Walpole member Linda Pilkington, founder of perfume house Ormonde Jayne discusses how cultural change is affecting the world of fragrance, and how her brand is responding to these shifts in opinion.
"Ormonde Jayne's perfume repertoire constantly evolves and as our niche British perfume house comes of age this year at 21 years, we also keep our minds open to cultural changes within our society and adapt quickly when necessary."
Two respected perfume authors recently commented on the use of the word 'Oriental' in the fragrance world; Tania Sanchez in Harper's Bazaar USA and Victoria Frolova in her blog Bois de Jasmin.
The term oriental has long been used to describe opulent rich fragrances made with woody resins and amber. When fine fragrance centred in Paris, all ingredients originating east of France were classified as Oriental. Tania Sanchez asks why we still describe perfumes as oriental pointing out: "Today perfume is a global product, made everywhere, sold everywhere. Why not use a global term?”
At Ormonde Jayne, diversity and respect for all cultures, races, religions and people has always been key to their philosophy.
"We are in complete harmony with the opinion of Tania Sanchez and Victoria Frolova that naming a perfume category of resins as Oriental is outdated. Also, unlike fragrance categories such as floral or woody, the term Oriental can be confusing. But the main reason for our decision to remove this term immediately from Ormonde Jayne is that it has derogatory associations for many people."
Linda Pilkington, Ormonde Jayne's Founder and Creator
The term 'Oriental' has now been removed from Ormonde Jayne’s website and will be removed from all future marketing material.
From today, Amberesque will be the new Fragrance Family name categorising perfumes using woody resins including sandalwood, patchouli, oudh, tolu, tonka beans. “I wanted a term for the fragrance family that would reflect the creative fantasy smell of amber in its classic form. We considered Arboresque, Amberesin, but have decided on Amberesque”, says Linda.
Ormonde Jayne fragrances in the Amberesque category include Montabaco, Orris Noir, Ambre Royal, Vanille d’Iris and Nawab of Oudh.
