Following text is not meant to be anything groundbreaking. It's a sketch of my thoughts about fragrances as an art form, opinions and beauty. I'm trying to challenge people. Often I read a basenoter say "I just want to smell good" or "to each his own". I'm not saying these are somehow silly opinions, not at all. Only that there might be something more to this fantastic hobby of ours. I got an idea to write down some of my thoughts from a recent thread about our favourite fragrances we don't wear for one reason or another. This lead me to the very foundations of aesthetics; realism versus relativism. Might there be a third option? I apologise for not being very focused, one thing leads to another in a way that might not be that clear to you. It may be, that this structure only makes sense in my head.
Strangely, I don't actually wear many of my favourite fragrances! For me, it's a completely different thing to appreciate a fragrance for it's aesthetic value, and enjoy wearing it. I have no need whatsoever to smell unique - I have a need of smelling unique scents. Wearing the likes of No. 88 or Eau des Iles doesn't make me feel good, but self-conscious in a negative way. I absolutely adore both, I wouldn't change a thing about them. It's perfectly fine that I can't or wont wear these true masterpieces of this form of art.
I have a strange dichotomy inside me. I criticize fragrances for their lack of wearability, while I really don't care that much. This has everything to do with the unique character of fragrances; they have a dual nature. There is a practical function and artistry present at the same time. I think the bottom line is, that if a scent is not very wearable by my standards (which are not strict by any means) it should be something truly special for me to really appreciate it. Fragrance is after all made for one to wear, judging something also through it's function is rather sound. Yet it can't be the only criterion. I think it is worthwhile to open the subject somewhat.
I always have a problem when I make a list of my favourites. What do I really mean by listing the best fragrances? Do I judge them by how much I enjoy wearing them, or how often I feel like wearing them? For how good they smell (good as in nice or pleasing)? Do I appreciate conceptual novelty fragrances - does being unique and different add to the value of a scent? Is the aesthetical side of a fragrance the most important thing?
For me, wearability is not at all the same as smelling nice. Wearable fragrance is something I enjoy wearing day after day, something that is not tiring or nauseating, but
often natural, with certain edge and reliability; it never lets you down. My term nice refers to something that just simply smells agreeable, easy and not at all controversial or edgy. For example, Millesime Imperial smells nice, while Lorenzo Villoresi's Uomo is my idea of truly wearable fragrance. I personally am not very fond of this new trend in fragrances, where it seems that the concept is more important than the execution. Movie called The Cube is like these fragrances, so is everything in Ikea. It's all about innovative ideas. Where is quality, depth, feeling, timelessness, harmony and balance? Mazzolari, MaÃ*tre Parfumeur et Gantier and Czech & Speake are the antitheses of this sad trend. I'm not going to continue on this subject by answering my own questions. My definitions are not at all important here, neither are the answers. The questions are.
I know world is nowadays full of postmodern nihilists, thus my previously mentioned concept artistic value, or might I say true beauty as in something more than just an opinion might sound controversial or oldfashioned. For clarity; ontologically speaking I am not a realist - meaning I don't think there actually is such thing as beauty, as an platonic idea or such. This is very important. People tend to think, that relativism and realism exhaust the options. It should be clear that this is not the case. There are beautiful things in the world, they are not an incarnation of some transcendent idea, but very much immanent - beauty is an inter-subjective concept, and not at all an empty one.
While relativism might seem on surface appealing direction to take, since people in real world do differ in opinions quite alot. But there are some deep theoretical problems. One would have to admit, that every fragrance is just as good. There are only opinions, all just as valuable. Also, we can't on the other hand accept the fact that our taste evolves and be relativist on the other hand. If there is a direction where our taste is going, it obviously means there are subjects of less and more aesthetic value. Experts of given form of art often tend to agree on things. I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the point.
What explains differences in taste? That's something we have to think about, if we chooseto abandon relativism. Kantian way of understanding this is very intuitive, in a way. It's not a very simple theory, but the main idea is, that there are two kinds of judgements, judgements of beauty and judgements of agreeability. Latter means basically sensory experience and personal preference; "this fragrance smells good to me". These are purely subjective judgements. Then there is judgements of beauty, which is the interesting part of the theory. This means subjective opinion that has a requirement of universality. This seems paradoxical, maybe because explicated like this it is just that. With this Kant means, that when we say something is beautiful, we mean, that other people will have to agree with our judgement. We are not stating a mere opinion. This quite radical claim is based on the idea of community of taste - sensus communis. It basically means, that this universal validity is not derived from a determinate concept of beauty but from common sense. It's also important to notice, that beauty is something we appreciate itself, not because we could use the given object to achieve something. It is disinterested pleasure. Person who says that he doesn't like certain fragrance, but appreciates it, or that he likes a fragrance, but isn't ready to call it beautiful implicitely understand this distinction, and is a kantian in this vague sense. Saying this is being opposed to simple relativism. It's a trivial fact, that people do not agree on what is aesthetically valuable. This is an obvious problem, but should never drive us to naïve and intellectually lazy stance of relativism.
