Can I have your digits?
The numbered bottles of the perfume world work according to a minimalist formula in which a number is always better than a bad name. Chanel No. 19, Knize Ten and Comme des Garçons Odeur 71 are seemingly impersonal, but filled with associations, especially if you have synaesthesia. Is the number 71 really red?
Colourful characters
Many people find language and fragrance a difficult combination, but colours open up something in us – visually, emotionally and through our olfactory system. Comme des Garçons Blue Encens, Tom Ford Grey Vetiver and Robert Piguet Bois Noir are more than fancy names; they use colours as universal metaphors for specific characteristics.
Message in a bottle
Content is king, say the fragrance connoisseurs. But, all of a sudden, someone asks you about the perfume you’re wearing. What kind of witty answer can you provide? Fortunately, there is a steadily increasing choice of pleasant smelling bottled one-liners – Demeter’s Funeral Home, Humiecki & Graef’s Blask [hilarious in Swedish only (sorry!) because it translates as “a watered-down liquid”] and Putain des Palaces [French for “whore of the palaces”] by Etat Libre d’Orange.
World of wordcraft
It is somewhat of an enigma that more brands don’t play more on their names when baptising a new perfume. Some memorable ones, which created new words in the process, have appeared this way – Dior Diorissimo, Nina Ricci Signoricci and Yves Saint Laurent Yvresse – but there’s plenty of space for more.