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Fragrance Fads

post #1 of 21
7/28/10 at 7:41am
Thread Starter 
Are there periods of Fragrance Fads, times when a certain type of fragrance is more popular for several years (i.e. an aquatic period, a gourmand period, an incense period). If so, what period do you think we are in now?
What period has lasted the longest?
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post #2 of 21
7/28/10 at 8:22am
Where I am from, there have been 3 distinct fad periods:

drakkar/cool water period

curve period

acqua di gio period
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post #3 of 21
7/28/10 at 8:56am
The past few years have probably been a "Black" phase. Seems each House has a Black fragrance in their lineup. Sport could probably be added too.
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post #4 of 21
7/28/10 at 8:59am
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Speaking of more recent times, it was oudh not too long ago. Is it entirely over yet? But seeing that some houses are only just beginning to churn our their own oudh blends . . .
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post #5 of 21
7/28/10 at 9:06am
Thread Starter 
Do you guys have any ideas what the next fad/trend will be?
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post #6 of 21
7/28/10 at 9:09am
If 1 Million goes over super well in the States, I can see a movement towards Candy Sweet scents or something like that becoming a fad. ....I really hope Im wrong though....
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post #7 of 21
7/28/10 at 9:25am
^I'm hopefully getting that today or tomorrow...I'll see if its something the average american will like
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post #8 of 21
7/28/10 at 10:13am
We have been in the fresh ,unisex aquatic era, i can see it going to a more masculine power era or a gourmand era depending on circumstance.
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post #9 of 21
7/28/10 at 10:29am
based on what little I follow of the industry, I get the sense that the 90's aquatic trend has sort of transitioned a bit over to now. In terms of micro trends, certain notes will burst onto the scene, like Calone, Sandlewood, or recently Oud. I suspect things are moving towards a more dark realm, like spices and smoke, maybe gourmands otherwise (more likely). I suppost the Oud note thing of late might be a starting note that starts setting a trend for fruity, jammy (Think Black Orchid), and more coffee, booze, (think Angel Pure Malt or L'Instant) etc notes, but then again there've been a few bigger releases more on the citrus side (Terre, Guerlain Homme, Voyage) so there might be a push towards citrus and wood...

I'm not sure really, but I see a few potential directions. I would think it'll depend just on the popularity of one particular frag that'll cause a bunch of flankers. Usually the new trend is a counterreaction to what's popular, intentionally a polarization. So if we were still heavily into fougeres and aquatics, then maybe gourmonds or smoke would be a good counter-movement.
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post #10 of 21
7/28/10 at 6:34pm
Chypre, Citrus, Fougere, Aromatic Fougere and no perfume have been there the longest, I suppose.
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post #11 of 21
7/28/10 at 7:34pm
The trend is led by any recent release that ends up being a bestseller. So I do agree with Kerosene, if 1 Million comes to be a success, tutti-frutti bubble gum topnotes will be a common denominator in many future releases. Add to this potential variations, like, say, calone and tutti frutti, synth oud and tutti frutti, iseo e super and tutti frutti, cosmone and tutti frutti, etc.
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post #12 of 21
7/28/10 at 8:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pollux View Post

the trend is led by any recent release that ends up being a bestseller. So i do agree with kerosene, if 1 million comes to be a success, tutti-frutti bubble gum topnotes will be a common denominator in many future releases. Add to this potential variations, like, say, calone and tutti frutti, synth oud and tutti frutti, iseo e super and tutti frutti, cosmone and tutti frutti, etc.

oudhi frutti!
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post #13 of 21
7/29/10 at 9:51pm
A classic is just a fad that's been around a long time.

People seem to agree on "eras" though. I also agree that the eras are started by something that sells very well, then a bunch of copycats come along. Sometimes, the copycat does it better and that becomes the one which defines the era.

The future is hard to predict. If I base it on what is current, then I'm already behind the curve. I don't think fragrance necessarily operates on the same model as art, fashion, music, architecture, interior design etc. My long term prediction is this:

-- Synthetic, never before experienced fragrance notes with no natural parallel will become popular, possibly smashed together with more naturally known (typical) notes
-- Advances in nanotechnology, chemistry, etc. will lead to dynamic, "high performance" fragrances which do things like 1.) appear programmed, starting out for 8 hours as an office acceptable scent, then transitioning into another, quite different, evening scent which lasts for another 8 hours
-- "Scent chips" or "scent apps" for portable personal technology/computers (think smellivision) will enable you to sample the fragrance on demand (like e-books), create custom scents and even perhaps have it sprayed on you from the device or have it decanted into your own applicator. All you would need to supply are something akin to printer cartridges.
-- "Scentography", where you can be walking through the woods and take a "scent picture", that you can later enjoy or replicate.
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post #14 of 21
7/30/10 at 12:41am
Judging from the dominating trend during the days when I grew up, there was a clear fad in favor of Aqua di Gio, Eau d'Issey and Hugo, barely starting to cool down now

Analyzing the fragrance market in general, from what I know thanks to the valuable input on Basenotes, I'd say that a quite pronounced rise of niche, of gourmands-of course, of barbershop frags, of less burly and heavy and more suede-like leather notes, of quirky, non-linear and non-generic vetivers, of experimental notes turning almost any olfactory and even in-odorous note from our everyday life into a fragrance, among others, are quite significant and some of these trends may well last into the future
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post #15 of 21
7/30/10 at 1:16am
The 70s and 80s were all about the macho power scents. One theory I've heard was that everyone smoked back then and fragrances had to be bolder to punch through the smoke? I dunno.

