The 25 Best Perfumes Of The Century So Far

In many ways, the story of what’s happened in the perfume world over the course of the last twenty-five years could be summed up by the tale of Frederic Malle…

Disgruntled by the marketing-led practices around him, well-placed man with seriously scented juice in his veins sets up his own brand. In a move that is rightly hailed as radical, he places the perfumers’ names front and centre on his bottles and packaging. His releases achieve acclaim and commercial success. Fourteen years later, he sells the brand to a multi-national giant. He stays on as creative director, but his subsequent works fail to earn quite the same level of praise. Ten years after selling, he leaves and cuts all ties with the brand that bears his name. Whether he plans to return to perfumery is currently unknown.

Although it leaves out countless details and nuances, this little account isn’t without its merits. It touches on the rising prominence of perfumers, as well as the growing power of marketing departments. It foregrounds the importance and success of lone ‘creator-owners’ adhering to a clear vision. It highlights the acquisitive mood of the globe-spanning corporate establishment. And, as a follow-on from the last point, it presents the theme that has dominated the perfumery narrative since 2000: the tension between the independent sector and the mainstream.

Back when Malle opened his fragrance publishing house, the word ‘niche’ carried more meaning than it does today. I’ve always argued that it’s not been an especially helpful term when it comes to categorising fragrance companies, but twenty-five years ago, it was certainly less hollow than it is today, denoting a certain independence of spirit when it came to composition. Today, it’s almost redundant, and that’s partly because of the all-consuming invasiveness of the world’s big players. They’ve either muscled in on ‘niche’ territory themselves (by launching so-called exclusive collections) or they’ve literally swallowed up chunks of it, to the extent that they’ve diluted what could once legitimately have been called niche, and have caused much of what’s left of the independent realm to become both timid and reactionary.

True, there are now more brands than there were twenty-five years ago and many, many more perfume releases, which might suggest that the industry has never been healthier. But the fact is that most new houses and scents are forgettable nothings (back in 2014, Michael Edwards was already talking about “plonk” and an “opportunistic” niche market) and all they achieve is the creation of a smokescreen that makes it increasingly difficult to find the compositions that deserve our attention. In other words, the monster is swallowing its own tail.