A nose for fashion: How designer fragrances have become the new ‘It’ items

I ever so carefully looked at the little bottles, making sure to place them back down exactly as they were. Then it happened: I smelled Little Flower, the perfume collab between model and actor Chloë Sevigny’s and Régime des Fleurs, and I fell in love. However, I quickly called this romance to a halt when I saw the price – €248 for a dainty little bottle.

Perfume is often used as an entry way into buying from designer brands. Can’t afford the Prada Cleo purse? Try the Prada Paradoxe Eau de Parfum to fill that luxurious void. However, as I spent the rest of that day inhaling what was left of the scent on my sleeve and going back and forth on whether I could afford the price, I came to a revelation: perfume itself is the new luxury ‘It Item’.

In the past, I’ve felt cheated by some designer items that I’ve seen hanging on the rails of high-end department stores, from a dress for over €1,000 that turned out to be made from viscose, to a handbag that relied on the designer’s name rather than the quality. With perfume, however, it’s hard to feel cheated – you can easily test what you’re getting.

Plus, perfume bottles have a second life as a small piece of art for your vanity table. I was recently at the launch of Zadig and Voltaire’s new fragrance Zadig and the beautiful silver-winged bottle just tickled me. I have it displayed on my console in the living room because it’s too sweet to keep hidden.

Bottles are not only used as art pieces, but can be turned into art, according to LA-based designer Anne Wold. “I’ve been collecting perfume samples for years,” she tells me. “Every time I place a Sephora order, I get as many perfume samples as I can. Initially it was just because I wanted to try all the different scents, but as my pile grew, I realised how fun all the different colours were and how pretty the glass sounds when they bumped against each other. I thought that they would be a really cool feature on a dress since it would play to the senses beyond just sight.”

The dress took 20 hours to create. It hits your three senses: sight, sound and the most powerful, smell. “To attach the bottles, I drilled little holes into the caps,” Wold says. “Sometimes the holes ruptured the inner spray mechanism and some perfume would leak out. So the entire dress is a real symphony of smells at the moment. Many of the vials are still sprayable too.”

With the inspiration perfume creates, the cost per spritz is worth it. If I got 75mls of Little Flower for €248, that’s less than 33c per spray…

What your Series 6 Synthetic – Garage fragrance by Comme des Garcons says about you...

Are you my dad? Because I don’t know of another man who loves the scent of gasoline and garages more than he does. That’s right, this unique perfume is described as an ‘anti-perfume’. Its main notes are aldehydes, kerosene, leather and plastic, combined with floral, vetiver and cedar undertones. All it’s missing is tarmac to be my dad’s perfect blend.

But let’s be real, he’s just one among 50pc of the population who loves to roll down the window of the car when they go on a petrol run. If that’s you, this may be a safer alternative to those fumes. Put down the petrol pump and treat yourself, lad.