creative team

heidi lauth beasley . camilla fisher crouch . abigail gurney-readroberta hollis . meg hutchison . namkyeong kim . jess knowles . tonje bredeli kvamme

perfume is a veil that reveals the soul

perfume is the fanfare of our individuality sounding differently to everyone who listens

perfume is a signpost to our true selves – a different journey for the brave to travel

perfume is the weather of our inner world bringing life to a personal landscape

perfume is an art that shows us who we can be if we dare – an invisible portrait of who we are

perfume is discovered fully only by our lovers when we are together – naked

- quote by christopher brosius

For so long, who we are has been de-fined by what we are – the exterior char-acteristics that we project to the world being the only aspect of ourselves that people see. The superficial layers that we adopt at the whims of society’s pre-conceptions have masked the very es-sence of “you”. The core around which all else should be secondary has been lost, and as a result - we have lost our inner selves. The past has shown us that nothing triggers a revolution more than the absence of truth or identity, and so we look to the future…towards a synergy between the individual and their journey, their taste, their narrative. A future where personality overrides bi-ology until we are left stripped of ste-reotypes and prejudice…naked, genu-ine, pure.

And so we begin a journey of discov-ery – both of ourselves and the chang-ing world around us. We explore the role of gaming in securing an identity – whether that identity be true or fiction-al. We investigate the role of perfume in dressing oneself, and it’s equally as important ability to undress oneself. We discover the barriers being bro-ken down in the once ‘taboo’ world of transgenderism and the emergence of a third ‘sexless sex’. We realize the po-tential of technology in mental health-care, and beyond. We comprehend the importance of personality in politics and the influence of music in the work-place. We embrace the rising popular-ity of bespoke fragrance and jewellery and the way it reflects humans’ increas-ing desire to be true to our own natural intuition.

And we look to you and your narra-tive…revol-you-tionizing the world as we know it. ..

contents

8 the saville row scents

10 dariush alavi - an interview

14 core reflection

24 personality is the best policy

28 ode to self

34 office music works 36 scent spaces

42 drew ashlyn-cunningham

the saville row scentswords . meg hutchison

While the interior of a Penhaligon’s perfume bou-tique in London could not be further removed from the life of a redhead named Annie and her orphaned partners in crime, the self-discipline it requires not to simply break out into the chorus of “Never fully dressed without a smile” is difficult to measure. Ex-cept, samples of intricately blended fragrances at hand - the song in this case would go something along the lines of never being fully dressed without a vial.

While Penahligon’s may be one of the oldest bespoke perfumeries in the capital, its first store opened on iconic Jermyn Street - notorious jaunt of gentlemen in search of top hats and immaculately tailored suits - it is by no means the only one of its kind and, it would seem, will soon have even more competition as mainstream department stores begin to realise the enormity of the movement towards the world of niche perfumes and their endless possibilities.

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According to Henry Mason, head of research and analysis at consultancy firm Trendwatching, the bespoke phenomenon “not only fits the mentality that comes with the tough economic climate but it also harnesses people’s need to escape through creativity, and the need for a sense of accomplish-ment. Consumers are looking for stories because the world is full of mass-produced objects that any-one can buy, so what’s interesting for a consumer is a product they can tell people about through the knowledge and experience they have gained”.

In his predictions for why bespoke has come to the forefront of purchasing perfume, Henry Mason high-lights what seems to be people’s increasing nostal-gia for something familiar - a tangible memory with which they can protect themselves against the inevi-table uncertainties of modern life. According to the managing director of the Perfume Studio in London, one of Penhaligon’s counterparts in the industry, in-sight firm Mintel now recognizes bespoke fragrance as its own distinct product category.

The added value of the customer experience that these perfumeries provide in contrast to the soulless and often clinical shelves of fluorescent lit depart-ment store shelving units allows the bespoke wearer to feel that they have been a part of their own jour-ney of self discovery - tapping into their innermost emotions by recalling memories through the sense of smell. However, while the experience itself is a successful marketing ploy - the experimentation occurring within the sphere of bespoke in terms of method and make up is what will really make it ap-pealing to the mass market.

An evening dedicated to schooling the audience in the art of “noseology”, and more specifically the dif-ference between niche and mainstream products, was recently held at the Gorilla Perfumes store in Shoreditch. Organised by the cosmetics giant Lush, it was an indication in itself that the demand for tai-lor-made “fragrance individuality” is becoming evi-dent even in the more mainstream market. A market which had, until now, been satisfying its customers with generic carbon copies made desirable through celebrity endorsement and brand-name influence (think Charlize Theron for Dior’s J’adore).

