In another space, I close my eyes and it is as if I had stepped inside a quiet Mediterranean church on a July day: I can smell the wood polish, the dried flowers, but also, somehow, the cool of the stone, the soft clunk of the door closing the deep-pile hush that builds over centuries of whispers.
This is a revelation. Whatever the odour equivalent of being tone-deaf is, that’s me.
— Jess Cartner-Morley visits the exhibit Perfume: A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent at Somerset House in London. Read more at Perfume genius: how fragrances help explain the world at The Guardian. Hat tip to Pyramus!
Thanks for this article Robin, it may well give me the impetus I need to get on a train up to London. I’m a Londoner, and love London, but haven’t been up there since before the Westminster attacks.. I will bite the bullet and go to Somerset House for the Scent exhibition tho!
Oh do! It sounds like a great exhibit.
Beautiful writing. The idea of fragrance as personality- not gender-led makes sense. And a perfume wardrobe rather than a signature scent? hmm, sounds like we’ve been infiltrated.