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Feature: Rare and costly `bespoke' fragrances lure connoisseurs

"`Bespoke' perfume is very close to the world of haute couture in that there are no limitations in price or in time."

Francis Kurkdjian, a young master perfumer

Unique perfumes offering a scent of exclusivity are now within the reach of many pockets thanks to a new generation of young master "noses" trying to buck a trend towards bland mass production.

Until recently, perfumers concocted such luxury only for the likes of Arab princesses, millionaires and film stars.

Annick Le Guerer, perfume expert and author, said that perfume companies today intentionally created their fragrances "by consensus," and not according to the taste of one perfumer, in order to widely appeal to customers regardless of nationality and local taste.

But the industry's shift away from bold scents with personality to blends designed to please all has triggered a backlash, prompting a growing number of perfumers to set up their own "boutique" businesses.

"Demand for a personalized product has grown in the last few years among a certain clientele," said Han Paul Bodifee, who heads up France's perfume industry body PRODAROM.

"We've seen new businesses emerge that use the skills of a master perfumer to create very high quality fragrances that are exclusive and made-to-measure," he said in an interview in the world's perfume capital, Grasse, in the hills above the Riviera coast.

This new clientele is strangely eclectic -- both men and women from worlds as diverse as business, politics, the stage and screen and, of course, the very rich. But all are connoisseurs in search of quality.

Their ages also range widely, from babies up to the over-eighties, Isabelle Burdel said. Burdel was the first perfumer to launch her own chic label, "Salon Prive," on the Riviera two years ago in the exclusive seaside resort of Cannes.

Her youngest client to date was a three-year-old Arab princess. The clientele for these "new" perfumes also tends to be very international.

While the main customer base is in Europe and North America, perfumers said the Gulf Arabs are becoming increasingly interested, along with Eastern Europeans, North Africans and Latin Americans and more recently customers in India and Asia.

These made-to-measure scents still carry a hefty price tag compared with over-the-counter scents, thanks to the costly, rare, top quality ingredients -- and the time and skill to blend them -- used instead of today's cheaper synthetic components.

The former includes pure flower essences, such as the highly prized Bulgarian rose that sells for around 7,000 euros (US$9,000) per kilogram, or rarities like centuries-old amber, often used to add spicy, earthy undertones, which is now extremely difficult to find.

"The high price of natural ingredients today is why synthetics are used in mass market perfumes and why `bespoke' fragrances cost so much," Burdel said.

"Noses" themselves, who number just 500 worldwide, are also somewhat rare, as it takes many years of training as well as talent.

"`Bespoke' perfume is very close to the world of haute couture in that there are no limitations in price or in time," said Francis Kurkdjian, one of today's foremost young master perfumers.

Paris-based Kurkdjian, who is French of Armenian descent, said the idea to set up a one-of-a-kind perfume business came to him six years ago while he was working in Manhattan.

Asked to create scents for a charity auction, Kurkdjian thought it would raise more money if he offered his nose to the highest bidder.

"People went crazy about the idea of having a perfumer create a unique perfume for them and that was how my business was born," he said.

One of his strangest requests was to create a perfume that "smelled of money."

Kurkdjian charges around 8,000 euros for a unique fragrance -- which can take anything up to six months to create for a client.

This cost can still be considered good value compared with the world's top perfume, couture and luxury goods houses, such as Guerlain, Patou and Cartier.

These firms can command as much as 50,000 euros for a `be-spoke' service, Annick Le Guerer, expert and author of the book Parfum: des origines a aujourd'hui (Perfume: from early times to the present crisis), said in an interview.

A less expensive option is a limited edition, offered by many of the independent perfumers who work mainly in Paris, London, New York and Los Angeles, Le Guerer said.

Two other names, Frederic Malle's "Editions de parfums" in Paris and leading British perfumer Lynn Harris's "Miller Harris," have already won a cult following with their hip limited-edition scents.

And inevitably, some of these limited editions end up becoming more exclusive than others, such as two eaux de parfum created by Burdel at the Cannes-based Salon Prive: "Imagine" and a fresh sea breeze fragrance, "So Sensual," for men.
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