What really makes a luxury perfume luxury? Perhaps it’s the seductive curve of the bottle and weighty, jewel-like lid. Or the rare ingredients that come alive on your skin. Maybe it’s purely about the designer label and how the scent telegraphs taste.
If it’s all of the above, you’ve probably already spritzed Sogno In Rosso, which plays with syrupy and spicy notes – from the frothy foam on a latte to nose-twitching black pepper – and boasts a name tag made from the same fabric as a couture gown.
When Maison Valentino launched the fragrance as part of its new Anatomy of Dreams collection, the fashion house boldly declared it was a “haute couture” perfume. And just like that, a new term entered our beauty vocabulary.
Couture perfumes are the VIPs of the fragrance world. They’re not part of the mass-produced designer perfume crowd, and they’d sniff at the idea of being a commercial hit. Rather, they have the same exclusivity as a high-fashion, haute couture gown – and judging by the proliferation of couture perfumes, it’s a growing trend.
It’s the reason Rabanne has also launched into the fine fragrance space, despite the success of blockbusters like Lady Million. It wants to appeal to niche fragrance lovers who place value on craftmanship, artistry and storytelling, a spokesperson for the brand told a packed room of beauty editors at the launch of La Collection Rabanne in Paris.
Actually, storytelling plays a big part in the appeal of couture perfumes. It’s like a wormhole into a designer’s archives, where the scents draw inspiration from the fashion house’s heritage.
Take Comète, the latest addition to Chanel’s Les Exclusifs collection. Its bright, powdery scent is an homage to a dazzling star- and comet-shaped necklace in Chanel’s first High Jewellery collection. Similarly, Dior has La Collection Privée, which it describes as “a special connection between couture and fragrance” – a cool £255 for each 125ml bottle.
And then there’s Balmain’s new Les Éternels collection, housed in ribbed bottles that are a nod to the brand’s original 1946 scent. If the smash TV show Succession were a perfume, I imagine it would smell exactly like Balmain’s Carbone: dark, sexy, powerful and rich.
And isn’t that the real point of a luxury fragrance – to smell dangerously and addictively expensive?
Ahead, the latest ‘couture’ perfumes to invest in now…
For more from Fiona Embleton, GLAMOUR’s Associate Beauty Director, follow her on @fiembleton.
