Everything you need to know about selective perfume
Selective perfumery has been talked about a lot lately, but few have a clear idea of what it really is. Wonderzine tells how the popularity of the Dior fragrance influenced the emergence of niche brands, the better selectivity and what is happening with this industry now.
SELECTIVE A perfume is called if it is released in limited editions and is sold in a small number of stores. Small means 400 or 500, not 4000 or 5000, like Chanel and Dior (we are not talking about their exclusive lines). Such flavors have a much more complex structure than the massive perfume: the number of notes increases many times, and among them there are frozen wood or mushrooms with champagne. Selective features high quality raw materials - special synthetic components are produced for it and natural products are chosen. For example, it is believed that it is better to go to the countries of the Maghreb for an orange tree. In 2005, L'Artisan did this: the brand bought most of the orange crop in Tunisia and produced 3,000 bottles of Fleur d'Oranger.
BOOM In the second half of the 20th century, the year 1985 was considered a turning point. Then in the stores appeared the legendary fragrance Dior - Poison: its sales were so great that they provoked the emergence of even more fakes. Perfumers thought about the development of niche scents - and one after another selective brands appeared. However, there are also brands with a long history - Creed appeared in 1760, and Dorin loved the whole courtyard of Marie-Antoinette - which existed before the fragrance market was divided into segments.
Buyers are more interested in selective brands, this applies to perfumery as well - the aromas Amouage, Boadicea, Diptyque, Montale, Maison Francis Kurkdjian are becoming increasingly popular. All of them first of all pay attention to scientific developments, use natural and biologically active components, minimize the use of parabens and other chemistry. In our assortment were unpopular brands. And in this case we are talking about organic perfumery, for example Melvita. We perfectly understand that they are the future, but so far they do not arouse proper interest and do not find a response in the soul of our buyer. Now you should not use the term "niche" - this is a bad form. Niche perfumery consists of expensive ingredients and comes out in very limited quantities. Selective - does not mean expensive.
FOR SELECTIVE The brand name is usually one perfumer. Francis Kurkjian makes the brand name Maison Francis Kurkdjian, and Pierre Montal created the fragrances for the Eastern kings and queens, but returned to Paris and launched the brand with surprisingly persistent aromas from natural ingredients Montale. Sometimes several perfumers work on brands - but they often have one creative director.
HOW AND THE MAJORITY OF PERFUME GRADESSelective holds production in France. The reason is that in local markets it is more difficult to find the ingredients - or to keep them in the right state during transportation. For convenience, a good half of the oils are produced in the same France. In countries that do not specialize in the perfume industry, only small brands of manual production are bottled. Those who want to increase a little more global pace, again go to France - one of the most famous selective brands, Byredo, had a factory in Sweden, but it was moved further south.
IN CASE OF NICHE AROMA you pay not for the participation of Kira or Audrey in an advertising campaign (which is more than half the cost of average spirits) and not even for a faceted bottle of crystal. Niche brands push aesthetics into the background. However, if it is not about Byredo and their collaboration with the creative agency M / M: in this case, the appearance of image shooting is justified.
PLEASE, THE MOST KNOWN MARKS - Diptyque, Juliette Has a Gun, Serge Lutens, again Byredo and Kurkdjian. Of the less popular and no less respected - Bond No 9, which devotes aromas to New York, Le Labo, by identity similar to the house of Maison Martin Margiela, Frederic Malle, who will devote the next line of aromas to specific people, including Dris van Nothen.
Niche flavors are good because you can use them in everyday life, but at the same time stand out from the crowd. Choose this perfume if you want to smell elegant and simple, but it is very unusual. For example, do you like lilies of the valley, but the smell of air freshener on your skin does not suit you? Saves niche perfumery. In the market, we are between a mass market like Dior and collectible fragrances.
Our segment has difficulties. For example, the level of quality of oils and components in principle sometimes leaves much to be desired. We constantly need to follow the trends in packaging design and every time we try to pleasantly surprise people, and to do so unobtrusively. Byredo is your ideal companion if you like modern art and pure scents with a beautiful story.
MANY NICE FRAGRANCE sold only in concept stores, often it is an image policy. In Moscow, a corner of niche flavors is in Le Form: there you can find Parfums 137, offering sets of three essences that can be mixed in seven ways. Organic perfumery from Cosmotheca, which offers brands Acca Kappa and Atelier Flou, is now represented in Kuznetsky Most 20. Retail giants approach the selectivity more thoroughly: in the bullet at Articoli there are more than a dozen brands of different levels of fame, as is the case with the Central Department Store.
Avant-garde clothing brands Comme des Garçons and Yōhji Yamamoto strive to build empires — they make several lines and countless collaborations with democratic brands. A similar expansion occurs in the world of selective perfumery. Some brands want to get a little closer to the masses: Acqua di Parma advertise magazines, Jo Malone sold in family shopping centers. Sometimes it is worth relying not on the brand itself, but on distributors. They own the rights to spread the brand on the territory of the country and are free to place it even in accounts like “Girlfriends”.