There are very few people in the world who can answer this question with authority: What makes a fragrance special? Michael Edwards is one of them.
Known as ‘The Authority’ when it comes to fragrances — or ‘liquid emotion’ as he calls it — Edwards has spent his life researching, listing, slotting and sorting perfumes from around the world. So much so that his annual fragrance guide, Fragrances of the World, is now in its 29th edition and is the definitive guide for retailers and marketeers worldwide.
So really then, what makes a fragrance special?
“I once asked Guy Robert [the late perfumer and creator of the legendary Hermes Caleche and Madame Rochas perfumes] that question,” says Edwards. “He looked at me with a twinkle and said, ‘A successful perfume is a good perfume that has the luck to be chosen by the right person, in the right company at the right time’.
“It’s true. Is the bottle important, yes. It’s the art of the perfume. But at the end of the day it’s what inside that’s crucial. When you wear a perfume, it becomes a part of you. But above all, a perfume must smell good.”
Spreading that knowledge about what should smells good is what Edwards has been doing throughout his career, travelling around the world. His latest assignment has brought him to Abu Dhabi to the Masters of Fragrances exhibition, where he’s helped curate one-of-a-kind fragrances from 22 well-known brands. The exhibition, which opened on Thursday night at the Manarat Al Saadiyat, was commissioned by the DFS Group, the luxury duty free operator owned by Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH). Following the opening, the exhibition will move to Abu Dhabi International Airport Terminal 1 where travellers will have the chance to buy the exclusive collection until June 12.
‘Right place, right time’
Edwards, who published his first guide in 1984, said he happened upon fragrances quite by chance.
“I wish I could tell you I was brilliant or something like that. But I was just in the right place at the right time, he says. “I came from an FMCG [Fast Moving Consumer Goods] background and I was the first generation of marketeers who became intrigued by the power of perfume to change people’s perception of a product’s performance, whether it was of a toiletry product or anything. I knew very little about perfumes then. Then in 1975, I attended a perfume workshop and that changed my whole perspective about fragrances and how it all worked and I became even more intrigued.”
Back in the day, says Edwards, consultants in stores would sell perfumes that they liked and ignore the ones they didn’t like. They didn’t have a guide to gauge what the customers may like or what kind of smells they are most likely to be attracted by.
“In many ways, perfume is like tea. You’ve got black tea, green tea, herbal teas, white teas. And if you like black teas, you’ve got a whole range of different ones. We have the same logic with fragrances,” he explains. “There are flowers, orientals, woody and fresh. And if you like orientals I can offer you a true oriental like Shalimar Obsession or a soft oriental like Opium or Coco. Or a flower oriental dominated by fragrant flowers, think of Armani Code. In the west, if you asked the names of three or four of their favourite fragrances, almost invariably, two of them will fall in one family.”
So the basis of his guide was simple: You ask customers what perfumes they like, refer to the guide and see which family they fall under. The guide would list the names of the fragrances according to families and you could suggest all the perfumes that hold the most appeal to them.
Although he’s constantly working to update his guide, what with fragrances becoming an essential element of every brand now, Edwards says he’s not worried about the problem of too many. He also does not charge for fragrances to be listed and does not accept sponsorships.
“When I put out the first edition of Fragrances of the World in 1984, there were 30 new perfumes. Last year, we listed 1,430 new fragrances,” he laughs.
“Do I see any sign of it stopping? No I don’t. Does it worry me? No. How many different types of food do you have, and airlines, and fashion brands? We live in the 21st century and we seem to love having more choices. And I suspect you’re going to get more.”
For more on Masters of Fragrances, go to dfsmasters.com
