I
met my husband not in a club or restaurant. I didn’t
find him on a dating app or via a set-up. I met him in
a perfume hall – Liberty’s lovely perfumery – where he
correctly identified the scent I was wearing, which
would have been impressive enough had it been something
iconic like No 5 (it often is). But being able to both name
Diptyque’s Philosykos and pinpoint it as having been created
by a woman – Olivia Giacobetti – frankly felt so “extra”
that it at least deserved a drink.
Since then, my collection of female-created perfumes has
increased exponentially. Jostling for space in my collection
now are bold newbies such as Audacious, Nars’s first foray
into fragrance, for which François Nars handpicked the
aforementioned Giacobetti based on his own love of the
very same Diptyque Philosykos; the terrifically fun Bana
Banana by Céline Ellena for L’Artisan Parfumeur; and old
classics such as Prescriptives’ Calyx (Sophia Grojsman)
and Robert Piguet’s inimitable Fracas (Germaine Cellier),
which I rarely wear but must always possess, partly because
it makes me happy to have around, but also, well, Madonna
loves it – so that’s that.
But while female perfumers have always existed (the first
recorded chemist was a woman named Tapputi-Belatekallim,
who developed methods for scent extraction circa 1200 BCE),
I wonder why they seem to have recently skyrocketed in
profile? In 2019, you only have to look at the olfactory
landscape to see that there are some seriously big hitters in
the field that happen to be women. Swiss perfumer Christine
Nagel is the first woman ever to helm fragrance at Hermès,
while Mathilde Laurent is her equivalent at Cartier. Sophia
Grojsman (one of the world’s most commercially successful
scent architects, thanks to juggernauts such as Calvin Klein
Eternity, Estée Lauder White Linen and Lancôme Trésor)
is vice-president of multibillion-dollar global company
International Flavors and Fragrances, and Frédéric Malle- who told me recently that the most exciting young perfumers
are women – has commissioned 31-year-old rising star Fanny
Bal for the new Sale Gosse.
How did they break through, though, in an industry widely
regarded as an Old Boy network, where the job of perfumer
is traditionally passed down from father to son, skipping
daughters along the way? Indeed, Patricia de Nicolaï, born
into the Guerlain fragrance dynasty, was so implicitly
overlooked for a job in the family business, that she began
her own house, Nicolaï. The digital revolution, Linda
Pilkington, founder of established perfumery Ormonde Jayne
assures me, played a big part. As a female autodidact with
no family ties or connections to Grasse (the southern French
breeding ground of the perfumery elite), Pilkington struggled
pre-internet to get a seat at the table. “At the beginning, I
wasn’t able to buy ingredients. I was a woman with no track
record, no education,” she says. “The internet allowed me
and anyone else – young, old, male, female – to at least try
ordering direct from reputable suppliers and perfume houses.”
That female perfumers are increasing in profile at a time
when we are more gender fluid as consumers, is perhaps also
no coincidence. There’s something decidedly un-chic about
rejecting a fragrance on the grounds of its target audience.
Conversely, there’s great snob value in veering across gender
lanes to find the perfect scent. Our modern notions of what
is masculine and what is feminine are more elastic.
But is there a distinction between the scent of a woman
and that of a man? Luca Turin enjoys the paradoxes. He says,
“Some of the most brutal, masculine, sexual perfumes ever
created were made by women, and some of the most flowery,
mawkish, frilly fragrances I’ve ever come across were created
by men.” But Turin believes sexism is still rife in an industry
largely populated by white, upper-class Frenchmen. “Genius
is distributed equally across genders. Recognition is not,” he
says. Christine Nagel of Hermès acknowledges that the path
of a woman perfumer isn’t all roses and jasmine. “I had to
overcome the fact that I was not the daughter of a perfumer
and was not born in the south of France,” she says. “That
said, if I had to establish a hierarchy of difficulty in the
obstacles to overcome, being a woman was undoubtedly the
hardest.” But Nagel refuses to play ball. “If you are chosen,
it is for your creativity and your signature above all else and
for no other reason – sex, colour, age, ethnicity or religion.”
With Clare Waight Keller, Maria Grazia Chiuri and
Sarah Burton heading up major fashion houses, it seemed
inevitable that perfumery (very often bankrolling couture
businesses) wouldn’t be far behind. British perfumer Lyn
Harris, formerly of Miller Harris and now with her own
label, Perfumer H, agrees that the changing roles for women
in fashion and beauty have been influential. Both she and
Nagel acknowledge that female students of perfumery now
outnumber their male counterparts significantly (a good “70
to 80 per cent”), but also that there is some way to go. “The
feminisation of the perfumery profession is underway. But
we need more, and it will probably take years for this to stop
even being an issue,” says Nagel. “For example, my business
card says ‘Christine Nagel parfumeur’ and not ‘Christine
Nagel parfumeuse’. That’s how my profession is still described,
and that speaks volumes.”
What also speaks volumes is that the process of perfumery- from conception to creation to purchase – is no longer the
reserve of men. And so I wander into Ormonde Jayne, idle
an hour with blotters and pick out an oriental number named
Tolu. The husband doesn’t recognise this one. I’m glad to
know I retain a little female mystery. Q
A new generation of women
are shaking up the ancien régime
of the perfumery establishment and
originating some of today’s most
intoxicating fragrances.
By Sali Hughesof
awoman
Above, from top:
Ormonde Jayne Tolu
eau de parfum, £110.
Frédéric Malle Sale
Gosse eau de cologne,
£155. Hermès Twilly
d’Hermès Eau Poivrée
eau de parfum,
£108. Nars Audacious
Fragrance eau de
parfum, £125Scent
155HARLEY WEIR/ART PARTNER; PIXELATE.BIZBEAUTY
12-19-BTY-Fragrance.indd 155 14/10/2019 14:46