There are several reasons that explain the differences in taste. Person might for very different reasons believe he is making a judgement of beauty when he really is stating just that he happens to like it. He or she might like a picture of his childhood home, not because it is beautiful, but for completely personal reasons, sentimental in this case. It's also obvious that our experiences and memories that are linked with certain accord might make us hate or love a scent. Culture and trends is one major thing that affect our taste, no matter if it's about music, movies, fragrances or fashion. This can easily make one think of human beings as puppets. It is often very difficult to make the distinction between timeless beauty and changing trends. Sometimes we can tell; but if we can't, time will do it for us. Hindsight bias is another interesting issue. Our presuppositions and things we know for fact often guide our likings; when we read glowing reviews of a given fragrance, or know - like we almost always do - that it is made by our favourite house or perfumer, we approach it in a different way. When we are expecting Messe de Minuit to smell like dusty catacombs, we might perceive it as such when we otherwise might not. Simple explanation for a difference in judgements is, that one has not just different, but better taste than another. By better I mean basically more evolved. People might or might not have different inborn capabilities in this sense, I don't know. That's not a topic of interest in this context. It might not very far fetched to think, that someone might say fragrance is good because it gets compliments. It's quite easy to make up more examples of reasons for mixing up personal preference with a judgement of beauty, or other reasons why people have contrasting opinions.
When I first started smelling fragrances at 13, I actually didn't always know if I liked a fragrance or not. It's an interesting observation. It's not that I thought the fragrance was mediocre, I just couldn't tell what I thought about them. Today I feel confident saying that a fragrance is beautiful in a sense I described earlier, although I'm far from being a true expert. In between there obviously was a phase where I knew what I liked, but didn't feel very qualified to state my opinions as universal. Wines are an obvious analogy; at the moment I can say if I like a wine, but can't distinguish different aspects of the taste.
I didn't mean to write post this long. I'm thankful if even some of you guys had patience and interest to read it through. When writing on a subject like this, it's quite restricting that you have to use foreign language, hopefully it made sense. I would love a conversation on this subject.
Strangely, I don't actually wear many of my favourite fragrances! For me, it's a completely different thing to appreciate a fragrance for it's aesthetic value, and enjoy wearing it. I have no need whatsoever to smell unique - I have a need of smelling unique scents. Wearing the likes of No. 88 or Eau des Iles doesn't make me feel good, but self-conscious in a negative way. I absolutely adore both, I wouldn't change a thing about them. It's perfectly fine that I can't or wont wear these true masterpieces of this form of art.
I have a strange dichotomy inside me. I criticize fragrances for their lack of wearability, while I really don't care that much. This has everything to do with the unique character of fragrances; they have a dual nature. There is a practical function and artistry present at the same time. I think the bottom line is, that if a scent is not very wearable by my standards (which are not strict by any means) it should be something truly special for me to really appreciate it. Fragrance is after all made for one to wear, judging something also through it's function is rather sound. Yet it can't be the only criterion. I think it is worthwhile to open the subject somewhat.
I always have a problem when I make a list of my favourites. What do I really mean by listing the best fragrances? Do I judge them by how much I enjoy wearing them, or how often I feel like wearing them? For how good they smell (good as in nice or pleasing)? Do I appreciate conceptual novelty fragrances - does being unique and different add to the value of a scent? Is the aesthetical side of a fragrance the most important thing?
For me, wearability is not at all the same as smelling nice. Wearable fragrance is something I enjoy wearing day after day, something that is not tiring or nauseating, but
often natural, with certain edge and reliability; it never lets you down. My term nice refers to something that just simply smells agreeable, easy and not at all controversial or edgy. For example, Millesime Imperial smells nice, while Lorenzo Villoresi's Uomo is my idea of truly wearable fragrance. I personally am not very fond of this new trend in fragrances, where it seems that the concept is more important than the execution. Movie called The Cube is like these fragrances, so is everything in Ikea. It's all about innovative ideas. Where is quality, depth, feeling, timelessness, harmony and balance? Mazzolari, MaÃ*tre Parfumeur et Gantier and Czech & Speake are the antitheses of this sad trend. I'm not going to continue on this subject by answering my own questions. My definitions are not at all important here, neither are the answers. The questions are.
