The scent of a designer

Indian designers on why it has taken so long to add perfumes to their repertoire

April 16, 2018 11:41 am | Updated 09:04 pm IST

Fashion designer Manish Arora acknowledges the audience at the end of the 2018/2019 fall/winter collection fashion show on March 1, 2018 in Paris. / AFP PHOTO / Patrick KOVARIK

Fashion designer Manish Arora acknowledges the audience at the end of the 2018/2019 fall/winter collection fashion show on March 1, 2018 in Paris. / AFP PHOTO / Patrick KOVARIK

With the recent launch of Rohit Bal’s, Gaurav Gupta’s, and Manish Arora’s perfumes, to be followed in August by Shantanu & Nikhil’s, the Indian designer perfume market has suddenly started smelling sweeter. Two of these — Again by Gupta that launched late last year, and Ready to Love by Manish Arora — are collaborations with perfumer Jahnvi Lakhota Nandan’s The Perfume Library.

On the phone from Paris, Nandan is quick to clarify that while the proliferation of Indian designer perfumes may seem sudden, it is anything but. “These are projects that have taken years to mature.” She is working on a few more that, at this time, she regrets not being able to talk about. “It’s a key aspect of developing a perfume that it be done completely under wraps,” she says, adding, “It’s just a beautiful coincidence that the ones that are ready are all hitting the market in India at roughly the same time.”

Slow and steady

As one of the key centres of production and consumption, India has had a long and steady love affair with perfumes. From ittars to floral distillates, exotic woods to spices, the country has contributed to and participated in the global obsession with fragrances since the time of the Indus Valley Civilisation. French perfumery, in particular, has often utilised Indian ingredients — roses and jasmine from Kannauj, sandalwood from the jungles of the Deccan, and spices from the Nilgiris — to create iconic perfumes like Guerlain’s Shalimar and Boucheron’s Jaipur Saphir , among others.

So why has it taken our own designers to come up with homegrown perfumes that can rival foreign fragrances? The answer may lie more in logistics than any perceived lack of creativity.

Developing a perfume is a long-drawn process, explains Nandan, and not all are successful. “For example, it took years for Thierry Mugler’s Angel to become a success.” Launched in 1992, and later paired with Mugler’s Alien that hit the market in 2005, it now enjoys cult status.

Changing times

Compared to such international labels, the Indian market is still nascent. Manan Gandhi, founder of the Mumbai-based Bombay Perfumery, adds that the growth of the fine fragrances industry in India has also been stymied by strict regulations. “Perfumes contain alcohol, so producing them requires permissions and licenses. And if you’re importing ingredients, that’s more paperwork,” he says. “The market here has, till recently, not been able to support small-scale perfume operations.”

As arguably the first Indian designer to bottle his own perfume, Rohit Bal agrees. “We made our first perfume almost 10 years ago,” he says. However, these weren’t for sale. Named, simply, Rohit Bal , the unisex fragrance had top notes of musk and spices with an undertone of peppery and sandalwood hints. “We made small batches that we gifted to my friends and special clients.” Late last year, he debuted four of his perfumes for sale at his stores countrywide. Named Aad (water), Oudh , Os (dew), and Vana (forest), each retails for ₹4,500 per 100ml. While Aad is for men and Oudh is unisex, the other two are targeted at women. “It felt like the right time to round off and complete our range with a series of perfumes that represent my inspirations,” says Bal.

Experimental notes

If it took a decade for Bal to launch his fragrances, then what the others have accomplished seems almost miraculous. “It took Jahnvi and me four years to come up with Again ,” says Gaurav Gupta, who is now retailing his debut fragrance at ₹9,600 per 50 ml. With mineral notes — “rare in perfumery,” says Nandan — mixed with ginger and absinthe, it the scent evokes the forests of Fontainebleau near Paris and Sitavan in Gujarat, and symbolises both Gupta’s and Nandan’s commitment to the environment. With Arora’s Ready to Lov e, she says that it was an ambitious project that involved going through hundreds of iterations till they hit upon a formula that worked and, most importantly, was not available in the global market anywhere.

While Gupta’s is a niche, India-only debut, Arora tied up with London-based Dilesh Mehta’s Designer Parfums SA (the company also owns the licenses for the likes of Jean Patou, Worth, Aigner, Porsche Design, and Naomi Campbell fragrances) for a global launch in Paris. And unlike Gupta’s single scent, Arora’s comes in three expressions: Hot Pink, Intense Red, and Deep Orange. Each bottle is 40ml, and is priced at ₹4,420, with a pack of two at ₹7,634, and three at ₹11,653.

Up next, is the launch of Shantanu & Nikhil’s fragrance that will initially retail at their seven stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and Kolkata, before going on sale online. “It’s a unisex perfume,” says Shantanu Mehra, refusing to share the name for now, “and the design of the container is inspired by the ink bottles we remember from our school days.” The fragrance itself “will evoke a nostalgic aspect of India,” says Mehra, somewhat cryptically. Developed in Germany and bottled in France, their partners for this brand extension is Delhi-based Tojo-Vikas International Private Limited.

While it may be too soon to start noticing trends in the way Indian designers approach, develop, and price their perfumes, it cannot be denied that it is a welcome addition to a designer retail landscape that was missing this essential ingredient. It only remains to be seen which ones come up smelling like success.

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