Scent Of A Woman

The future is female, so what does that mean for fragrance? ELLE discovers the change-makers of the perfume world, the brands speaking to the modern woman and the next scents to know

Perfume has long been used as a tool of seduction – to dial up femininity and awaken our inner coquette. And while Coco Chanel famously said a woman should wear perfume “wherever she wants to be kissed”, a revolution has taken place since then. How we define femininity has changed. Now a woman should wear perfume... well, wherever the hell she wants. “There’s a sense of rawness and realness in perfume now – a desire to not smell too perfume-y,” says Bee Shapiro, founder of New York perfume brand Ellis Brooklyn. “The complex fragrance compositions of old can sometimes feel dated. We all want to smell great, but also unique.”

For her part, Shapiro translated those perfume politics into her first fragrance, Myth. “I was looking for a scent that was sensual and inviting; it should draw people in closer but without being a stereotype of what a sexy scent should be,” she says. Warm and musky, the formula melds with your skin’s own chemistry to create an eau that’s all your own.

Shapiro credits the shift in scents to the influx of women in the once male-dominated industry. “Because of talented female perfumers such as Christine Nagel at Hermès or Daniela Andrier, who’s behind many of the unique Prada scents, there’s been a shift in what women should smell like,” she says. “The rise of niche perfumery in the past decade has also changed notions of gender in fragrance. You don’t have to wear this super potent scent to qualify as sexy and feminine. You can really be any archetype.” Femininity, it seems, is freer than ever before, so, what do you want to be?

KNOW THE NOSE

At one point, it was men who were behind the most famous perfumes in the world. But times they are a-changing – these are the female powerhouses behind your new favourite scent.