Burberry Archives - The Perfume Society

Burberry’s ground-breaking campaign for their brand new female fragrance, My Burberry Black, is exclusively launching today at 6pm, and by all accounts things are set to get rather steamy…
Burberry say: ‘A first for the brand, Lily James will takeover Burberry’s Snapchat account today, culminating with the reveal of the TV and print campaign across multiple platforms. Furthermore, marking the brand’s first sponsored Snapchat lens, a My Burberry Black lens – created to immerse users into the aesthetic of the campaign – will run for 24 hours from (Tuesday) 23rd August. The lens opens with an interactive scene of the user under an umbrella, sheltered from a rainstorm. The user is then prompted to ‘blow a kiss’, triggering a beauty filter which adds a beautifying golden light to the images.’
Legendary photographer Mario Testino shot the campaign, under the creative direction of Chief Creative and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Bailey – and featuring British actress Lily James in her first ever global advertising campaign.
Lily James follows hot on the fashionable heels of more seasoned Brit super-stars Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne as the current faces of My Burberry. With a soundtrack by British singer-songwriter Duffy, performing ‘I Put A Spell On You’ – you’re absolutely bound to be bewitched. Watch the just-released video right here…

And as for the fragrance?

‘My Burberry Black – an intense and sensual interpretation of the iconic fragrance My Burberry. Created by Chief Creative and Chief Executive Officer, Christopher Bailey, in collaboration with renowned perfumer Francis Kurkdjian, the fragrance is inspired by the black Burberry Heritage trench coat.
Capturing the essence of a London garden at dusk, My Burberry Black fuses the scent of sun-drenched jasmine flower and peach nectar with the sensual touch of candied rose. The fragrance settles with notes of amber patchouli for an intense and memorable base.’
With such heritage and contemporary appeal hand-in-hand, it’s got us actively looking forward to Summer showers and perhaps some steamy windows…

Written by Suzy Nightingale
[©Copyright Burberry/Mario Testino for campaign image and ©Copyright Burberry for all other images]

The Burberry raincoat is an iconic British fashion piece that’s stood the test of time – and with good reason in our intemperate climate prone to ‘April showers’ the whole year ‘round. The scent of rain (termed petrichor, fact fans) has been done before, but for the brand new Mr Burberry launch the so-called ‘enfant terrible’ of perfumery and in-house nose for the brand, Francis Kurkdjian, has captured another weather element…

‘It’s fog,’ he explains of the scent he created in conjunction with Burberry Chief Creative and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Bailey; ‘a London fog in which nothing is defined, everything is blurred, and you can see only the shapes of things. It’s unexpected, an energy that embraces the skin of the man who wears it.’

We refuse to trot out the threadbare phrase of ‘modern classic’ but with a gasp of grapefruit tempered by soapy clean cardamom and herbaceous tarragon, the opening certainly smacks of traditional style gentlemen’s Colognes, before plunging into a smokier heart of birch leaf, nutmeg and cedar with a final fling of vetiver, sandalwood and guaiac wood.

With one of the greatest living perfumers on board to bottle perhaps one of the best-known luxury clothing brands in the world, it was only fitting for the director of the ad campaign to be something special, too. And so Burberry rolled out the red carpet to welcome Oscar-winning director of 21 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen, for his advert directorial debut.

Click the video below to see for yourself why this fragrant film starring actor and musician Josh Whitehouse and model and actress Amber Anderson is getting viewers a little hot-under-the-collar…

Portraying the fragrance and embodying the brand itself in his short film shot in London (some of the steamier scenes in a suite we recognised from another fragrance launch we’d attended at the Cafe Royal), McQueen states, ‘I wanted to convey the idea of two people who are passionately in love… It’s that moment in a relationship where all you are thinking about is each other, and all you want is to be with each other.’ We were so happy to see some truly tender moments in the film – sadly not something often witnessed in men’s fragrance adverts when it’s all about thrusting adrenaline-fuelled adventures – so bravo to Burberry and Steve McQueen for that, too.

Mr Burberry launches later this month, from £48 for 50ml eau de toilette
Available at Burberry concessions and Burberry.com