ERIS Parfums Launch Party

The Christmas before last I received Barbara Herman's book Scent & Subversion: Decoding a Century of Provocative Perfume as a Christmas gift from Tracy. Now, I have read my fair share of books about fragrance (my personal library is overflowing with copies of just about every published book on the subject), but this particular work struck a chord with me and has since become one of my favorite books on the subject. The fact that it focused on the intersection of perfume, history and gender politics made it all the more appealing given my background in history.

Of course, the bulk of the book was focused on the fragrances themselves. In Scent & Subversion, Herman explores hundreds of iconic fragrances from the twentieth century. Her descriptions of these vintage creations are evocative and tantalizing—her ability to translate her impressions into written descriptions is unmatched (you can check out her fantastic blog Yesterday's Perfume to get a taste).

The vintage fragrances discussed in Herman's book all possess a certain carnality. Indeed, there is a vintage style. Many of the fragrances in Scent & Subversion relied on musk, civet, castoreum, ambergris and leather accords to provide a palpable richness. Fragrance enthusiasts today refer to this as an animalic component. Over the past several decades there has been a marked shift away from the use of these ingredients as consumers have demanded cleaner fragrances. In creating her own fragrances with the help of perfumer Antoine Lie, Herman attempted to recapture the magic that had been lost.