Subtlety Is Top Note of Royal Perfumer and His Perfumes

When a firm can claim among its customers every reigning British monarch since George IV in 1820, you would think an additional prince or princess down the line would seem old hat.

But for Christopher Marsh, director of Floris, the small but venerable London perfumery, the news that Britain’s Prince Andrew would marry Sarah Ferguson made him a happy man indeed.

“Andrew’s betrothed is a good customer of ours,” said Marsh, who is otherwise tight-lipped when it comes to his roster of royal customers, including the princess-to-be.

Floris holds a royal warrant of Queen Elizabeth (for perfumes) and of Prince Charles (for “toilet preparations”), but one of the mandates of the Royal Warrant Holders’ Assn. is discretion; no firm that holds a warrant can divulge specific products used by those who grant them.

Marsh, a descendant of Juan Floris, founder in 1730 of the perfumery that was to include reigning monarchs among its clientele, is equally circumspect when it comes to other members of the royal family.

Princess Diana? “All I can say is she was a customer of ours before she got married.”

Based on two centuries of experience, the makers of Floris have come to the conclusion that members of the royal family make outstanding customers of fragrance products. Because of their frequent demands to be in the public eye, “They change clothes so often and shower during the day, so there’s a vast usage,” Marsh explained.

Floris products in particular appeal to them because “They don’t wish to be noticeably perfumed.”

Because fragrance preferences change with the times, some scents are retired and brought back again at a later date. For instance, after being out of vogue for 25 years, Floris recently dusted off its formula for English Violet because of sudden demand.

“It’s a very interesting time for fragrance,” he said. “We’re going back to the beginning of the circle. A lot of the modern fragrances are simple florals.”

Nevertheless, Floris is not about to change “with every little fad that crops up,” Marsh maintained during an appearance at Tottenham Court Ltd. in Studio City, where the Floris line is available. Indeed, even the packaging--sapphire-blue boxes and clear glass bottles--has remained unchanged since 1920. And the company is still headquartered at its original address, 89 Jermyn St., in London.

As for its clientele, customers of Floris are often children or grandchildren of other customers. In Sarah Ferguson’s case, she is a member in good standing of what Marsh calls the “Sloane Set” (others refer to rich, British-style preppies who shop the Sloane Street neighborhood in London as “Sloane Rangers”), and Floris has always appealed to that crowd.

Floris, in fact, may produce a commemorative fragrance for the Andrew-Sarah nuptials in July, as it did for Diana and Charles.

“But it’s a little too close,” Marsh said nervously. “There wasn’t as much warning as before.”