An aperture is defined as an opening, a hole, or a gap. It is also a special space where light passes through. The perfumery landscape is historically closed and dark where everything is “hush hush”, private and exclusive where holes and gaps are carefully curated and often patched and covered. There are certain people and practices that have been invisible to the broader community, whether they are the perfumer, the farmer, or the artist in general. The work of adjusting …
Tag: Perfume Society
Aroma Victoriana: Flowers, Explosives, and the Mysterious Secrecy of Perfumery
Often we associate the Victorian Era with a degree of primness that falls helplessly into parody–nowhere better illustrated than in Oscar Wilde‘s The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)–but as with all eras, the Victorian offers a dark underbelly as well as a laced-up exterior. I shan’t elaborate on the entirety of this dichotomy, but content myself with the extremities of Victorian perfumery, from the nosegay to the nether regions of the civet, and from the ancient coaxing of flowers by …
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