September has always felt like a time of new beginnings, the turning of a perfumed page, as the fashion world steps out from its long summer pause and sweeps us straight onto the catwalks of New York, London, Milan and Paris. There is such theatre to it all – the flutter of fabric hems, the tactile delight of swishing silks and structured cottons, the way clothes move around the models who, in turn, set all of us dreaming.
Because fragrance is so entwined with fashion, here at The Perfume Society we anticipate this moment every year with particular joy. You’ll soon see our annual Fashion & Fragrance edition of The Scented Letter magazine – coming very soon, so do ensure you are signed up to receive your free digital copy the moment it launches!
One theme we’re exploring in the blog this month, meanwhile, is fabric and fragrance, and how often our language around scent borrows from the lexicon of touch and texture. A perfume can be velvety, suede like, cashmere soft, opulently plush, intricately woven like linen or taut with a leather-ish bite.
And just as, in September, we shift the textiles we live with – perhaps bringing a thicker throw to the sofa or swapping lightweight cottons for fondly worn but still lightweight woollens – so too do we begin to crave scents with a comforting weight, offering a touch of warmth without quite the enveloping density of winter perfumes.
We hope you enjoy this sensory plunge into likening perfume’s characters to the colours, density and feel of the following fabrics. And just imagine, the next time you reach for a favourite fragrance: what fabric might you liken it to? Do you even dress to ‘match’ your scent of the day – without having previously been aware of it – we wonder…?
AKRO Bake immediately conjures the simplicity of a favourite Breton striped jersey, the kind slipped on for a wander to the sanctuary of your favourite bakery. With fluffy tendrils of dark vanilla pods threaded through silky white musk and warm, doughy gourmand notes, it sits against your skin like that trusty striped top – casual yet stylish, deliciously effortless, and with a sweetness that feels unfussy and free spirited.
From £80 for 30ml eau de parfum thefragranceshop.co.uk
Fabric matched: Breton Stripe Jersey Dress Fabric – White/Vanilla by Higgs & Higgs
Granado Cedro, by contrast, wears its character as lightly as whimsical illustrations on a roll of cedar patterned fabric. Imagine a room dressed in charming, line drawn trees, their branches unfurling across the walls in a quietly playful rhythm. This fragrance brings that woody freshness into being, cedar wood made forever breezy, sketch like, graceful. It feels as though the fabric itself might ripple in a soft September wind, grounding and invigorating in equal measure.
Try it in the Granado Coleção Elixir Discovery Set £48 for 5 x 10ml in the Shop
Fabric Matched: Cedar in Slate Apple & Ivy by Scion
Connock England Kukui Noir drapes itself like a distortion of romance, a Gothic velvet in deepest rose and ink black shadows. The sensation is of brushing fingertips across velvet pile, that faint shiver of plush texture and silky darkness intertwined. Florals smoulder instead of blooming, petals painted in chiaroscuro light, while amber and woods cocoon the wearer in cinematic mystery. A perfume with presence and depth, but kept supple and inviting, as though beckoning you into a velvet curtained alcove.
From £25 for 10ml eau de parfum connockengland.co.uk
Fabric Matched: Gothic Rose Noir velvet by Foy & Co
Goldfield & Banks Ingenious Ginger is a weighted linen in a warm ochre tone, we feel, flung wide like a tablecloth joyously thrown to grab a languorous lunch in early autumn’s golden sunlight. House of Hackney’s glorious ginger hued fabric here exudes the fragrance’s flamboyance, glowing with radiant spices and an almost citrus tinted effervescence. It brings a lift and an optimistic crackle of brightness, ensuring that autumn need not be draped in solemn tones, but enlivened with bursts of sunshine rendered in spice.
£130 for 100ml perfume concentrate selfridges.com
Fabric Matched: Caspar linen by House of Hackney x Nickey Kehoe
EAUMG Amber Addict has the fluidity and drape of an amber toned twill. Twill always carries a sense of structure softened by pliability – the way the weave appears diagonal yet flowing. The amber in this addictive fragrance performs a similar balancing act: molten, opulent, richly hued, yet never too heavy, being shot through with piquant cassis and riven with roses. Instead, it folds around the wearer in waves of perfumed comfort, like being enveloped in the swish of a fabric that seems impossibly chic yet remains intimately wearable.
£95 for 50ml eau de parfum in the Shop
Fabric Matched: Amber Flow viscose twill by Pound Fabrics
September asks us to dress, and scent, in layers – not yet swaddling wintry drapery, but certainly with a hint of warmth, a painterly depth, an assurance of poise. Just as an outfit is completed with the perfect finishing touch of fabric, so a fragrance transforms the way we carry ourselves, swathing us in invisible texture we waft in our wake with every scented spritz…
Written by Suzy Nightingale
