Quotations
A selection of quotations on the subject of perfume and the sense of smell.
Giorgio Armani:
"A perfume is more than an extract it is a presence in abstraction. A perfume, for me, is a mystique."Alain Boucheron:
"A woman wears both jewellery and fragrance and both recall happy moments of her life."Christopher Brosius:
"Some of the most beautiful perfumes are like a ballgown, but sometimes, you just want to wear a comfortable pair of jeans."Jerome Cardan, De subtiltate rerum 1550:
"Smell alone amongst the senses can either destroy or quite remake a man."Coco Chanel:
"No elegance is possible without perfume. It is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory."Clive Christian:
Perfume is an art form. In the same genre as music and painting. It requires talent, expertise and most of all passion."Catherine Deneuve:
"You should put scent where you like to be kissed."Christian Dior:
"Of the women in my childhood, I retain above all the memory of their perfumes, perfumes that lingered - filling the lift with fragrance long after they had gone."Roja Dove:
"A fragrance is like a cat burglar in your brain, it has the key with which to pick the lock and unleash your memories."Michael Edwards:
"Modern perfumery is an intuitive blend of art and science. As long as convention forced perfumers to imitate the simple scents of flowers, there was little scope for originality. A rose is a rose is a rose, but a great perfume creates emotion. The development of a vast palette of synthetic aroma chemicals gave perfumers the means to add new character, originality and tenacity of the scents of nature."Massimo Ferragamo:
"Fragrance helps to communicate immediately a certain something that is special about a person. Women expect fragrance to match their personality and highlight it. When I think of putting on shoes, a shirt, a tie, it is to express what I am all about - I believe a fragrance should do the same thing; make you feel more yourself."Gianfranco Ferre:
"A fragrance always combines femininity and sensuality."Annette Green:
"The-psychological roles ascribed to fragrance are always in a state of flux. Each decade establishes its own olfactory ground rules."Jacques Guerlain:
"I felt something so intense, I could only express it in a perfume."Jean-Paul Guerlain:
"What remains of a woman when she is in the dark? When she has undressed, when we can no longer see her make-up, her wonderful hair, her beautiful eyes, when she's taken off her jewellery, what is left? Only her charming voice and her perfume."From "Chocolat" by Joanne Harris:
"The air is hot and rich with the scent of chocolate. Quite unlike the light powdery chocolate I knew as a boy, this had a throaty richness like the perfumed beans from the coffee stall in the market, a redolence of amaretto and tiramisu, a smoky, burnt flavour which enters my mouth somehow and makes it water.""...my mouth fills at the memory of the perfume, like cream and marshmallow and burnt sugar and the heady mingling of cognac and fresh-ground cocoa beans. It is the scent of a woman's hair, just where the nape joins the skull's tender hollow, the scent of ripe apricots in the sun..."
"Summer comes quickly to Lansquenet in the wake of the March winds, and it smells of the circus; of sawdust and frying batter and cut green wood and animal shit."
Tommy Hilfiger:
"I grew up in the country and there are many smells that awaken my memory. I remember the smell of fields of wild flowers, fresh cut grass, my high school girlfriend's perfume and the smell of freshly laundered shirts at my grandmother's house. The purpose of a fragrance is to evoke a memory and I have some wonderful memories going back to my childhood. I think a fragrance is both romantic and attractive. It certainly creates an allure when you are around somebody you are linked with romantically. For the world in general, a fragrance simply makes the wearer more attractive and pleasant to be around. Smell for me is the strongest sense after sight. Our sense of smell has such an evocative power. There is nothing better than remembering specific moments like the first time you kissed through a fragrance. I love that feeling of nostalgia a fragrance can conjure."Elizabeth Hurley:
"I have a very keen sense of smell and always associate certain people and places with particular fragrances. For me, nothing is more likely to set a mood than certain scents. I find I vary the perfume I use depending on the climate and the time of day. However a few great perfumes seem to work for most occasions."Donna Karan:
"Fragrance is the first layer of dressing, a woman's invisible body suit. Some of my favourite fragrances are exotic incense, mystic woods and sensual spices. Scents that create a lasting impression of serenity and calm. Smell is the primordial sense, more powerful, more primitive, more intimately tied to our memories and emotions than any other. A scent can trigger spiritual, emotional or physical peace and stimulate healing and wellness."Lolita Lempicka:
"I've been trying to redefine fragrance since I was a child - before I was ten. Throughout my life, certain fragrance notes have captured my imagination - especially liquorice, violet and anise, flooding back into my consciousness."Jo Malone:
"My sense of smell is, without a doubt, my governing sense. Fragrance is my language for translating the world, it is how I 'see' and capture many memories of family and friends or special moments in time. I will always remember my father's cologne combined with the crisp, clean scent of his freshly laundered shirts."Issey Miyake:
"The best fragrance is the scent of water, the fragrance of dew and rain falling on plants. Water is the essential element, a source of life and energy. A perfume that, like a garment, moves to suit the woman, her skin. A perfume that embraces a woman."Thierry Mugler:
"I want something mouthwatering and tasty which reminds me of childhood. The scent of a fairground, candy floss, little cakes, chocolates and caramels. Perfume must not be linked just to fashion because that means that one day it will go out of style."Pablo Picasso:
"Cubism is not a reality you can take in your hand. It's more like a perfume, in front of you, behind you, to the sides, the scent is everywhere but you don't quite know where it comes from."Oscar de la Renta:
"Fashions change and with rare exception are forgotten by the public. But the classic fragrances, like an invisible dress, endure. Fragrance must be introduced properly. A fragrance is like a signature, so that even after a woman leaves the room, her fragrance should reveal she's been there."Nina Ricci:
"The creation of a perfume is an act of love, whether real or imaginary. I am romantic. I couldn't imagine living without dreams."Song of Songs, Holy Bible, New International Version:
"You are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits...with every kind on incense tree, myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices. My lover is radiant...His head is purest gold...His cheeks are like beds of spice yielding perfume. His lips are like lilies dripping with myrrh."From "Perfume" by Patrick Suskind:
"Odours have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions or will. The persuasive power of an odour cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.""This perfume was not like any perfume known before. It was not a scent that made things smell better...it was completely new, capable of creating a whole world, a magical, rich world, and in an instant you forgot all the loathsomeness around you and felt so rich, so at ease, so free, so fine..."