a day ago
Meet the Australian Fragrance Brands Shaping a New Olfactory Landscape
Australia's love affair with fragrance is only just beginning. Over the past decade, the beguiling sector has undergone a quiet transformation, sweeping from a hive of mass-market imports and celebrity-endorsed perfumes to a true boutique industry. And at its heart lies a desire for originality in storytelling.
If you ask the perfumers and fragrance experts leading the future of scent, a change is in the air. A shifting fashion climate and the rise of home-grown individualism have given way to a new form of contemporary luxury, one that isn't as concerned with pomp as it is with provenance. As Craig Andrade, founder of craft label The Raconteur, explains, fragrance, as a category, is fast-moving from status symbol to personal expression.
'When you have a great sense of scent in your wardrobe, it becomes this beautiful, invisible communication that says so much and yet, only those who are close to you can understand what it is you're trying to say,' Andrade says. 'It is the most subtle form of self-expression; the most exquisite form of communication a man can use to say who he is.'
Adrade is one of the many boutique Australian producers helping to chart a new frontier in fragrance. The former law firm partner turned perfumer launched his business in 2019 after identifying a gap in the market for premium, artisanal scents that offered something different from the industry norm. When COVID hit just one year later, his gamble paid off.
'That moment accelerated and accentuated this heightened awareness around scent,' he tells me. 'It also brought this sort of category of wellbeing, where scent could play a role in small touches to elevate your space, to the forefront. When you're working from home, simply applying a room scent was a small ritual of self-care and something you could do at home.'
'There was a huge surge in demand; you started to see this audience that had a greater awareness and a greater level of sophistication when purchasing online. For men and for women, there was just a bigger appetite for getting into this space, and that was the tectonic shift in our industry globally, and certainly in Australia.'
