, the fragrance dries down into a sweet balance of leather and tobacco in a rather satisfying way.
Photography: Jaya Khidir
Styling: Asri Jasman
Styling Assistant: Chua Xin Xuan
If books are windows to another world then get ready for a world tour. Embark on a journey around the globe with two new Louis Vuitton books. Offering sensorial experiences (aside from its chocolate shoppe) from different corners of the planet that are depicted through a photographer's lens and an artists’ watercolour works. Synonymous with the art of travelling, the trunk maker continues to capture the essence of new experiences and adventure through documentation.
As 2024 begins, Éditions Louis Vuitton extends another invitation to travel with Martin Parr’s United Kingdom. From shores to villages, the latest addition to the Fashion Eye collection paints a bittersweet portrait of the island nation.
The book records the ordinary life of the working class and the aristocracy. With about a hundred pictures in its contents, some never before published, it documents real life and real people in the four corners of the UK between 1998 and today.
Throughout, Parr maintains the same mischievous tone established in his first cult series and films like Bad Weather (1982); The Last Resort (1982-1985); The Cost of Living (1989); Signs of the Times (1992). Forty years later, he observes his peers the way his father observed birds: tirelessly.
Altogether, Parr's works transcends boundaries imposed by distance and space, offering an anthropological look at life in the UK to the world. Sharing many mixed emotions he feels towards his homeland, Parr presents his subjects as they are, flaws and all. Instead of imposing a specific perspective, he simply shows them as they truly are. As to its interpretation? Well, the best works are the ones that the viewers have to come up with their own.
Fashion Eye United Kingdom by Martin Parr will be available in Louis Vuitton stores, online and through select booksellers from 5 April 2024.
With the release of A Perfume Atlas, Louis Vuitton reveals the tedious processes that go into perfume making. Orchestrated by Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, master perfumer of Louis Vuitton, the book invites readers to trail the creator in his search for exceptional ingredients. Opening the door to a sensorial world filled with discoveries through the words of Lionel Paillès—an author renowned for his expertise in perfumery—coupled with paintings of Aurore de la Morinerie and photography by Sébastien Zanella.
A Perfume Atlas offers an extremely rare glimpse inside the savoir-faire of Belletrud. Through 200 watercolour depictions, it unveils the secrets of the house's perfume production process. Each page follows the master perfumer circling the globe in search of materials and his relationships with farmers in remote locales. Readers will be drawn by an evocative energy enhanced by age-old folklore.
A Perfume Atlas is also available in a limited edition set: the Perfume Atlas exclusive set. It includes 45 phials containing extractions of raw materials specially selected and presented by Belletrud.
It is a celebration of High Perfumery that is both poetic and scientific. This publication will delight lovers of nature, travel and beauty.
Available from 2 April 2024, A Perfume Atlas will be on sale at all Louis Vuitton stores. The limited edition box set will be on sale in selected stores.
Tobacco and honey go on a head-on collision in Guerlain’s latest expression of its L’Art & La Matière collection. The headiness of raw tobacco (think a woody, almost intoxicating ruggedness) is smoothed over with Calabrian honey (a beloved honey extract of the house), to form a sensual tension of opposites. At the heart of both ingredients is a common warmth that grounds Tobacco Honey. It is ambery in profile, but the concocted tobacco accord—a combination of various raw materials to replicate that distinct tobacco note—is enveloped in vanilla, tonka bean and sesame for a balanced sweetness.
There is no doubt that Tobacco Honey is rich and decadent, reflected by its liquid gold-like colouring of its resulting formulation. And because this is part of Guerlain’s L’Art & La Matière collection, the fragrance’s vessel is just as decadent. Artist Anne Féat Gaiss, whose work involves sculpting paper, created a plate for Tobacco Honey’s cap involving sculpted paper that’s then glided with copper leaf as a beautiful reflection of the fragrance.
One of the oldest known perfume ingredients, myrrh is often considered to have a complex fragrance profile that is difficult to describe. It is earthy in nature, lending a woody and warm aroma that can be pungent and bitter at the same time. In perfumery, it is often used to add depth, based on its complexity alone. In Myrrhe Mystère, Tom Ford Beauty plays on its mysterious profile as its central hero.
Myrrhe Mystère enlists the power and mystique of two myrrh-based elements—myrrh essence and a trademarked myrrh resinoid orpur formulation—that are then combined with its Ultra Vanille accord infused in a number of existing Tom Ford fragrances. The resultant fragrance is one that envelopes with a rich aura. It’s an undoubtedly sophisticated scent meant to act as a provocative and vibrational expression of myrrh. But with the balanced blend of the earthiness of myrrh, the sweetness of vanilla and the woodiness of sandalwood, Myrrhe Mystère evokes a calm serenity.
Yves Saint Laurent Beauty’s Libre series is proving to be a favoured androgynous fragrance. The House expands the tension between masculine and feminine nuances with Libre L’Absolu Platine. Concocted by master perfumers Anne Flip and Carlos Benaïm—the duo behind the original Libre eau de parfum—a new accord that they’re calling “white lavender” gives Libre L’Absolu Platine its piercing scent.
