On the rise of indie perfumery

A couple years ago I was interviewed for an article in ‘Canada’s #1 fashion magazine’ about the rise in popularity of ‘abject notes’ in perfumery - things like blood, semen, dank earth, smoke and other allegedly dismal things. To my dismay, after talking for almost an hour the relevant history of indie perfumery and the recent trend of perfumery as art, I was misquoted in the most fact-checkable way possible, seemingly to make what I’d said fit the writer’s thesis. For the record, Wendover is NOT intended to smell like a dank basement - and in fact, there’s a decription on this website for anyone curious about what it’s intended to smell like. I’d mentioned that it contains a material that’s characteristic of petrichor (geosmin) which, by itself, smells like a dank basement but can also convey freshness. What the author describes as ‘abject notes’ in perfumery didn’t just happen and they aren’t necessarily intended to be challenging or even abject at all. In many cases indie perfumers and designers push the envelope simply by drawing on meaningful personal experiences for inspiration that aren’t the usual tropes involving royalty, luxury, status, fashion, sex appeal, etc.

The worthwhile part of this story, to me, is why ‘abject’ and ‘weird’ notes have become a trend in perfumery. It’s related to the rise of indie/DIY fragrance, which has really taken off since around 2010 (when I got hooked) and the fact that indie perfumers and cheeky upstart brands like État Libre d’Orange (established 2006) often draw inspiration from offbeat concepts that are intended to push boundaries. But it’s also, more recently, because of the rise of fragrance as an area of intense interest on social media, which has created a growing demand for truly original, even weird, fragrances. This has also coincided with increasing acceptance of fragrance as an artistic medium in the art world and a growing interest by artists in using fragrance as a component of installations. I think we’re currently witnessing another golden age of truly creative perfumery and I hope it continues to flourish.

Artisanal perfumers are not driven by the same marketing and overhead pressures as major brands, where launching a new fragrance takes major investment, keeping shareholders happy requires consistent profitability or at least growth, and because indies are generally free from the type of art direction, limits on the cost of the fragrance concentrate and market testing that limits the creative possibilities/risk taking for major commercial brands, be can be far more responsive (or even groundbreaking) in terms of microtrends. We’re generally far more driven by aesthetic, personal and creative considerations and serve relatively small, specific audiences, which means we’re free to be as weird an unusual as we choose to be and to tell stories that have personal meaning. I see this as similar to the ‘golden age’ of perfumery that spawned genres of imitation that have spanned decades and led to fragrance genres like Chypre and Fougere, both based on fragrances that were original 100 years ago. Long story short: people drawn to indie fragrance aren’t generally looking to borrow status, conformity or sex appeal, they’re looking for wearable art and individual expression. Stay tuned for a commercial brand copying Pool Boy because it will probably happen.

What an incredible time in history to be an indie perfumer: the internet has made it possible for artisans to have their own shops with little overhead and has also magically produced a growing and voracious audience in a genre that had become overly dominated by large, slow-moving corporations who’ve historically made their money copying each other and gatekeeping access to materials while also, more recently, claiming to enhance everyone’s individuality. I’m prod to say I saw it coming back in 2010 - except I somehow never quite imagined the wild popularity of fragTok.