Bouncing back

RISING TO THE TOP OF THE FRAGRANCE INDUSTRY HASN’T BEEN WITHOUT ITS CHALLENGES FOR THIS PERFUME PIONEER. JO MALONE CBE TALKS BUSINESS BUILDING AND THE ART OF BOUNCING BACK.

- ROSALEEN MCMEEL

Jo Malone CBE greets me warmly at her store on Elizabeth Street in the affluent London district of Belgravia. Jo Loves is not difficult to find. If the brightly branded awning and creative floral window display don’t lure you in, the scent surely will.

The air around the shop is intoxicating, predominantly featuring Malone’s bestselling scent Pomelo, a fruity, grapefruit-infused fragrance. This was the first scent the perfume maverick created for Jo Loves, her second fragrance brand – the former being Jo Malone London, a fragrance and scented candle business that began in humble surrounds in her kitchen in 1983. She opened her first store in London in 1994 and, five years later, sold the company to Estée Lauder Companies for an undisclosed amount, remaining its Creative Director until 2006.

Just a few short years prior, in 2003, Malone was diagnosed with breast cancer. With the help of Estée Lauder’s Breast Cancer Campaign in New York she accessed the best possible treatment available. “My life is precious because I fought for it. I fought every day taking chemo and doing what I had to do. But it was a very aggressive form. When I was diagnosed in London, I was given less than a year to live. I didn’t listen to that. Don’t be defined by other people’s opinions of you, even if it’s your health.”