As the guest speaker for the night, author of the book “Le Snob: Perfume” and the highly regarded blog “Persolaise”, Dariush Aluvi argued that “we are all a little sick and tired of smelling exactly the same as

each other” and he could not have summed the cause of this blossoming trend more succinctly. Ech-oing his thoughts on the matter is New York based perfume ‘bad boy’ Christopher Brosius, founder of CB I hate perfume - more a laboratory than a bou-tique - specializing in recreating some of the most arbitrary of smells such as youth, to the smell of eve-ryone’s favourite Sunday pastime - roast beef and gravy.

Brosius’ work is so revolutionary, in fact, that he has been presented with four Fifi Awards by the Fragrance Foundation for his outstanding creative achievement - one of the awards was being for his having successfully recreated the smell of fresh snow. While some of these concoctions may sound a little too progressive to be appreciated on a mass-market level, it is important to remember that the longevity and value of bespoke is not as a result of the geniuses spearheading it all know no limits, but rather that they understand perfume and what it has the potential to do for an individual.

When asked by a member of the audience whether he believed people chose what perfume to wear as a way to reflect one’s personality, Dariush Aluvi an-swered that “people wear perfume because to them, it is like jewellery - a part of what they use to present the best aspects of themselves to the world and they will change their perfume to best suit whatever situ-ation they find themselves in” - ending with a some advice in the form of a quote by authoress Margaret Atwood: “the question you should ask yourself every morning is not ‘what perfume shall I wear today’, but rather ‘who am I going to be today”.

This quote evocatively highlights perfume’s most re-deeming feature, the ability to strip away everything that can be seen with the naked eye, instead allow-ing its wearer to project their core personality - their temperament, innermost desires and fears, likes and dislikes, their past and where they dream of be-ing one day - through the most primal of senses...smell. It allows its wearer to disregard the surface- level features such as gender, age, occupation, so-cial standing and religion to become the most pure and honest form of themselves - a rare novelty in an age of discrimination, subdued conformity and an economic climate which makes it difficult not to long for the naiveté of youth or a time that has long since passed.

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dariush alavi ...is a fragrance reviewer and author of ‘le snob”

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what made you become a fragrance reviewer?

I went to university, trained as a teacher - did several years of working as a teacher... it was only maybe about five years ago or so that my wife said to me ‘how come you don’t write about perfume?’ And I never had, I used to write fiction. And suddenly there was a penny drop, sometimes you need the outsider don’t you to somehow state the obvi-ous. At first I tried to convince myself that I was going to do it as a research project for another work of fiction, and then I thought I had to have some kind of structure and the only way you’re going to discipline yourself is if you do a blog, because then you can pretend you have this audience and you have to write to millions of people so you have to get your content out otherwise these people are going to be annoyed with you. So I started the blog, almost three years ago thinking that I’d be lucky if maybe my wife and my mother read it. But then I started getting a response, don’t ask me how these things happen, I don’t know I guess a few things fell into place at the right time.

what is ‘le snob’ about?

The book is made up of mini reviews, so what I consider are the best fragrances out there at the moment – so this is divided first into niche and mainstream and then into mas-culines, feminines and unisex. In the introductory chapters there’s sort of basics about what perfume appreciation ac-tually entails, and I think personally it basically entails what you want it to entail. And at the end you’ve got a glossary, you’ve got a list of shops in the back that I recommend. There are little chapters on bespoke perfume and hunting for limited additions and how to wear perfumes and things like that.

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interview . roberta hollis

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what makes a fragrance expert?

I’m a firm believer that some people do not have superior noses, maybe some people just think about what they’re smelling more than others and so maybe they want to have a greater awareness of what they’re smelling. And if some people don’t want to have that awareness that’s fine. I’m not particularly sensitive for instance to light, my wife is on the other hand – if it’s a grey day, she’s near enough suicidal. Where as I aren’t particularly effected, I like it if it’s sunny, but it doesn’t really effect me that much. But for instance, when we went shopping they were out of Persil washing powder and for the last three weeks I’ve been going mad saying can you please go back to the Persil!? And she’s saying what, why? But there’s just something about the amount of musks in the air they use that’s driving me in-sane, so you know I don’t think I’ve got a better nose. I think we’ve all pretty much got the same noses but maybe some of us are more receptive to smells than others.

What makes a fragrance masculine or feminine?

