Whiff Of Extravagance

Perhaps the most eloquent aspect of luxury is its rarity. master Perfumer John Stephen creates fragrances that are heady synonyms for opulence.

- Rama Ahuja & Sam Lal

In terms of anecdotal references, it is perhaps befitting that fragrances have a paragon in Queen Cleopatra, one of the most enduring icons of beauty and style, recorded history has ever known. Legend has it that the Queen would have the sails of her boat coated with fragrant oils before setting out to sea so her lover Mark Antony would get a waft of her arrival before he actually set eyes on her.

The Bard of Avon has immortalised it in verse. “Purple the sails, and so perfumed that/The winds were lovesick with them,” he writes in his celebrated work, Antony and Cleopatra, thereby bringing perfumes on the same platform as beaten gold which finds mention in the preceding verse.

There is no doubt about the fact that when it comes to synonyms of pure opulence, fragrances take their position pretty high up in the pantheon. There is a certain mystique that is associated with perfumes and they have established themselves as standard bearers for quality that is rare and speaks eloquently of refined taste.

According to John Stephen, one of the most esteemed perfumers in the United Kingdom and the ‘nose’ behind some of the most celebrated fragrances in the world, bespoke perfumes are symbols of a new luxurious idiom.