Catwalk perfume is the buzzy new approach to designer fragrance
What really makes a luxury perfume luxury? Perhaps it's the seductive curve of the bottle and weighty, jewel-like lid. Or the rare ingredients that come alive on your skin. Maybe it's purely about the designer label and how the scent telegraphs taste.
If it's all of the above, you've probably already spritzed Sogno In Rosso, which plays with syrupy and spicy notes – from the frothy foam on a latte to nose-twitching black pepper – and boasts a name tag made from the same fabric as a couture gown.
When Maison Valentino launched the fragrance as part of its new Anatomy of Dreams collection, the fashion house boldly declared it was a “haute couture" perfume. And just like that, a new term entered our beauty vocabulary.
Couture – or catwalk – perfumes are the VIPs of the fragrance world. They're not part of the mass-produced designer perfume crowd, and they'd sniff at the idea of being a commercial hit. Rather, they have the same exclusivity as a high-fashion, haute couture gown – and judging by the proliferation of couture perfumes, it's a growing trend.
It's the reason Rabanne has also launched into the fine fragrance space, despite the success of blockbusters like Lady Million. It wants to appeal to niche fragrance lovers who place value on craftmanship, artistry and storytelling, a spokesperson for the brand told a packed room of beauty editors at the launch of La Collection Rabanne in Paris.
Actually, storytelling plays a big part in the appeal of catwalk perfumes. It's like a wormhole into a designer's archives, where the scents draw inspiration from the fashion house's heritage.
Take Comète, the latest addition to Chanel's Les Exclusifs collection. Its bright, powdery scent is an homage to a dazzling star- and comet-shaped necklace in Chanel's first High Jewellery collection. Similarly, Dior has La Collection Privée, which it describes as “a special connection between couture and fragrance” – a cool £255 for each 125ml bottle.
And then there's Balmain's new Les Éternels collection, housed in ribbed bottles that are a nod to the brand's original 1946 scent. If the smash TV show Succession were a perfume, I imagine it would smell exactly like Balmain's Carbone: dark, sexy, powerful and rich.
And isn't that the real point of a luxury fragrance – to smell dangerously and addictively expensive?
Ahead, the latest catwalk perfumes to invest in now…
For more from Fiona Embleton, GLAMOUR's Associate Beauty Director, follow her on @fiembleton.
None of the eight perfumes in Rabanne's La Collection Rabanne are a straightforward rose or oud – their inspiration ranging from how your skin smells during late-night sex to a heaving 1980s nightclub. For me, the most intriguing is Silver Skin, a scent inspired by the sensation of a chain-mail dress against bare skin. As you might expect, there is powdery, skin-like iris in the blend; but also icy metallic notes that smell deliciously shivery and make the hairs on your arm stand up.
Bottega Veneta's Colpo di Sole – with its green marble plinth and glass bottle shaped to look like rippled water – is the epitome of a couture perfume. It's my favourite of the five new Bottega fragrances, because it immediately smells uplifting and sharpens the senses. A fresh snap of bergamot rubs shoulders with powdery musk and vanilla for a bright, mellow scent that evokes a sunny, summer day. There's also something faintly nostalgic about the smell – it reminds me of the cool, herbal whiff of 4711 Eau de Cologne that my mum used to splash on her neck in the heat.
21:50 Rêverie has already sold out once. Like all of the perfumes in Victoria Beckham's collection, it's inspired by a personal memory – in this case, a night in Java surrounded by thousands of tea lights. If you want a warm scent for winter but, like me, you're not a fan of vanilla fragrances that smell like cupcake icing, then you'll likely love this. The raw vanilla has a dark earthiness that takes the edge off the warmth and sweetness to create what Victoria herself describes as a “dirty vanilla” scent.
While Prada Paradoxe is undeniably a smash hit for Prada, Les Infusions de Prada are like upmarket fragrance waters that focus on one star ingredient. They all have a common baseline of musk, iris and citrus to mimic the scent of skin. In Prada Infusion de Figue, delicate wisps of incense, glossy fig leaf and green mandarin burst through for a fresh, woody scent with minimal projection that practically begs you to come closer for another sniff.
I was sent a tiny tester-size vial of this perfume pre-launch – and mourned finishing the last drop. LV Lovers isn't what you might expect; despite the name it isn't carnal or overtly rosy and romantic. Louis Vuitton's master perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud wanted to bottle the feeling of a ray of sunlight illuminating the skin. It's unexpectedly bright with clean, crisp ginger running through it but it's like any sharp edges have been buffed away. It makes you smile, it makes you feel alive and the lingering warmth of the woody base ensures it never smells bracing.
I have to confess, I'm a bit biased when it comes to Comète, as it's become my go-to signature scent (you also voted it Best New Fragrance in GLAMOUR's 2024 Beauty & Wellness Power List Awards). For me, it's the closest thing to a bespoke perfume in a skin scent because it mixes with your skin's unique chemistry. This has been my greatest takeaway about Comète: it's a deeply personal perfume that smells subtly different on every beauty editor I know who has tried it. At first spritz, Comète has a bright spark to it (thanks to a fizzy cherry blossom note). But then heliotrope flowers, combined with iris and musk, create a powdery, almondy scent trail – a little like the star and comet's tail that the perfume draws its inspiration from.
Dior's perfume creation director, Francis Kurkdjian, has taken five original fragrances from the La Collection Privée line and amplified certain notes in each. One of these perfumes is Lucky. Previously, the scent of lilies – the flowers that Dior would secretly sew into the hem of his haute couture dresses for good luck – was muddled together with other white blooms. Now the floral scent has been stripped back to mainly feature the green freshness of lily and its intensity has been boosted with a woody, leathery base. If the superstitions in its backstory aren't enough to convince you to buy it, the scent will be.
Cult Gaia has recently made its first foray into perfume with the launch of Mast, Zan and Noor. The pastel bottles make a nod to the fashion brand's bags — from the curved shape of the iconic Ark bag to the marbling on its clutch bags. Zan is easily the most wearable of the three fragrances. A spicy spin on a skin scent, it hugs your wrists with warm puffs of incense, pink pepper and musk.
Balmain's Les Éternels eight-piece collection is the perfume equivalent of a fancy hotel buffet – there's literally something to satisfy everyone's taste. It includes four legacy perfumes that have been reimagined for the modern day, including Carbone – an overdose of sexy with its smoky, musky, rose scent.
Like Valentino's blockbuster fragrance line Born In Roma, every perfume in the Anatomy of Dreams collection is inspired by hidden corners of Rome. The jewel-toned bottles are embellished with the brand’s signature studs (referencing the design on Roman doors), while the name tag is made from the same fabric as Valentino's couture gowns. With its eye-catching crimson bottle, Sogno In Rosso daringly mixes sweet, milky notes with a rush of fiery black pepper. It's definitely an evening perfume and playful enough to make a great party scent.
L'Art & La Matière is Guerlain's couture perfume collection and is renowned for using the finest raw materials. In this case, it's patchouli – which we agree is an acquired taste. But thanks to some formula tinkering, it smells far less mossy than the vials of neat oil you get in alternative health shops. Yes, there's still a woodiness to it, but it's softer and more velvety – hidden among the creamy vanilla, powdery iris and musk. Fitting, considering the ornate theatres of Paris are the inspiration behind this scent.
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