I don’t think there is that division, that was imposed by the publishers because they felt that would be some kind of way in to people. So the way that we settled on is it mas-culine, is it feminine, is it unisex – is purely on how its mar-keted. Although there are some for instance the fragrance, A Portrait of a Lady by Frederic Malle – its got lady in the name but that’s in the book as unisex because as far as im concerned that’s a completely unisex perfume. No I really don’t think that it can be gendered, its completely cultural… I will wear both masculine and feminine and I’ve yet to have somebody come up to me and say “ooh you smell a bit fragrant.” But maybe they’re just not wanting to say anything…

Do you think a fragrance can represent personality?

There are some people who wear it maybe consciously because they’re conscious of the persona they’re going to project. Its part of what they use to present a certain aspect of themself to the world. Was it Margret Aptwood I think, who said ‘everyday in the morning when youre deciding what to wear the question youre actually asking is, who am I going to be today?’

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Do you think fragrance is an important factor of attraction?

You see I get really annoyed by this, you know the whole thing when people say that women wear makeup because they want to attract men. I think no, probably women wear makeup because they just want to wear it and there’s plenty of women who don’t wear makeup and they might want to attract men too. And it annoys me when people say that people wear perfume to try and pull.

What do you think is better; synthetics or natural scents?

They’re just different materials as far as I’m concerned, you can smell lots of things that you think smell very natural but they can be composed of lots of synthetics and maybe that’s a sign of a good perfume. And also if you have some-thing that is 100% natural they’re not that good either; they tend to be quite heavy, quite murky and they don’t seem to last that long. I don’t want to smell something that smells like a load of chemicals, but I want the perfumer to con-vince me that what I smell isn’t a load of chemicals, even if it is. And anyway chemists would tell us that all synthetics are natural anyway.

What trends are there in fragrance at the moment?

I would say if there is a trend there defiantly seems to be a trend towards, in the same way as with food and with soaps and luxury products, there seems to be a trend of wanting something that is made in an artesian way by a person. So something that is perhaps handmade with an authentic, more natural feel.

Is there a movement towards bespoke perfume?

You could argue that all perfumes were bespoke maybe 300 years ago because all perfumes were maybe tweaked, from some sort of original formula to suit the customer or they were made for some sort of wealthy customer who could afford them. What we would call modern perfum-ery we’ve only really had for 20 or 30 years, perfumes that use a combination of natural materials and synthetic, that’s only been around since the end of the 19th century. And perfume that you can go into a shop you know, with the packaging on shelves in a department store has only been around about nineteen years. We could say bespoke is the original and maybe people now are just revisiting it.

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pictures . rory dcsabby gurney read

core reflection

personalityis the best policy

words . abigail gurney-read

In the beginning, there was the word. The word was, manifesto. Long before the days of televised debate and leafleting, these core policies were regarded as the go-to nutritional value on a candidate’s political packaging; irre-spective of whether they stemmed from a heuristic or al-truistic intention. However, as Britain progresses towards a more liberal society - where limitations and distractions of gender and age will become increasingly ambiguous - this emphasis might be prone to change. As personality takes precedence, First-Past-The-Post may be rendered as noth-ing more than a glorified popularity contest.

Derived from the Latin “manifestus”, meaning ‘obvious’, a manifesto is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a ‘public declaration of policy and aims, especially one is-sued before an election by a political party or candidate’. Widely considered to be the conception of the current Brit-ish Political System, the election of Sir Robert Walpole in 1721 heralded an age in which a political candidate’s mani-festo, would represent an integral mechanism in their cam-paign for Prime Ministerial Office. The rudimentary seeds of Socialism and Capitalism were formed at the bass-mani-festo level of the first political Parties; both still acting as an umbrella differentiation between the prominent two. Recent findings by Monocle reiterate the continued longevity of the manifesto, with 87.5% of surveyed participants deeming policies to have a greater influence on their current voting behaviour, than personality. Despite this seemingly assured majority, the continuing influence of political policies as vot-ing determinants is less than certain. Although the swing is currently in their favour, a contradictory forecast in the same survey showed that 75% of participants thought that personality would have an overriding importance in future elections.

This increasing gravitas is anything but a modern phenom-enon. Seemingly since time immemorial, renowned Politi-cians have cited the maxim, “Honesty is the best policy”; emphasising the constant requirement for an accountable personality. This necessary relationship between people and personality is intrinsic to the fundamental characteris-tics of being human. Animals are naturally drawn to those who appeal to them, therefore it surely follows that there has to be an element of personality-bias where humans are concerned.

