Basenotes › Fragrances News › Chandler Burr launches 'Untitled' fragrance project with OpenSky

Chandler Burr launches 'Untitled' fragrance project with OpenSky

Grant Osborne
By: Grant Osborne
Posted 05/29/12 • Last updated 05/29/12 • 3 views • 14 comments
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Chandler Burr has teamed up with OpenSky to launch a new project called 'Untitled'. Starting this Friday, on the first day of every month Chandler will choose a perfume thats already on the market it could be something famous, or some obscure niche scent. However, the scent will contain no indication as to what it is - it will have no name, fragrance house, or recognisable packaging. It will be housed in a plain 50ml lab bottle. The idea is to allow you to experience these scent works as scent and nothing else.

According to OpenSky "He will give shoppers only the guidance of his carefully chosen words to understand each and determine if the fragrance is right for them. His goal is to both enable and encourage shoppers to rethink perfume as a work of art, free from all visual cues and marketing techniques. Scents include those from the late 19th century to last week, in all styles and all by the greatest scent artists in the world."

There will be only 100 bottles available in the series, each month. The first fragrance called S01E01 (Season One Episode One) and will launch this Friday, June 1st on OpenSky and the identity of the scent as well as more about the artist who created it will be revealed to shoppers on the last day of June. The series will continue with a new launch on the first of every month and a subsequent reveal on the last day of each month.

Here's a video of Chandler talking about the project:

Comments (14)

Ursula 5/29/12 at 5:00pm
This is interesting. I like this.
andylama 5/29/12 at 5:00pm
good idea. I love this guy's approach.
jujy54 5/30/12 at 5:00pm
Very interesting. He's putting into action something I've always wondered about, the woo factor in scent marketing.
jujy54 5/30/12 at 5:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 30 Roses View Post

Blind sniffs! Already being done on Basenotes, but a good idea.

30 Roses, as soon as I typed my comment I thought, "Oh. Yeah. Blind sniffs!" Shoot, I've even participated. Thanks for the reminder. I am suitably chastened. (;
30 Roses 5/30/12 at 5:00pm
Blind sniffs! Already being done on Basenotes, but a good idea.
MonkeyBars 6/1/12 at 5:00pm
how's this work? do people have to buy a bottle?
Ursula 6/2/12 at 5:00pm
It is not exactly a "blind sniff" because Chandler Burr describes/advertises the scent in this introductory video. Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpByY...feature=relmfu
Birdboy48 6/2/12 at 5:00pm
An interesting idea, but at the same time I wasn't sure I wanted to go through all the stuff, and give out all the masses of information that Open Sky requires of a person, so was unable to find out anything further about this on their site.
Chris Bartlett 6/4/12 at 5:00pm
Splendid idea - hopefully Burr’s high profile will mean more people will re-think their approach to fragrance a little.

In my mind the more people who judge fragrances on what they smell like, rather than what marketeers say about them the more interesting the market is likely to get.
andylama 6/4/12 at 5:00pm
Agreed. I sometimes get exasperated by how much people believe fragrance marketing, even here on BN (ESPECIALLY here on BN). Time for a positive paradigm shift!
sin_is_in 6/8/12 at 5:00pm
hmm let me guess.... those 50ml bottles wont include any Nasomatto fragrences huh?
Nukapai 6/11/12 at 5:00pm
I love the idea and I find Chandler's style extremely entertaining. There's one flaw in this concept (if one were to approach this as a purely intellectual/scientific exercise: the fragrances aren't devoid of marketing influence; they're now just "curated by Chandler Burr").
Persolaise 6/12/12 at 5:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nukapai View Post

I love the idea and I find Chandler's style extremely entertaining. There's one flaw in this concept (if one were to approach this as a purely intellectual/scientific exercise: the fragrances aren't devoid of marketing influence; they're now just "curated by Chandler Burr").

Couldn't agree more! At a time when 'traditional' advertising is becoming less effective than it used to be, 'friendly expert' endorsement has the potential to become more powerful and influential than ever. You're absolutely right: the very fact that CB is recommending these perfumes is a form of marketing.

Still, as you say, that doesn't make the idea any less intriguing or endearing.
Basenotes › Fragrances News › Chandler Burr launches 'Untitled' fragrance project with OpenSky