These days, any celebrity worth their salt, has at least one fragrance to their name. It was interesting to note when I, along with Louise Wilson of CSM and Wendy Dagworthy of RCA, were judging the best new packaging for male and female fragrances for this week’s FiFi Awards, just how many celebrity’s have used fragrance as a means to endorse their image.
Seen as the BAFTAs or Oscars of the UK Fragrance industry, these awards celebrate the achievements of this vast global industry. We were judging one of the many categories that recognise all aspects of this multi-million pound industry, from new scents, to adverts or different forms of retail distribution. I have always been interested in the fragrance industry, not only because we have Cosmetic Science as one of our specialist courses – a course which regularly undertakes fragrance projects, but also because, as anyone closely involved with the business of fashion understands, it is frequently perfume sales that allows couture to be as extravagant and glamorous as it is.
I also find it amusing to think that fashion, which is so often accused of being ephemeral and light weight is kept afloat by an industry which despite its beautiful and substantial packaging is scarcely more than the diffusion of a wonderful smell, picked up by our olfactory senses.
