![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
At once ephemeral and intrinsically corporeal, fragrance for many of us offers an entry point into luxury and elite status. As is well known, the perfume industry is fundamental to the economic viability of the contemporary luxury industry, but with basic ingredients consisting of water, chemicals, and infinitesimal amounts of plant and animal extracts, the frugality of its composition must be offset by the richness of the discourses used to promote it. This article will discuss how these discourses of desire and aspiration in fact constitute fragrance’s rarest of ingredients, their linguistic riches far surpassing the supposed costliness of its chemistries.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributor
Jonathan Faiers is Professor of Fashion Thinking at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK. His research focuses on the interface between textiles, dress and popular culture and Critical Luxury Studies.
Notes
4. Dialogue taken from the Chanel No. 5 promotional video available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGs4CjeJiJQ
6. Wall text by Olivier Polge from the “No. 5 room” Mademoiselle Privé exhibition, Saatchi Gallery, London. 30th October to 1st November 2015.
8. All prices quoted in this article are correct at the time of writing, but necessarily are subject to fluctuation according to outlet, I have where possible given a typical high street retailer price.
9. From advertisement reproduced on the website http://inside.chanel.com/en/no5