American perfumes like White Shoulders began to arrive on the scene. World War II brought with it a scarcity of production and shift away from France as the sole center of fragrance production. 5, which was declared a classic from the moment it was unveiled in 1921. These perfumes were sold as part of an elegant and liberated (for women) lifestyle, of the kind suggested by Chanel No. The 1920s and even the Depression-era ’30s saw a dazzling profusion of scents. At the same time, perfume began to “seep beyond its traditional home among royalty and the aristocracy” and become a novelty for popular consumption. The earliest decades saw a turn from all-natural floral scents to those like Le Trèfle Incarnat, which incorporated such synthetic molecules as coumarin and vanillin. In her debut, Ostrom examines 100 years of fragrance history, dividing the text into 10 chapters-each of which discusses 10 different perfumes-that cover a single decade in the 20th century. That's a far cry from the 'big, bad, loud-and-proud perfumes of the 1980s' when many restaurants put up signs banning Giorgio Beverly Hills, along with smoking.A British perfume aficionado’s breezy “tour” of some of the 20th century’s most popular scents. The return of fragrance during the 1940s was seen as a symbol of hope. As a result, France ceased being the epicenter of fragrance production as more began to be manufactured in America.

World War II brought a new challenge as many perfumeries urged their customers to 'treasure your last pinch' of fragrance as advertisers urged against buying until after the war. During the global depression of the 1930s, Joy by Jean Patou, 'the most expensive scent ever released,' was introduced and is still available today. Ostrom shows that each decade had certain scents that define it. Technology and chemistry gave companies new ways to produce scents, taking it away from the rich and elite of society and making it available to the masses. Compare the Gibson Girls of the 1900s mentioning the 'utterly obscure' Poinsettia with the avalanche of current pop stars such as Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber hawking their scents. What has changed is the rise of the internet and certain sites that curate myriad scents in one-stop shopping, making exotic perfumes even more accessible.Ĭelebrities' influence on fragrance also goes back decades. In 1908, the British firm Gosnell's launched a hot air balloon shaped like the bottle of its Cherry Blossom to fling out flyers over crowds - an idea that seems modest next to perfume fountains that threw fragrance into the air during the Victorian Era in England.

Perfume by Lizzie Ostrom