Gift GuiDe

ational • ( 17- ]

Here's help in sorting through the record number
of new women's and men's fragrances crowding shelves this fall.

V

BARBARA PASH SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

°

hat's in a name?
dd a perfume
manufacturer, al-
most everything.
A the bottle, the
Add
packaging and the
marketing campaign,
and you've hopefully got a hit.
Of course, it helps if the cus-
tomer likes the way the fra-
grance smells.
`That's the moment of truth,"
said Annette Green, presi-
dent of The Fragrance
1 Foundation, a New York
industry group. "Imagery
is very important, but if a
person doesn't like the
scent, they won't buy it."
The season of scents —
or should that be cents? —
is upon us. In the United
States alone, sales of
fragrances total about
$4.8 billion annually,
1 of which $3 billion is
il women's fragrances.
Almost 70 percent of
all purchases are
made in November and
December.
This fall, 72 new
fragrances (24 of
them for men) have
been launched — a
record number. Mrs.
Green says this del-
uge comes in re-
sponse to consumer
demand. But Soren
Larson, a Women's
Wear Daily reporter
who covers the fra-
grance industry,
has a different
view. He sees it as an
effort by manufacturers to
jump-start the sluggish fra-
grance business.
Whatever the reason, there's
a lot out there for consumers to
choose from. Here's help:

Light & Fresh

The days of the heavy, inva-
sive Orientals — fragrances
that announced themselves be-
fore the women who wore them
entered the room — are over,
says Mr. Larson. They were
popular in the prosperous 1980s
but this is the lean, mean '90s
so think light and fresh. It's one
of the two major industry trends
he has observed this fall.
Experts credit The Body
Shop, a British company that
initiated the environmentally
friendly cosmetics concept, with

starting the trend. Following in
The Body Shop's footsteps are
Estee Lauder's Origins and the
Naturistics products, both pop-
ular lines.
Often, these lighter, simpler
fragrances seem to be a single
"note," in industry parlance. But
that's not really the case. Anne
Nugent, public relations man-
ager at Del Laboratories, the
Long Island, N.Y., manufac-
turer of Naturistics, says that
although its packaging conveys
a single-note image — for ex-
ample, the Mountain Berry la-
bel has a colorful photo of a pine
cone — the fragrances them-
selves are more complex.
True, all of the five Naturis-
tics fragrances are "light in feel-
ing," she said, "but they're all
blends of notes." For example,
Sea Splash (one of the most pop-
ular, and often used by men)
combines citrus and ylang-
ylang notes.
Manufacturers are convey-
ing light and fresh in one of two
ways. One way is the outdoors.
Ozonic/oceanic notes are part of
this trend and are supposed to
convey a "fresh air" smell. But
WWD's Soren Larson has his
doubts. "People are talking
about aromatherapy so manu-
facturers have picked up on
ozonic notes. I'm not even sure
what they are," he grumped.
A second way is with food
notes, especially fruits like cit-
rus, peach and melon.
According to Ann Gottlieb, a
New York fragrance consultant
and an industry "nose" who cre-
ates scents for manufacturers,
the fruit trend "was inspired by
The Body Shop and Body
Works — all those shops and
product lines that encouraged
women to try these fresh, fruity
scents."
The fact that these stores'
customers tend to be young was
an incentive for manufacturers
to develop this fragrance cate-
gory, says Mr. Larson. "The
fruity fragrances are less for-
mal. They're targeted to a
younger audience."
But the fresh, light fra-
grances do more than reach
youthful buyers. They also ap-
peal to working women who
want a fragrance that isn't too
heavy, sexy or romantic to wear
at work.
"This addresses the whole
concept of crossover," Mr. Lar-
son continued, referring to

women resorting to men's fra-
grances because at one time
there was nothing appropriate
for them in the women's lines.
Men's fragrances with citrus
and spicy notes, like Armani,
Calvin Klein's Eternity,
Chanel's Egoiste and Vetiver,
were especially popular but
manufacturers have since cre-
ated women's scents that do the
job.

The New Orientals

They're baaack. But not like
before. In an 180-degree turn
from the light, fresh fragrances,
the second major industry trend
is the return of the Orientals,
albeit in different formats, says
Mr. Larson.
For one thing, they're not as
heavy as in the past. Consul-
tant Ann Gottlieb finds that
many of the new Orientals have
food notes but not the same
ones that are being used in the
light, fresh fragrances.
"Those have fruity scents —
fruity in a bright way," she ex-
plained. "The Orientals have
food notes like vanilla, which is
spicy, or chocolate, which is
thick, warm and sensual."
For another, they're being
marketed as formal, evening al-
ternatives to the light, fresh fra-
grances. For added cachet,
designers' names are often at-
tached to them. Plus, they're be-
ing sold in the "prestige" market
of department stores and up-
scale boutiques as opposed to
the "mass market" of drugstore
chains and discount outlets.
According to John Ledes,
it's a marketing strategy
that works. Although not
the most numerous fra-
grance category, Mr. Ledes,
publisher of two New York-
based trade publications, Beau-
ty-Fashion and Cosmetic World,
reports that "the Orientals —
the Opiums and Giorgios — are
the big sellers" profit-wise.
That's not the only Oriental
story, though. The largest, most
popular women's fragrance cat-
egory are the florals. Combine
florals with Orientals and what
do you get? The new floral-Ori-
entals (a.k.a. florientals), of
which Escada and Tuscany Per
Donna are two examples in a
growing category.
Launched this fall, Tuscany
Per Donna is manufactured by
Aramis Inc., whose New York

spokeswoman, Amy Mayfield,
said the fragrance was creat-
ed for today's lifestyle.
"Women are going from work
to an evening function, and
they're using one fragrance for
the entire day. Tuscany Per
Donna is designed not to be too
heavy for work but not too cit-
rusy for evening," she said.

Citrus Driven

Goodbye musk. Hello citrus.
Men's fragrances change much
more slowly than women's, but
there is one major shift this fall.
Like the women, men are mov-
ing toward lighter, fresher
scents — "more citrus driven
than musk and woodsy driven,"
said Thomas Julian,
spokesman for the Men's Fash-
ion Association, a New York-
based industry group.
Other notes are showing up
in these light, fresh men's fra-
grances, says Annette Green of

The Fragrance Foundation.
They include spicy notes such
as peppermint and spearmint
and floral notes, which were for-
merly found only in women's
fragrances. Mrs. Green adds
that these light fragrances are
still the choice for daytime use,
but she sees a trend-ette toward
heavier, more dramatic fra-
grances for evening wear.
Although in Ann Gottlieb's
estimation, most men's fra-
grances are simply variations
of each other, two stand out
from the crowd.
Mrs. Gottlieb mentions
Calvin Klein's Escape for Men