Olfactory Odes

Bespoke fragrances from India find takers in the luxury market.

- Rukma Saluja

A German man of a certain age recently liked a perfume from In the Know, a bespoke perfume brand. He was unable to pay with his international credit card. Ruchi Jain, owner of the brand, advised him to take it, and send the payment when he returned home. A few days later, he wrote to tell her that he was overwhelmed by the trust reposed in him. More importantly, that his estranged wife of twenty years had come back to him and they were to get married again. He’d been wearing the perfume he’d bought from her and he asked her if she could please send another bottle. The scent of a man, would you say?

Fragrance lives in the memory and, when choosing a preference, one instinctively goes for something that harks back to one’s childhood or to a happy memory. That is not to say that you can’t develop a taste for new scents.

In south India, sandalwood and jasmine based scents sell easily and, in the north, it would be those with khus (vetiver) and citrusy notes. India has had a long association with perfume. Ittar from our famed spices and flowers—rose and jasmine, to name just two—have always been around. Putting flowers in the hair, for instance, served the purpose of both personal adornment and fragrance.