The Libre series is already beloved for its Diva Lavender Heart (crafted specifically for Yves Saint Laurent) that amps up the floral expression of the lavender essence extracted from Diva lavender grown in Provence. The white lavender accord elevates the natural characteristics of lavender with its icy sheen provided by a vegetal aldehyde, polygonum. The result is an almost metallic note that cuts through, bringing about a renewed freshness that’s balanced out with orange blossom—another Libre ingredient. Like the best of tailoring, Libre L’Absolu Platine is sharp while altogether cool and powdery for a fragrance that’s undeniably sexy.
The latest in Louis Vuitton’s Les Extraits collection by master perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud is Myriad. Like its five other single-named fragrances in the collection, Myriad is what Louis Vuitton considers its ultimate expression of perfume that breaks free from convention.
Oud is the olfactory ingredient on which Myriad is based. Belletrud looked to the essence of Assam oud selected from a supplier in Bangladesh that is now exclusive to the maison. The strong woody and spicy depth of oud is beautifully balanced with floral notes developed through a combination of different roses. Bulgarian rose and Grasse-sourced May rose are mixed to produce a delectable rose combo that is fresh and rounded. To amplify the leathery nuances of oud, saffron is added to the mix, while cocoa, ambrette, white musk and a note of moss work together to lift the fragrance for a velvety finish. There is intensity and lightness—an unlikely contrast that speaks volumes of the complexity of Myriad. It is topped with a Frank Gehry-designed cap to further accentuate the exceptional level of quality.
Take a second and think about your favourite go-to scents. Chances are, you’re thinking about something that’s woody, musky and perhaps powdery—sensual notes that are typically at the base of some of the best-selling men’s fragrances out there. Dior Sauvage and Bleu de Chanel for example, contain base notes of vanilla and amber, and sandalwood respectively.
These grounded notes belong to the warmer side of the fragrance wheel where olfactive families the likes of amber, woody, and fougère (French for “fern”) reside. The latter of which is probably the most used olfactive family in masculine scents. In fact, both the aforementioned Dior Sauvage and Bleu de Chanel are classified as such.
A fragrance is more often than not, quite a subjective experience. While there tends to be a gendered approach to it—as with most things—there’s hardly any reason why a scent shouldn’t be used because it’s crafted and tagged to be worn by a specific gender. Having said that, there’s a common understanding that masculine fragrances favour a heavier overall feel. That’s totally fine, except in cases where humidity levels already weigh one down.
There’s a reason why warm-profile fragrances are typically worn in the colder months of the year. The rich and sometimes intense notes of warmer fragrances may be great for a lingering sillage, but in humid conditions, they’re often overpowering. Couple that with incessant sweating, and you’ve got yourself quite an uncomfortable combination.
Green fragrances are one of the more underrated scent profiles, especially in the men’s fragrance space. Green sits somewhere in between floral and aqua scent profiles. They’re meant to capture the feeling of being in the outdoors with natural notes of grass as well as the sharp freshness of cucumber-esque notes. An inherent lightness lies in the base notes exuding a typically subtle scent, but green formulations can be mixed with more full-bodied accords to create quite a well-balanced fragrance.
Consider a green fragrance like a much needed spritz of cool mist in the summer heat—inviting and thoroughly refreshing.
Because the great outdoors, in essence, comprise of a myriad of scents, it’s not exactly right to say that green fragrances have little aromatic impact. Take Guerlain’s Herbes Troublantes for example. The first whiff is immediately light and refreshing, brought about by essences of thyme, mint and rosemary. It then settles to a powdery body, but only just a tinge.
The same can be said of Jardin à Cythère by Hermès. Inspired by the Greek island of Kythira, the fragrance is a sublime combination of grasses and olive wood that is tied together with fresh pistachio. There’s a slight warmth that comes through but like a breath of fresh air, Jardin à Cythère gives off an overall feeling of brightness.
Citrus notes help to elevate both Acqua di Parma’s Fico di Amalfi and Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Aqua Media. While Italian lemon gives the former a distinct lemony accent, the latter gets its citrus inflections thanks to a verbena accord that heightens the citrusy aspects of verbena leaves. Both fragrances pack quite a punch at the start before smoothing out to a clean and natural finish.
For something slightly on the floral side, opt for Highgrove Bouquet by Penhaligon’s. Its deceptive in the sense that one wouldn’t probably expect a dose of sweet floral to cut through. Yet at the same time, it’s wonderfully light and airy.
If you’re hesitant about leaving behind the musk, there are a number of green fragrances that have been teamed up with musky accords. Start off with Creed’s Green Irish Tweed—one of the house’s best-selling fragrances—consisting of a familiar sandalwood base. It’s in the inclusion of Egyptian geranium, lavender, violet as well as bergamot that tips the fragrance to the green side of things.
Chanel’s Coco Noir bridge the olfactory space between amber and green quite beautifully. It’s an overall musky scent but is somewhat muted by the presence of bergamot and geranium rose leaf. And yes, it’s categorically a women’s fragrance but who could even tell?
Probably the most musky of the lot in this edit—at least in the initial whiff—Aesop’s Erémia remains vibrant and fresh. The top notes are mostly citrus-heavy with yuzu and grapefruit, and then balanced with bergamot. Its middle goes full green with green tea and mimosa, but it’s in the base that the green profile is further enhanced with galbanum. To tie it all down, patchouli affords Erèmia that distinct musky scent you’d easily be drawn to.
Photography: Jaya Khidir
Styling: Justin Neo
