Interview |
Edward Bodenham
1) Andy Warhol was fascinated by scent. He said “of the five senses smell has the closest thing to the power of the past. Smell really is transporting. Seeing, hearing, touching, tasting are just not as powerful as smelling if you want your whole being to go back for a second to something.” As the 9th generation proprietor of Floris, which scents resonate with your personal experiences at the perfumery?
I completely agree. The power of scent is incredible and can stop you in your tracks, almost like déjà vu, transporting you vividly to a moment in time by triggering lucid memories that you had forgotten completely about.
The nostalgic connection to scent is very stirring and powerful. Many of our scents are almost like old friends to me, and have particularly comforting associations for me.
So many of our fragrances resonate with my personal experiences over the years. A fragrance called ‘Elite’, named after ‘Lotion Elite’ from the 1950s is a scent that my grandfather used to wear and so has a very nostalgic connection for me. It is a complex, classic, green, woody, mossy fragrance. Interestingly I found out recently from my uncle that it was the fragrance that David Bowie used to buy from Floris. My uncle was fortunate enough to have met Bowie when he served him in our Jermyn Street Shop in the 1980s.
‘Jermyn Street’ is a fragrance that we launched in 2014 and smelling it very much reminds me of my experiences at the time and the creative process and inspiration.
In fact, most of our fragrances resonate with me. They have the power to take be back to various moments from my past: visiting the perfumery as a child, working there in later years or the creative journey that inspired the scent.
Having a love of perfume, and taking inspiration from life experiences and emotions that are unique to myself, enables me to create fragrances that are designed to have a very personal connection for me. I hope that other people can also appreciate and relate to in some way.
2) Encoding an odour is so experience specific and so any retrieval out of context is an arduous task. What vocabulary do you use to describe scents, particularly in your recipe books?
The vocabulary used in the recipe, or formula books tends to be very much ingredient- led. The fragrance characters are not described as such in the books, but I find it so interesting to learn about the personality of the scents from our archives by looking at the raw materials used in composing the formulas and the fragrance names that were chosen for them.
The vocabulary used to describe our fragrances shares many words with the language of music such as a ‘top notes’, ‘heart notes’ and ‘base notes’ which are used to describe the facets and olfactory journey of a fragrance’s character. We also use words like ‘accord’ and ‘composition’ when describing the personality and creation of a fragrance.
3) How has this descriptive language changed over time?
Much of the descriptive language has remained the same over time. However, these days there is a far greater palette of ingredients available to a perfumer and this has required a larger selection of descriptive words.
An example of a relatively recent category of perfume family, which is popular, is the ‘Gourmand’ family. This refers to a fragrance with a predominantly food- linked character, and relates to notes such as chocolate, honey, and caramel.
4) Could you please elaborate on what is included in a perfume formula?
Creating one of our fragrances starts with an inspiration, whether that is a stirring experience of a place visited, or perhaps something imagined or remembered that sparks a strong emotion.
The process then involves trying to create that emotion by carefully painting an invisible picture with our pallet of fragrance oils, finding the perfect balance of the materials used. I usually approach creating a fragrance like composing a piece of music.
When we work on a new perfume it is always on a very small scale. Delicately adding drops of each ingredient measured out using our antique imperial glassware, which has been passed down through the generations of my family. We create a series of fragrance directions to assess. We then make iterations on the chosen directions until the final fragrance has eventually been arrived at. This usually takes many months, but can sometimes take years.
5) How do you deal with the individual discrepancies? And how do you rectify these in your perfume inventory?
We have a perfume collection that spans the full spectrum of fragrance families. Over nearly three centuries, this collection of compositions has been gradually added to by my forefathers. I feel immensely privileged to be able to add to their repertoire with creations inspired by the present day to appeal to our broad audience of Floris customers today.
6) There is a fascinating history behind Special 187 from your classic collection. Can you share its history with us?
Floris Special No.127 is a fragrance that was originally created as the bespoke fragrance in 1890 for a Russian Grand Duke Orloff who was exiled in Paris. His fragrance formula is written on page 127 of our antique Specials book, hence the name.
