D’OTTO’s Literature Collection is a perfumed paeon to the house’s singular belief that fragrance, like art, can leave an indelible mark in our scent memories, as well as treasuring the words of the classics they’re inspired by. Think of the scents as a seamless interweaving of culture and olfaction, offering scents as bold as the heroines within, and the fearless authors who wrote these iconic novels.
From its inception, and as you can read all about in our page dedicated to the house, D’OTTO has pursued a vision beyond decorative perfumery. Known for breaking all constraints, the house draws on iconic art and the elemental power of creative rebellion to craft what can truly be called ‘liquid art’. The vessels they’re housed in are important objects in themselves – offered as physical manifestations of modern perfume rituals. And the scents within, a kind of coded, sensorial rebellion rewriting rules and experiences. D’OTTO’s namesake, the figure eight, stands as an infinite talisman for the house, looping and spiralling in perpetual motion, just as art and scent bypass the ordinary and can carry us into their own dimensions.
And the perfumer for the house? Co-Founder Paolo Terenzi: A third-generation Italian perfumer, Paolo is respected for his endless creativity, as well as being a professional musician and poet.
Now, D’OTTO is pivoting from visual art towards the written word in their perfumed inspirations – having previously paid homage to painters such as Jackson Pollock, Kandinsky, and Mondrian; this time the focus is the written word, and beyond that, the seismic impact of women who didn’t write merely to entertain, but to shift the understanding of women’s voices in literature – and in history.
Let’s explore the perfume beneath the pages…
Firstly, the D’OTTO fragrance 4×2 evokes Jane Eyre with remarkable fidelity: opening in a shimmer of lily of the valley and tuberose, (that last heady bloom noting this is no nod to innocence). The heart, thrumming with bourbon vanilla and myrrh, reflects Brontë’s quietly radical spirit, while the warmly resinous, glimmering amber-y heat of the base offers a final, lingering impression of rebellious yearning. It is the restrained power of passion written in scent, mirroring Jane’s insistence on forging her own story.
8×1 meanwhile sweeps us to the wild Yorkshire moors of Wuthering Heights, distilling its storm-tossed intensity into perfume form. A tart, exhilarating onset of rhubarb (for which Yorkshire is famed), orange and lemon yields to a floral-woody heart, with chamomile and waxy magnolia stained by intense cassis. The finishing base is all drama, with cashmere, woodlands and musks conjuring unyielding love and a sense of looming thunder. It’s unapologetic, passionate and elementally evocative.
Completing the trio is 1×8, an earlier D’OTTO creation, now firmly re-contextualised as part of this literary tapestry. Dedicated to Jane Austen’s Emma, 1×8 is a delicate play of airy brightness, an intelligent, romantic swirl that perfectly suits those moments of wit and social intrigue. Its balance of lightness and depth sits as comfortably on a crisp autumn afternoon as the novels themselves sit by our firesides.
At The Perfume Society, we’re captivated by the prospect of pairing classic re-reads with these fragrances: imagining the world of each heroine not only through words, but on the skin. It becomes possible, for a moment, to sense both the author’s own pulse and, if you will, the novel’s ‘emotional weather’ in each waft we wear…
What fragrance would Jane Austen have worn, we wonder? From delving in to the world of Regency perfumery in England, and exploring the historic houses proudly still thriving today, to exploring a contemporary niche house evoking one of Austen’s most famous heroines, we invite you join us in this fascinating slice of Regency scented reveries.
This year marks 250 years of Jane Austen’s birth, and the Jane Austen Society have a number of fabulous events planned to celebrate. But what perfumes might Jane and her contemporaries (and the characters in the novels) have picked up on a shopping trip in Regency London? You can click on the links to be whisked back in time to explore their brand pages, read their full scented stories and discover some of the original olfactive treats…
In spring 1799, an enterprising young man named James Atkinson set forth from the wilds of Cumberland for London. In his suit pocket were recipes for fine fragrances and toiletries he’d created himself. And next to him sat a generous amount of rose-scented bear grease balm. (Yes, really.) Even more extraordinarily, next to the balm sat a real, live bear who – so the tale goes – was utterly devoted to James. Mr. Atkinson opened a shop at 44 Gerrard Street, with Atkinsons being referred to as ‘that marvellous perfume shop with the most terrifying bear’. And James’s reputation was made… thankfully with rather more fragrant offerings. In 1800 launching a ‘fearlessly English’ eau de Cologne, which was strikingly different from the Italian-style Colognes: fresh, yes – but warm and spicy, too.
