Inspired by niche perfumery, Valentino, Bottega Venetta, Fendi and Balmain have released a collection of perfumes. Forgotten the unique signature that follows us all our lives. Juices can be collected and worn as we wish.
Last June, Fendi joined the increasingly closed club of fashion brands having chosen to launch a collection of perfumes. On the menu for this olfactory wardrobe: seven carte blanche entrusted to perfume stars and all inspired by a notable personality from the family at the origin of the Roman brand.
Since then, in 2024 alone, Balmain, Valentino and Bottega Veneta have followed suit while the houses already installed in this model inspired by niche perfumery have expanded their offerings. While Chanel and Hermès have each just enriched their premium lines with an opus – Comète in Exclusifs and Oud Alezan in Hermessence –, Dior has decided to add a real range extension to its Private Collection this year.
Called Esprit de Parfum (395 euros for 80 ml), these revisit five of the brand’s “totem perfumes” shaken up by perfumer Francis Kurkdjian. “I wanted their writing to assert a real aesthetic bias, for their trails to be powerful,” he assures.
Birth of a niche
“In barely twenty years, the traditional model of the franchise – a star perfume like N°5 or J’Adore declined over and over again and embodied by a muse in expensive advertising campaigns – seems to have lost its appeal in favor of “a logic called “à la Tom Ford”, one of the pioneers in fashion to have made a very lucrative shift towards the niche in 2006”, details Vincent Grégoire, director of consumer trends at Nelly Rodi in Paris. With a collection of perfumes, brands rely on the logic of “less but better and more expensive”.
An approach which, according to the predictions of the strategy consulting firm, should further intensify in the coming decade. Valued at $3 billion today, the global niche fragrance market is expected to reach $7.4 billion by 2031. “By turning their backs on the best-sellers of selective perfumery whose prices now flirt with those of the niche, the young people of Gen Z, in particular, intend to show their desire to stand out by opting for scents that reflect their personality” , continues Vincent Grégoire.
Built like a real “olfactory dressing room”, the Vestiaire des Parfums by Yves Saint Laurent constitutes a perfect example of this movement. Here, each juice refers to an iconic piece – Tuxedo, Saharienne, Lavallière – thus reinforcing the idea that we perfume ourselves today as we dress, depending on the mood of the moment or the occupations that we are doing. ‘we have in sight.
Acute collectionitis
The design of the bottles – an almost identical model, except for one detail, such as the color of the glass or the cap for example – also encourages them to be collected, making this elegant alignment a decorative element that is hitting the networks.
“For fans of labels like Louis Vuitton or Loewe, the perfume collection is a good way to visually mark one’s belonging to this tribe… Even for those who cannot afford to buy clothes or accessories become more and more expensive in recent years, points out Vincent Grégoire. These lines, which are often sold in house boutiques and not in traditional perfumeries, also allow them to have a real customer experience, to leave there with a logoed bag.
Raw materials clash
Broken down into a multitude of mini stories, the perfume collection becomes a fantastic “storytelling” tool for houses with a rich heritage, a fantastic support for creation. Thus, when Matthieu Blazy, current artistic director of Bottega Veneta, decided to launch the first collection of perfumes from the Italian house, it was on the latter’s Venetian heritage that he chose to rely, the translucent glass bottle referring to the lagoon that surrounds Venice.
At Balmain, Olivier Rousteing even built the Les Eternels range around four iconic scents of the house straight out of the archives and reinterpreted in today’s codes. Dries Van Noten also understood this well: by proposing in 2022 not one but ten fragrances, he wanted to reflect his artistic vision as best as possible.
“In my fashion, I always offer extensive, generous collections,” he explains. I wanted to stay in a niche perfumery approach, with juices that would not be tested, designed around clashes of raw materials that one would believe a priori irreconcilable.” It looks like it’s working… The Belgian designer opened a boutique in Paris exclusively dedicated to fragrances and makeup. And has just offered its fans four intriguing new combinations.