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“Why would politicians spend so much time telling us about themselves if personality politics wasn’t getting so impor-tant?” asks Antony Little, former Conservative Leader of Norwich, and Parliamentary Candidate, “The private lives of our politicians are laid bare; from Margaret Beckett’s car-avanning holidays to Eric Pickle’s curry diet, it seems that all aspects of their lives are up for grabs. I was door- knock-ing when the TV debates were first broadcast in the UK in 2010, and what was interesting is that the Nick Clegg surge definitely happened... that surge was based upon Clegg’s perceived personality; very few people mentioned specific policies or ideas that he put forward.”

The difference between the future, and the situation as it currently stands, is that the delicate balance between pol-icy and personality may be replaced by an all-dominating emphasis on the latter. Potential reasons for this transferral were suggested by each of our survey’s respondents; the majority of whom attributed the evolution to an increasing fascination in celebrity culture, as well as a growing reli-ance on social media. The implications of this common consensus are numerous. The transformation of electoral campaigns to a wholly online format, has the potential to completely alter the demographic of voter; potentially alien-ating some and accommodating others, as Councillor Little acknowledges, “You may not want to speak to a candidate at 6pm when the dinner is on and the kids are scream-ing, but come 9pm, the wine glass is out and the laptop is open then it is a different story.” Furthermore, a singu-lar emphasis on personality has the capacity to produce a British Government comprised of media icons; a cabinet of celebrities without the ‘A-List’ tag-line.

In 2007, Brian Wheeler, a politic correspondent for the BBC, inferred this of the then-incumbent Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Asides from making direct reference to the landslide majority with which Blair triumphed, his article also attrib-uted it to Blair’s charismatic personality as opposed to his policy-making; alluding, “His specific policies were mod-est in scope, but his rhetoric was dizzying... He deployed all of his charm and charisma on TV chat shows, showing himself to be a natural in front of the cameras, in contrast to the more stilted Major.” In the fifteen years that have passed since Blair’s victory to Prime Minister, the explosion in social media, and therefore the increased opportunity to “deploy charisma”, has irreversiblychanged the landscape on which election campaigns are run. As progress begets progress, it follows that this mo-mentum will continue in the years to come.

On a national level, the leader of a political party has al-ways been the charismatic front man; the cover by which to judge the book. It is unsurprising therefore, that personali-ties such as Tony Blair’s have appealed to the public. So little is made visible of role of the Executive to the general populace, that the only quantifiable factor is the character of its leader. In Britain’s majoritarian First-Past-The-Post vot-ing system however, should this fascination with personality transcend to a local level, the future of a political manifesto could be in jeopardy...

David Cameron, n/a (2011)www.frontiersla.com

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do you think a political candidate’s personality will become more important to voters in future years?

yes 75%

no 12.5%

it will stay the same 12.5%

which is more important to you in a political candidate: personality or policies?

personality 12.5%

policies 67.5%

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do you think that trends in politics are directly linked to trends in society?

yes 62.5%

no 37.5%

survey . abigail gurney read 2013

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ode to selfwords . abigail gurney-read

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i am not the deepening lines:not the number of roads i have walked

i am not the deepening lines:not the number of roads i have walked

i am not an impaired vision,or the people with which i had talked

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witness the glow of the inner being;the soul that existed before

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for gender nor age cannot stifle the spirit,that will be silent no more.

words . tonje bredeli kvamme

Today it is more and more important to enhance self-realisation, and to perform better in less time, with less effort. Here, we look into musicology, and how that in the future might help shape office spaces for a better environment for those in it.

Musicology, or music psychology has been a branch under psychology for about a hundred years. There are many different areas of music psychology – the biggest area looks at the behav-ior and experience of music performance, but the past few years there has been a rise in research of the area that deals with the behavior and expe-rience of music listening. What first might spring to mind here is how music is sometimes used in

therapy, in treatment for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s, amnesia, depression and epilepsy, with very positive effects on patients. The idea of applying music in different situations to gain a certain effect is not entirely new, how-ever a more conscious use of certain music, and that more specifically in office spaces to better performances of employees is on the rise, and is something for managing directors of larger office spaces to especially be on the lookout for.

Looking at office environments is particularly in-teresting as they are so common; most employ-ees have computers and can therefore listen to their own self-selected music. It is also

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man working, n/a (2011)www.menshealth.co.uk

office music works

interesting given that most employees report high levels of stress at work that music can be a stress-reducing and relaxing factor. So how can this be applied in a more controlled setting, for everyone to be comfortable with?