Yardley, too, has a proud (and VERY long) perfumed heritage, and happens to be named Yardley for the similarly feisty woman The firm has its formal roots in 1770, when the soap and perfumery firm known to us as Yardley London was established by the father of a man called William Cleaver. It got its so-familiar ‘Yardley’ name after a young woman called Hermia Yardley (daughter of the wealthy and ambitious businessman William Yardley), married William Cleaver – heir to his father’s soap and perfumery business. Young William persuaded Coutts Banking House to loan the business the sum of £20,000 (astonishing for those times), with his father-in-law as guarantor. When he couldn’t repay the loan, Hermia persuaded her father pay up – and thus, because of Hermia’s determinism and belief, Yardley came to be Yardley…
There’s some interesting snippets of information about Regency perfumery in the always-fascinating janeausten.co.uk, and they mention one of the U.K’s most famous (and still-thriving) perfumeries…
Floris. It’s an extraordinary chapter in British perfumery – even if its founder, Juan Famenias Floris, happens to have been Spanish by birth, travelling to London to seek his fortune. Step inside the shop at 89 Jermyn Street, then, and you are truly stepping into fragrance history. This is a house first founded in 1730, which is still operating out of its original premises, run by members of that same family. Many literary luminaries have graced the shop’s infamous customer ledger [Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein and wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, wrote from abroad asking a friend to send in her next care package ‘two hairbrushes and a small toothbrush,’ from the store.] And in 1820 – the very end of the Regency era – Floris received its first of 16 Royal Warrants.
Meanwhile, modern perfume houses are very much infused with the spirit of literary inspirations – a subject we have often referred back to, and will certainly cover again, such is the extent of literature’s olfactory influence.
We were particularly thrilled when the always-creative house of D’OTTOsought scented inspiration in none other than Jane Austen as part of their Harrods-exclusive Literary Collection. [For reviews of the latest two Brontë fragrances by D’Otto, do see our soon-to-be-launched Summer edition of The Scented Letter magazine, and make sure you’re signed up to get your free digital copy as soon as it’s published!]
As D’OTTO explain:
‘The 1×8 Extrait de Parfum draws its inspiration from Jane Austen’s “Emma,” and her iconic quote,“Why did we wait for anything? Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!”
1×8 encapsulates the elegance, grace, and intelligence of Emma, the novel’s leading lady. Its lively notes recall the energy and vitality of youth combined with the romance and torment of a young woman as she grows up and her feelings mature.
A drop of this creation offers up lighthearted joy and the desire to discover the world. It is a testament to the irrepressible desire to experience every emotion intensely, with determination, passion, and self-confidence. 1×8 captures the essence of a daring soul, one that does not allow itself to be tamed by life’s challenges…’
So, which perfume might you plump for – to join in the costume parties, balls, games and literary gatherings celebrating Jane Austen’s 250th anniversary? (Or, of course, simply to wear when re-reading one of her still-sparkling novels) Might you be tempted by the modern evocation, or also want to explore the historic houses? In the spirit of Emma (and Austen herself), we say: dare to ‘seize the pleasure’ of several!
In our continuing series scenting popular culture films, books and music, may we present: Perfuming Persuasion – matching characters from the recent Netlfix adaptation of the Jane Austen novel to fragrances we feel really reflect their characters (and, perhaps, yours…?)
It’s a two-way street, this ‘scenting of’, because describing a perfume can be so tricky to acurately convey (there being no distinct words for any smell in the English language). So, bereft of exacting language, we always seek to liken a scent to something else: music, textures, colours, places and, yes people. Then, it suddenly becomes tangible, a thing you get a grasp of and at least partly understand.
Hot on the heels of the annual Jane Austen Festival, in which participants from all over the world get together and dress as their favourite characters or in period clothing to share their love of the pereneially Persuasion is a fabulous film to do this with, because though an adaptation of a classic novel, in style it is distinctly modern, breaking the fourth wall by having characters talk confessionally to the camera as though they’re addressing us directly – think Fleabag, The Favourite and Bridget Jones’ Diary. The costumes, too, display the more contemporary mix of historically acurate and distinctly modern styles (not quite as obviously as Bridgerton, but that was a modern novel set in an almost fantasy historical setting). Allowing Austen’s socially observant humour and tenderness while reflecting the far-reaching aspects of the charcaters we can still relate to today, this 2022 re-telling of Persuasion is ripe for the perfuming we feel!
Netflix says: ‘Persuasion is a story about the one who got away. Eight years after breaking off her engagement with Captain Frederick Wentworth, protagonist Anne Elliot still isn’t over him. As the middle of three sisters, the 27-year-old is isolated and lonely in a family that doesn’t understand her. But when the dashing blast from her past suddenly crashes back into her life, she must choose between real closure or a second chance. Can she stop self-sabotaging long enough to take it? Based on Jane Austen’s final novel, Persuasion is full of quirky, endearing characters that make up Anne’s social circle. Get to know some of them below…’
Anne Elliot (Played by Dakota Johnson): Wilgermain Passion Victim
‘Sarcastic and witty, 27-year-old Anne is the sometimes flawed narrator who takes the audience through the colorful cast of characters that populate her world. When we first meet her, she’s living with her father and older sister, having turned down her big chance at love and happiness almost a decade earlier.’
