Fashion 88 : New Fragrances Reflect the Return to Romantic Ideals
If the 1980s will be remembered for fragrances with decadent-sounding names--Obsession, Poison and Opium--the ‘90s will have the sweeter ring of Eternity, Knowing and Passion.
Sex sold perfume in the ‘80s. But as the new decade approaches, fragrance, like almost everything else, is taking a conservative turn. Of the 20 new perfumes to be introduced this year, florals with romantic names prevail.
It is a move away from aggressively erotic perfumes to more delicate essences that hint of love, courtship and marriage.
“The blatant sex angle is out of the picture,” says Fernando Aleu, a neuropathologist and president of Compar Inc., the New York-based fragrance company that sells Paco Rabanne and the new Carolina Herrera scent.
Some experts say perfume reflects the culture and the time period in which it is created.
“During the period of looser involvements and freer attitudes, there was more experimentation in the fragrance world,” says Lawrence Pesin, president of Colonia Inc., which distributes scents such as Gucci, Pavlova and the classic, Arpege.
Traditional Florals Suffered
In more free-wheeling times, heady Oriental fragrances were concocted from sweet, potent oils and herbs or earthy scents spiked with musk or moss. As these more erotic blends sold, sales of classic fragrances--especially traditional florals--suffered. But now, as Pesin points out: “The AIDS scare has led us to redirect priorities--and lovelier, less obtrusive fragrances have moved in.”
Consumers didn’t wait for perfumers to create new floral scents--they started buying the existing classics. Sales of romantic essences, such as Nina Ricci’s l’Air du Temps and Joy by Patou, began to increase during last year’s Christmas buying period, but continued to be high in January, a month when fragrance sales traditionally fall.
Ricci’s president, Barbara Kotlikoff, says l’Air du Temps has registered “double-digit increases in key stores during the quarter that ended in April.” At Patou, Joy retail sales have increased 20%, according to Paulette Weisenfeld, vice president of marketing.
Elizabeth Taylor’s Passion, a sentimental, floral scent with advertising to match, has been one of the most successful new fragrance introductions in years, says Annette Green, executive director of the nonprofit Fragrance Foundation in New York.
Retailer Patty Payne, divisional merchandise manager for fragrance at Bullock’s, agrees the trend in fragrance purchases reflects a return to sentimentality and relationships. Customers “are buying much more conservative, subtle scents,” she said.
For more than three years, Max Factor has been promoting Le Jardin, a light scent derived from the oils of white flowers, as a soft, fanciful fragrance. Actress Jane Seymour is the star of the soft-focus ad campaign.
Although Le Jardin has been a strong seller since its inception, Dolores Vinci, director of fragrance marketing at Factor, says the floral and its sister scent, Le Jardin d’Amour, have experienced “tremendous increases in the last two months.”
Follow Same Trend
Vinci acknowledges that consumers who buy their fragrances at Penney’s, K mart and drug stores--where Le Jardin is sold--are following the same purchasing trend as those who buy prestige scents.
“People at every economic level are looking for stronger ideals and stability. Romantic attitudes fall right into that--and so do romantic fragrances,” Ricci’s Kotlikoff says.
Market researchers have been anticipating this trend for about two years, says Donna Kreuger, fragrance marketing director for Avon, but it has only very recently surfaced.
Avon’s introduction of Breathless last year represented that firm’s commitment to romance, she says. “The trend was turning away from shock value, so we took the subtle, romantic approach.”
Part of the consumer response to less-aggressive scents has been triggered by subtle advertising in contrast to the overtly sexual ads of the recent past. Even Calvin Klein, whose controversial campaign for Obsession made his fragrance a best seller in the prestige-fragrance category, will keep erotica to a modicum when promoting his new Eternity, which will debut in September.
Fragrance-industry executives tend to agree with Kotlikoff when she says: “People are tired of being bombarded with sexually aggressive advertising.” And with Pesin, who says: “The social trend of looser morality was directly reflected in advertising, but that is over now.”
As the Fragrance Foundation’s Green explains: “There had to be a shift in emphasis to reflect our society as it is today. For some, that emphasis has become romance; for others, it’s simply a different attitude about people, places, things.”
If a fragrance isn’t romantic and it’s selling big, it’s most likely in a category the industry calls “life style.” That’s where the nation’s top-selling fragrance, Giorgio, carved a niche and others have followed.
New essences from jewelers Tiffany, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels are promoted to evoke images of the woman Robin Leach might interview for his “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” Ditto for Catherine Deneuve’s Deneuve.
Banking on Rodeo Drive
Theodore’s Spoiled is banking on the continued success of the Rodeo Drive panache.
“It may or may not be a positive image here in Southern California, but in the rest of America, Beverly Hills is our door opener,” says Herb Fink, who created the scent with partner Lee Bronson. “But once the door is open, what matters is the scent. Today people want something pretty, not overpowering.”
As he points out, even in the life style category, subtlety is the new necessity. “No one is going to the office in something overwhelmingly sensual,” Fink says.
Michael Gould, president of Giorgio Beverly Hills, a new division of Avon, maintains that market research has shown that the woman who buys a life style scent is interested in the prestige of the fragrance. Gould says when his firm introduces a new perfume in the spring of 1989, the emphasis will continue to be on Beverly Hills. “The customer doesn’t expect sensual ads, and that’s not what she’ll get--we don’t trade on sexual fantasies.”
Avon’s latest entry is Cote D’Azur, signed by designer Louis Feraud, conjuring images of life in the South of France. But beyond that, it cleverly fits into two categories--designer and life style--thus appealing to two types of customers. As Kreuger notes: “There is always a market for designer names and designer scents.”
Convinced of that philosophy, Saks Fifth Avenue launched Carolina Herrera’s signature scent last month in its stores across the United States. A blend of jasmine and tuberose, the perfume is a replica of the fragrance Herrera has blended for her own use for several years.
“I took the most classic approach,” explains the woman who designs for women such as Jacqueline Onassis and her daughter, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. “I made a scent that I like--without trying to second-guess the consumer.” How does she describe it? “A very romantic floral.”
In late summer, Colonia will introduce Genny, the namesake fragrance of the pricey Italian ready-to-wear collection. According to Pesin, its advertising campaign will focus strictly on the appeal of the signature.
“It does not reflect changing fashion or a changing culture,” he says. “It is simply a sophisticated floral.”
So do designers just naturally create what is trendy? Is it in the air, like styles of clothing? Perhaps, says Aleu of Compar, “but what’s more important is that they are influenced by society and the times. This is a time for what is natural, classic, recognizable. Florals offer basic, primal olfactory sensations. They are not complex combinations put together for sexual impact. Beauty is the guiding strategy. Sexiness is a pleasant side effect.”
