Voyeur-December_Perfume

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Forget bestselling fragrances: the new grail of the perfume industry is the artisanal scent, made to order.

Haute Parfum

He can identify more than 800 scents blindfolded and is regarded as one of

the noses of the century. British master perfumer Roja Dove is also a leader in the vanguard of the bespoke fragrance movement; the David, in his own words, who took on the Goliath of the mass branded scent industry and found a whole new market sector in the process.

Dove trained with French perfume house Guerlain and worked there for 20 years before launching his bespoke service in 2001, soon after he created a fragrance for a charity auction at Christie’s. “I put an empty bottle up for auction and guests bid for the opportunity to have their own fragrance made by me,” he explains.

“When it reached the highest price [£10,000] I realised there was a market for bespoke.”

Dove has since created perfumes for a who’s who of private clients, and also for events such as the Chelsea Flower Show, British couturier Nicholas Oakwell’s runway show, and an exhibition at the Museum of London — for a jewelled flask from a hoard of 17th century treasures found in 1912 in London’s Cheapside.

His favourite project has been a scent for the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes. Inspired by ballet legend Diaghilev’s habit of spraying the theatre curtains with Mitsouko fragrance, Dove’s opulent creation is also chypre based.

“It was an honour,” he says. “Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes were the driving force of modernism and Art Deco, and there is a huge synergy between how these movements manifested themselves in perfumery. The idea that scent can reconnect moments in time with one drop and one breath utterly captivates me.”

It’s this quality that makes bespoke scent as an olfactory portrait so beguiling.

Historically, perfumes were always made to order, but it’s only recently that artisanal brands have been increasing in popularity. “The perfume industry is leaning ever more towards a demand for scents of individuality, quality and creativity,” Dove notes. “Small, luxury and niche perfume houses are beginning to dominate the industry.”

SCENT AS INFLUENCEIn Australia, fragrance specialist Samantha Taylor returned in 2008 from working in London for bespoke creators Miller Harris, Floris and Penhaligon’s to set up The Powder Room in Melbourne. The boutique consultancy specialises in perfume education, artisan brands and bespoke creations.

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S London Roja Dove Haute Parfumerie

bespoke from $50,000; www.rojadove.com. Miller

Harris www.millerharris.com.

Paris Stéphanie de Bruijn —

Parfum sur Mesure bespoke from $1580; 52 rue de l’Université,

www.parfumsurmesure.com.

Le Studio des Parfums bespoke from $150; 23 rue du

Bourg Tibourg, Marais, +33-140299084,

studiodesparfums-paris.fr/en/.

New York MCMC Fragrances Brooklyn;

mcmcfragrances.com. By Kilian bespoke from $40,000,

www.bykilian.com/en/stores/store-new-york.php.

Singapore Je t’aime Goodman Arts Centre,

Block B, 03‒17, www.jetaime-singapore.com.

Dubai Villa 515 Jumeirah Rd; +9714 39

54 054; www.villa515.com.

Melbourne The Powder Room bespoke from $3000; +61 422 351 611; www.thepowder-room.com.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Samantha

Taylor; Alessandro Gualtieri; Villa 515 in Dubai; fragrances at

The Powder Room. PREVIOUS PAGE Roja

Dove; flask from the Museum of London.

“Your sense of smell is literally a hot-wire to your brain,” she says. “Scent has the ability to elicit a response that is immediate. We can’t censor it. The olfactory bulb links to the limbic system, the most ancient part of the brain and the area involved with memory and emotions.”

Natural and synthetic materials, alcohol and stabiliser — these all interact with an individual’s body chemistry to create a reaction. Taylor says she learnt the

building blocks of her craft from Lyn Harris, founder of Miller Harris in London. “The way perfume sits on a skin depends on the complexion and whether it’s dry or oily,” Taylor says. “Ultimately it’s the chemistry of the raw materials and their different molecular weights that translate as the top notes, middle and dry-down.”

Taylor aims to expand her range and has been researching micro-niche perfumes in the US, where, she says, creative people who often have no formal training are producing beautiful limited-edition fragrances. “I love working with undiscovered gems,” she says. “Artisan perfumers don’t create fragrances based on what’s going to sell. It’s more likely to be some raw material they have fallen in love with and want to build a fragrance around — or to capture a moment in time.”

CULTURE OF FRAGRANCENowhere in the world, according to maverick Italian perfumer Alessandro Gualtieri, does the culture of fragrance find more expression than in the Middle East. Gualtieri is the bespoke nose for select clients at Villa 515 in Dubai and composer of the Nasomatto and Orto Parisi ranges.

“The total sense of perfume is extremely intense [in the Middle East], far more intense than in any part of the world,” he says. “Maybe as so much is hidden from the eye, one expresses oneself and one’s personality through other means, like fragrance.”

The way people apply perfumes is also different in this part of the world. “People wear many fragrances at the same time — they just layer, mixing oils and fragrances on an alcohol base. There’s also bukhoor, when fragrance is transmitted by burning chips of wood soaked in fragrant oils and the smoke impregnates your clothes, and the room.”

Bukhoor is available at Villa 515, alongside traditional oils in updated blends and artisanal fragrances by global brands.

Gualtieri aims to bring new harmonies to blends of traditional raw materials, in a process of gradual exploration.

Says Dove: “A perfumer is a poet or a storyteller who creates the tangible from the intangible — abstract images that strike at our core.

“One must take into account that there are some 3000 different odours available in perfumery. A good perfumer will attempt to conjure up a fragrance that has never before been smelt… to transform imagination into reality.”