Unconventionally free-spirited and often caustically socially observant, Anne would wear Passion Victim with aplomb. Not that she’s a victim (other to her darker emotions, at times); but the ‘usual suspects’ (as they put it) of vanilla, cistus and frankincense being shot through with mandarin, feel like they’re floating through motes of gold dust suspended in tendrils of smoke. Simmering with passion it tips over into being truly sublime as it throbs to the dry down.
Captain Frederick Wentworth (played by Cosmo Jarvis) – Jean Paul Gaultier Le Beau Eau de Parfum Intense
‘After being rejected by Anne on the advice of Lady Russell, Wentworth sought a life of adventure in the British Navy. He returns to England as a rich man with far better marriage prospects. But has he forgotten the woman who broke his heart?’
A fragrance inspired by giving in to temptation, this swashbuckling-ly handsome scent has something of a subdued swagger – it’s not in-your-face, but oh how it builds (and sexily so): the bergamot burnishing the exotically creamy coconut in the heart, while addictive tonka bean is enough to make you fully swoon. You feel this is worn by a chap more worldly, wearing his medals with pride rather than ostentation; an intense soul that’s been battle-scarred but ultimately readier to submit to true feelings.
Lady Russell (played by Nikki Amuka-Bird) – To the Fairest Aubine
‘Lady Russell was best friends with Anne Elliot’s late mother, and in her absence acts as a role model, mentor, and confidant. She feels guilty for having pushed Anne away from Wentworth all those years ago, and is constantly trying to make up for it. A widow, she has little desire to remarry, instead taking extended trips to Europe, where she can have sexy continental affairs with no judgment from others, thank you very much.’
A glorious celebration of honeyed light, gardenia, frangipani, and orange blossom feels gilded, as though filtered through amber glass. Embracing the warmth of sunsets and new beginnings, this stunning bouquet of brightness blossoms into something altogether honeyed, assured and humming with secret, self-assured sensuality. The frankincense and woods in the dry-down, meanwhile, offer a welcome hug of reassurance that you’ve got this: keep going!
William Elliot (played by Henry Golding) – Carolina Herrera Bad Boy Cobalt
‘Anne’s rich and eligible cousin who once snubbed her sister Elizabeth by — gasp — marrying an American is what the mothers of Bridgerton would call a “capital-R Rake.” Now, he’s back in England, single once more, and on the prowl for a new wife. Wentworth better watch his back.’
Elegantly ‘redefining a modern masculinity’, the salt-licked breeze segues to contemporarily sophisticated lavender, the heart amplified by a rosy tinged geranium. In the base, confidence abounds absolutely, with addictively moreish truffle enhancing smoked oakwood, vetiver, and ultra-smooth cedarwood. Altogether, this Bad Boy is dashing, dapperly dressed and hard to resist. And he knows it.
Mary Musgrove (played by Mia McKenna-Bruce) – Olfactive O Gourmand
‘Anne’s spoiled, selfish younger sister has a single priority: herself. Married to Charles Musgrove, she treats her husband and children much as she does Anne — as disposable creatures blessed with the opportunity to add to her own comfort and happiness.’
We feel Mary (and those like her who might, shall we say, be prone to dramatising events and casting themselves as very much hard done by) would be well-served by this utterly delectable and soul-soothing scent. It thows a velvet rug over your knees and feeds you chocolate cake still warm from the oven, honeyed rum and a hug. For indulging your every need, every single day, you can’t do better than this.
Elizabeth Elliot (played by Yolanda Kettle) – Contradictions in ILK Nonchalant
‘Elizabeth is widely known as the beauty of the Elliot clan — although it’s entirely possible she started that rumor herself. Vain and haughty, she’s her father Walter’s pride and joy, and the only one who travels with him to Bath in an effort to escape bankruptcy.’
Elizabeth’s reluctance to settle for a suitor lead to many castigating her as self-important, but we wonder if that’s not actually better than being betrothed to someone you loathe for the sake of it? In the spirit of believing in your own worth, then, let’s allow her to arch an eyebrow in this. Redolent of cast-aside love-letters and a dressing table full of fabulous fripperies, ripples of raspberry and red berries are draped in cinnamon-dusted violets and laced with labdanum.
Sir Walter Elliot (played by Richard E. Grant) – Penhaligon’s The Blazing Mr Sam
‘ “My father. He’s never met a reflective surface he didn’t like,” Anne says early on in Persuasion. That pretty much sums up Sir Walter, a spendthrift dandy whose only fatherly instinct is to instruct his children on how to be more like him.’
What could be better for Walter than this warmly woody and sophisticatedly spiced scent that was, so Penhaligon’s tell us, inspired by a gentleman who ‘…lives fast, spends freely and speaks loudly’? Brazen, bursting with confidence and living for the moment, this fragrance makes itself comfortable in the best leather chair at the club, sinking into rich seams of pepper-flecked vanilla and oodles of tobacco (which he’ll pay you back for, no he means it this time.) Smooth, utterly charming, he’s fun to be around if you’re not the one taking responsibility for his actions…