I know world is nowadays full of postmodern nihilists, thus my previously mentioned concept artistic value, or might I say true beauty as in something more than just an opinion might sound controversial or oldfashioned. For clarity; ontologically speaking I am not a realist - meaning I don't think there actually is such thing as beauty, as an platonic idea or such. This is very important. People tend to think, that relativism and realism exhaust the options. It should be clear that this is not the case. There are beautiful things in the world, they are not an incarnation of some transcendent idea, but very much immanent - beauty is an inter-subjective concept, and not at all an empty one.
While relativism might seem on surface appealing direction to take, since people in real world do differ in opinions quite alot. But there are some deep theoretical problems. One would have to admit, that every fragrance is just as good. There are only opinions, all just as valuable. Also, we can't on the other hand accept the fact that our taste evolves and be relativist on the other hand. If there is a direction where our taste is going, it obviously means there are subjects of less and more aesthetic value. Experts of given form of art often tend to agree on things. I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the point.
What explains differences in taste? That's something we have to think about, if we chooseto abandon relativism. Kantian way of understanding this is very intuitive, in a way. It's not a very simple theory, but the main idea is, that there are two kinds of judgements, judgements of beauty and judgements of agreeability. Latter means basically sensory experience and personal preference; "this fragrance smells good to me". These are purely subjective judgements. Then there is judgements of beauty, which is the interesting part of the theory. This means subjective opinion that has a requirement of universality. This seems paradoxical, maybe because explicated like this it is just that. With this Kant means, that when we say something is beautiful, we mean, that other people will have to agree with our judgement. We are not stating a mere opinion. This quite radical claim is based on the idea of community of taste - sensus communis. It basically means, that this universal validity is not derived from a determinate concept of beauty but from common sense. It's also important to notice, that beauty is something we appreciate itself, not because we could use the given object to achieve something. It is disinterested pleasure. Person who says that he doesn't like certain fragrance, but appreciates it, or that he likes a fragrance, but isn't ready to call it beautiful implicitely understand this distinction, and is a kantian in this vague sense. Saying this is being opposed to simple relativism. It's a trivial fact, that people do not agree on what is aesthetically valuable. This is an obvious problem, but should never drive us to naïve and intellectually lazy stance of relativism.
There are several reasons that explain the differences in taste. Person might for very different reasons believe he is making a judgement of beauty when he really is stating just that he happens to like it. He or she might like a picture of his childhood home, not because it is beautiful, but for completely personal reasons, sentimental in this case. It's also obvious that our experiences and memories that are linked with certain accord might make us hate or love a scent. Culture and trends is one major thing that affect our taste, no matter if it's about music, movies, fragrances or fashion. This can easily make one think of human beings as puppets. It is often very difficult to make the distinction between timeless beauty and changing trends. Sometimes we can tell; but if we can't, time will do it for us. Hindsight bias is another interesting issue. Our presuppositions and things we know for fact often guide our likings; when we read glowing reviews of a given fragrance, or know - like we almost always do - that it is made by our favourite house or perfumer, we approach it in a different way. When we are expecting Messe de Minuit to smell like dusty catacombs, we might perceive it as such when we otherwise might not. Simple explanation for a difference in judgements is, that one has not just different, but better taste than another. By better I mean basically more evolved. People might or might not have different inborn capabilities in this sense, I don't know. That's not a topic of interest in this context. It might not very far fetched to think, that someone might say fragrance is good because it gets compliments. It's quite easy to make up more examples of reasons for mixing up personal preference with a judgement of beauty, or other reasons why people have contrasting opinions.
When I first started smelling fragrances at 13, I actually didn't always know if I liked a fragrance or not. It's an interesting observation. It's not that I thought the fragrance was mediocre, I just couldn't tell what I thought about them. Today I feel confident saying that a fragrance is beautiful in a sense I described earlier, although I'm far from being a true expert. In between there obviously was a phase where I knew what I liked, but didn't feel very qualified to state my opinions as universal. Wines are an obvious analogy; at the moment I can say if I like a wine, but can't distinguish different aspects of the taste.
I didn't mean to write post this long. I'm thankful if even some of you guys had patience and interest to read it through. When writing on a subject like this, it's quite restricting that you have to use foreign language, hopefully it made sense. I would love a conversation on this subject.
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I'm just happy that I am surrounded by people who appreciate fragrances as art. I understand that they can be tied to fashion, but I don't make that connection. When I smelled Creed's Windsor and immediately thought of my Grandmother's house (who loved roses and always had them around), I didn't wear it like a piece of clothing. It was like I was back in Florida right in her living room surrounded by my family. Alas, she is dead now and the house it reminds me of is sold. When I smell it and relive those memories I can't help but feel happy and yet achingly sad. It's a scent like this that makes me wish everyone could understand this hobby on the same level I do. Yet I'm seemingly always having to justify why I enjoy them.
