Perfume really speaks to my inner witch, so on this sunny summer solstice Saturday, I'm headed to FRAGments, a pop-up organized by an underground perfume collective that taking over MorYork Gallery in Highland Park for a day of panels, talks and spritzing.
Much like artisanal baking, cheese-making and vinoculture, the indie perfume movement seeks a return to perfume's roots. The idea is to offer small batch, well-crafted fragrances that provide an alternative to the mass-market, highly chemical perfumes made by giant conglomerates that line the counters of your local mall.
And LA is a hub of this scented world.
When I first fell down the rabbit hole of perfume obsession, I sought out the newest, most esoteric brands at Scent Bar on Beverly Boulevard, the temple of indie niche perfumery. Then I haunted estate sales and antique swap meets hunting down vintage Carons, Guerlains and Chanel perfumes.
Eventually, I stumbled across the vibrant West Coast perfume scene. Its dozens of practitioners include botanical perfumers like Roxana Villa who distills in the oak-tree shade of her Agoura Hills cottage; Ayala Moriel, whose inspirations derive from the pine forests, windswept coasts and lush foliage of Vancouver and Yosh Han of San Francisco, a former florist whose intoxicating olfactory holograms conjure up tea rose gardens at dawn.
No comments:
Post a Comment