Spotlight: Nez and the Changing Landscape of Fragrance Discourse
Join us on December 13 as we dive into Nez, the olfactive magazine that has taken the fragrance world by storm. Since launching in 2016, Nez has expanded into three languages and garnered a reputation for its thoughtful writing and iconic design. Headed by the enigmatic Jeanne Doré, Nez was launched during a period of decline in the perfume writing ecosystem.
By 2016, the number of active perfume blogs had dropped precipitously and many of the remaining blogs had shifted away from an exclusive focus on perfume. In some cases, blogs were shuttered due to book deals (Barbara Herman’s Yesterday’s Perfume, for instance) but many others struggled with an increasingly fragmented audience, competition from YouTube reviewers and the difficulty of monetizing a perfume blog.
The other night, Luca Turin pointed out that perfumery is the only art form that isn’t covered by the New York Times. The ongoing battle to have perfumery recognized as a legitimate art form is currently being fought by authors, bloggers and critics—that is to say that the fate of perfumery’s cultural status is entirely dependent upon the survival of perfume criticism and critical discourse. Luckily, Nez has been taking this mission very seriously:
Online perfume reviews have shaken up the industry in the last decade and shown that alongside literary, film and music critics there is also a place for the perfume critic. Nez will be the first print publication to take on this critical dimension (and it gets very critical!). With the whole journal dedicated to the subject, each issue offers a unique focus shaped by the particular specialisms [sic] of the contributors.
For this event, we will be joined by Nez contributor, author, perfume critic and blogger Angela Sanders. Angela has been a regular contributor on the popular perfume website Now Smell This for years and has written several articles for Nez. She will be discussing her experience working as a perfume reviewer, her process, the way the industry has changed over the years and more.