Dr. Daniel Müllensiefen, a senior lecturer in psy-chology at Goldsmiths College, recently did a study in association with the advertising com-pany DDB where they tested office workers in a controlled environment where they tested them in cognitive tests, whilst listening to music in their preferred genre, music in a genre they didn’t like, and also in silence. “The results came back very clear; and showed that people would achieve the

best test results if they were in a room that played their favorite genre of music.” Dr. Müllensiefen tells us that even though the test subjects didn’t know the songs, as long as they were familiar with the genre, this would heighten their arousal levels and bias them positively to work on the set tasks.

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scent spacesimages . meg hutchison

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drew-ashlyn cunningham ...is a transgender female who appeared on the channel 4 hit, ‘my transexual summer’

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Even though the show aired relatively recently 2011 - the topic of transgenderism at the time was still considered “taboo”. You, for one, really struggled with verbal abuse and a lack of support from people who didn’t understand or maybe want to understand what is was you were going through. Do you think that the Channel 4 documentary opened people’s eyes to the subject and has had a positive effect on people’s attitudes? I think the documentary definitely changed people’s views and stereotypes of what it’s really like to be transgender as each character was so different from the next - yet people felt they could relate to at least one of us in some way. I al-ways describe us as the “Spice Girls” - a different spice for different people’s tastes. For the first time, people got the chance to see us as regular people as opposed to people who seemingly focus their lives on reconstructive surgery body-altering hormone injections - that is only a very small part of our lives. The audience were able to see that we do the same things as ‘regular’ people - have social lives, rela-tionships and families - and I think thats why people warmed to us and now have a much more open mind to the subject.

In the show, Donna mentioned that she believed there was a “third sex” - and said that she didn’t believe she was either “male or female”. Do you think that society puts too much emphasis on a person’s gender, and as a result, the way a person should behave/dress/live their life? Do you feel like this has changed at all recently, or looks to change in the future? I think that society is afraid of questions they cannot eas-ily answer. We all have to fit into a box and if there isn’t already one for a certain group, people just put us in what-ever box they want us to be in - but then again, I do also think that people are a lot more open these days, there is far more freedom of expression. I see myself as a woman rather than “a third sex” however i do think stereotypes are breaking down and more and more people are being true to themselves - expressing their identity with tattoos, clothes, make-up etc. We all have alter egos and more and more people are starting to embrace them and step outside the norm of how we feel someone should look. At the end of the day - we are not all blue or pink like the colours we were assigned to at birth.P42

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Do you feel that the increasing number of transgender models in the industry is a sign that people who are transgender are being more accepted into society? Could you maybe tell us a bit about some of your experiences or how you feel your life is changing for the better because of this? I have had the oppertunity to model, whether its for online websites such as wildchildmedia.co.uk, Illamasqua or for people’s projects at universities. I definitely think this is a sign that people are starting to accept transgender people a lot more - you only have to look at the catwalks of countries like Brazil to realise that. Models like Lea T and Andrej Pejki - who are taking the modelling industry by storm - are great examples of people’s differences making them stand out in a positive sense. Awareness is the most important part of continuing to change people’s perception in the future - I have done quite a few talks on what it means to be transgender at schools all over the world and it has really opened students’ eyes and helped them to accept it as the norm.

What evidence have you seen, in the UK or around the world - be it in the modeling industry/everyday life - of transgenderism being embraced when maybe people were skeptical about it before? In the modeling industry in particular - society is embracing embracing peo-ple for who they are and not what they are. There is much more media cover-age on transgender people too which forces people to talk about it. Only last year, Jackie Green got into the semi-finals of Miss Great Britian, and she is transgender. Luke Anderson won Big Brother and, as a transgender person, I found this so inspiring - people just saw him as a regular guy. After the incredible journey you have been on, do you feel con-fident in your own skin today? In an ideal world, do you be-lieve that we should all be able to dictate who we are as people instead of the way we look/are born/should be dictating what person we should be? I am definitely proud of who I am. I have embraced being known as a transgender woman in the public eye and can proudly say that my life is amazing - I have people who love me and I am growing daily into my own skin. I think its up to us as individuals to decide how we wish to be seen. Society needs to get rid of the stereotypes we once created and get a fresh, new image for man and woman or both. We shouldn’t be judged by the way we look because at the end of the day, we are all soft and pink on the inside and we should be ourselves. Like I always say - “ if you’re not being yourself, then whats the point in being you”.