After his death it was decided by my family at the time to launch the fragrance into the collection.
Since then Special No.127 has since gone on to have many loyal followers over the years such as Sir Winston Churchill and Eva Peron.
Interestingly the well-known method actor Gary Oldman requested some bottles of Special No. 127 to wear on set of ‘The Darkest Hour’ in which he portrayed Sir Winston Churchill.
7) And, going through the detailed formula enabled this bespoke perfume to be remade several decades later?
Yes, that’s right. It is a fragrance that has been in our collection for many decades and the formula and character of Special No.127 has remained the same over the decades.
8) Are there others from the bespoke archive that you’d hope to bring to your shop collection?
Our formula books are a constant source of inspiration and there are certainly a few perfumes from our past like ‘Sweetpea’, ‘Russian Leather’ or ‘Honeysuckle’ that we would like to recreate, whether in their original form or with a modern twist.
9) Over time, changes in regulations or other problems have meant that some raw materials and bases that make up perfumes are no longer available. How does a perfumer such as Floris document such changes, and how do you compensate for these alterations?
This has happened over the years. From time to time , raw materials have had to be sourced from different suppliers or occasionally substituted due to a lack of supply. This can be seen by hand written modifications to the formulas made by my ancestors.
Alterations are a lengthy process involving experimentation by substituting ingredients that are still able to create the character and personality of the original fragrance. We always document all changes and will never approve a modification to one of our formulas unless we are happy that it represents the original perfume.
Whenever this is not possible, we are left with no choice but to unfortunately discontinue the fragrance.
10) What can these changes tell us about the evolution of perfumery?
The perfume industry is becoming increasingly regulated for various reasons which is a great shame creatively speaking. But, necessary changes made to ensure the sustainability of the raw materials used by the perfume industry worldwide is obviously very important and is something that is close to my heart and to our ethos here at Floris.
11) Floris recently launched a Bergamote- inspired eau de perfume. Bergamote’s use today is limited. How do you go about recreating a natural scent like that?
Our production runs are very small and so we only source a modest quantity of bergamot oil from our trusted, long serving supplier, who has a strict sustainability policy.
Bergamot oil can also be synthetically created by isolating certain molecules and replicating the odour profile of the natural essential oil.
12) In the past Floris manufactured a Rose perfume . Can you tell us a little more about the rose perfumes you’ve created?
At Floris we have actually sold many rose interpretations such as Rose Geranium. In 1959, when my grandfather was running the business, Marilyn Monroe purchased six bottles of Rose Geranium, while she was staying at Claridge’s. She requested for them to be sent on to the Beverly Hills Hotel where she would be staying next.
Red Rose is another rose perfume that we used to produce for many years which is extremely nostalgic for me, and it was great to be able to study the formula books and recreate it as part of our Perfumery Legers Collection.
White Rose is still one of our most popular fragrances and was a favourite of Florence Nightingale in the 1800s.
More recently we launched the fragrance ‘A Rose For…’ which is a richer and darker interpretation of the rose inspired by a trip that I had to the rose fields of Morocco in 2015 , an exciting and inspiring project to work on. It was a great challenge to create a completely new interpretation of a rose scent, but fortunately it came about very instinctively.
13) And, finally, independent perfumers such as Floris, how aware of scent trends are you? How susceptible to trends are you? And, what trends can you deduce by looking through your archive that spans almost 300 years?
At Floris we are not led by trends, but we do listen to our customers and what perfumes they are asking for. Some fragrance styles fall out of popularity for a generation and then become ‘on trend’ again for the next generation. Our Lily of The Valley perfume for example has become very popular recently with the younger generation of our customers.
Floris is always evolving, and we embrace being experimental and explorative when working on new fragrances in just the same way that my forefathers have been over the years. It’s always exciting and refreshing to work with new raw materials and to embrace the inspiration gained from experiences to create something completely different. However, that said, I do feel that somehow there is a certain Floris thread, whatever that may be and however subtle, that runs through our entire collection. I like to think that there is a certain magic within our walls, at our heart and home here at 89 Jermyn Street, acquired after so many years of making perfume here that makes its way into each of our creations.