The ancient art of fragrance creation has gracefully crossed the centuries, much like scent carried on a gentle breeze. Reminiscent of the apothecaries of old, what inspires Aesop’s fragrance collaborators, Barnabé Fillion and Céline Barel, is not always usual. The souks and spices of Morocco might play a role, but literature, architecture and aesthetics are just as influential.
The life and work of Modernist designer Charlotte Perriand, and the Wabara rose created as a homage to her by Japanese botanists, were the inspiration for Fillion’s ‘perfectly imbalanced’ ‘Rōzu’ fragrance, for example. Thanks to this experimentation, Aesop’s scents harmonise with the key notes of the brand’s skin, hair and body-care products, drawn from essential oils found in seeds, flowers, stems, roots and bark. To date, the prolific French perfumers have created ten fragrances for the brand, each as nuanced and intriguing as the ideas that brought them into being.
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Aesop’s ‘Othertopias’ collection, a collaborative work of olfactory art, demonstrates Fillion's mastery in the world of scents, marrying innovation with tradition. The range presents itself in glass vessels, each adorned with a unique artistic interpretation by Belfast-based artist Jack Coulter. The final symphony of ‘Othertopias’, ‘Ouranon’ eau de parfum, embodies the presence of a moonlit monolith. Within its layers, resinous woods blend with mineral earthiness and spices, transmuting past, present and future into scent. Its top notes of petitgrain, elemi, lavender flower, and juniper create an opening symphony, brisk yet intricate. The heart of hay, chamomile, gosemary and frankincense add herbaceous depth, encapsulating warm balsamic resonance. The finale, woven from myrrh, styrax, patchouli, sandalwood and more, beckons a descent into rich earth and amber, epitomising mineral accords and woody nuances.
Appropriately, ‘Ouranon’ will join further ‘Othertopias’ scents ‘Miraceti’, ‘Karst’, ‘Erémia’, ‘Eidesis’ and ‘Gloam’ in Aesop’s Fragrance Armoires – cabinets of curiosity installed in select stores across the globe, including Parnas Mall in Seoul (the first shop to feature the experience), Regent Street in London and Pitt Street in Sydney. These armoires – like all mythic portals – act as departure points, but they are also a delight for design aficionados. Each one incorporates architectural sensibilities, standing monolithic yet understated, taking on a range of guises in response to the materiality of each signature store. Once the curved, heavy doors are open, a complex inner world is revealed within.
While the first armoires in Medieval France stood as sculpted centrepieces in castles, painted, embossed and fitted with decorative hinges, Aesop’s armoires are outwardly unassuming. Bottles are arranged unfussily on neat rows of shelves, while the inside right-hand door reveals a lacquered cabinet of 12 small drawers containing ceramic discs suffused with fragrances. A central luminous glass ‘infusion chamber’ allows visitors to infuse garments with a chosen scent and leave the store carrying a trace of the Aesop experience with them. Their chosen fragrance is spritzed into the chamber, and the glass doors are shut for a few seconds, letting the aroma infuse the fabric. Unlike the sometimes overwhelming nature of traditional perfume halls, these charming armoires spirit one away – to clifftops, deep woods and stranger landscapes one might find in dreams – and customers leave with a uniformly scented piece of clothing, carrying an olfactory trace of this sensory interlude away with them. As the fabulist to whom the brand owes its name once wrote, persuasion is more effective than force.
Details: visit aesop.com or your nearest Aesop store