The 90's into 2000s are all about subtlety/unisex/aquatic/citruisy fruity business. I've been curious myself on what the next big trend will be. With the popularity of Rive Gauche and Le Male, more "barbershop" type scents seem popular. With fashion trends going back to the 80's and metrosexuality going out of style I think we might be on the verge of more macho/bold fragrances reappearing.
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post #16 of 21
7/30/10 at 1:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rosehavn View Post

Do you guys have any ideas what the next fad/trend will be?

Young women, tired of the fruity floral Paris Hiltonesque celebuscent air-headed sweetness will with one voice scream 'we've had enough and we ain't gonna take it anymore' and perfumers in the far east, who couldn't care less about IFRA or anything else, will happily oblige with Oakmoss laden floral chypre power femme bombs that the girls will wear with pride and all the guys who have been weaned on politically correct non-offensive I hope no-one at the office notices (well I sort of hope they do but in a nice inclusive way) ozonic aqua fresh sport light blue scents will faint dead away in the face of this neo-femme revolution.

Just a hunch.
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post #17 of 21
7/30/10 at 1:33am
Well, from my limited experience, there are few trends going on but none being "the one", but the ones I'm noticing:

Sweet fragrances for men; started or heavily influenced by 1 million, even the current top selling aquatics/fresh fragrances are fruity in a very sweet candy like way (allure sport and aqua di gio...etc, even though I know they're older than 1 million)

Oud fragrances are also getting a lot of attention, if not in mainstream, definitely a dominating interest among perfume collectors.

Niche perfumes are also another thing getting quite a lot of attention, though I'm sure since the idea of mass production was born, Niche perfumes followed shortly after people got bored of the massively produced. But in our era we obviously have the internet, making finding Niche perfumes much much easier, when back then it was limited to the locally available houses, and the more renowned niche perfume houses.

p.s. I know "Niche perfumes" is not a category of scents, but it rather speaks more of the manufacturer. But that doesn't make it any less of a trend.

p.s.s. I also know that Niche perfumes are the opposite of mass produced, and you define and era by having a type of perfumes being massively produced. But I'm quite sure something a long the lines of "Unique", "handmade" or "Limited edition" massively produced perfumes will come a long.

Just my theory.
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post #18 of 21
7/30/10 at 2:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ekove View Post

Niche perfumes are also another thing getting quite a lot of attention, though I'm sure since the idea of mass production was born, Niche perfumes followed shortly after people got bored of the massively produced. But in our era we obviously have the internet, making finding Niche perfumes much much easier, when back then it was limited to the locally available houses, and the more renowned niche perfume houses.

p.s. I know "Niche perfumes" is not a category of scents, but it rather speaks more of the manufacturer. But that doesn't make it any less of a trend.

p.s.s. I also know that Niche perfumes are the opposite of mass produced, and you define and era by having a type of perfumes being massively produced. But I'm quite sure something a long the lines of "Unique", "handmade" or "Limited edition" massively produced perfumes will come a long.

Just my theory.

I second that. From anything like food, to designer clothes, furniture, you name it, people seem to be going more and more for the individualistic, handmade approach. And like you said, the internet, ebay and such make these luxury goods so much more attainable for everybody. I also believe that is where the trend will continue to go for all consumer goods. On a broader level, I wonder if this will have any implications for the whole chian store concept.
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post #19 of 21
7/30/10 at 6:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Klute View Post

I second that. From anything like food, to designer clothes, furniture, you name it, people seem to be going more and more for the individualistic, handmade approach. And like you said, the internet, ebay and such make these luxury goods so much more attainable for everybody. I also believe that is where the trend will continue to go for all consumer goods. On a broader level, I wonder if this will have any implications for the whole chian store concept.

Ditto. As the way of spreading information has changed completely because of the Internet, especially social networking (by that i don't mean only facebook but specialized blogs, forums, as well as each and every page that allows commenting and reviewing), this inevitably changes the way people think.
Simply put, it all gets decentralized ; it looks like there's a niche for every taste simultaneously, hence there will always be several trends going at once. Maybe the focus is already not on a specific group of similar smells but on variety and the freedom to choose. Variety could be also a trend. After all perfume has always been about personality in a first place.
In this sense, I could see as a trend the launches of 'perfume series' (unified bottles, at once or in a short period of time) like recently did some houses never having done this before: D & G with their Anthology, Ralph Lauren's four Big Ponys, Van Cleef and Arpels, the Marc Jacobs splashes, DKNY, Aramis classic reissues, Kenzo Les Eaux De Fleur Collection, Armani Prive (? well, not sure i should include Prive, but..).

Also, just think about how many people nowadays actually read about perfumes instead of just looking at shiny ads and smelling samples and testers, then compare it to any of the former 'eras'. Notes, olfactory groups, labels... Words, information, variety, curiosity.
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post #20 of 21
7/30/10 at 10:45pm
We're definitely in the "niche phase" rather than any specific scent, we're in an era of everybody and their friends wearing Creed's, Bond's, and other more mainstream and pushed niche fragrances.
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post #21 of 21
7/31/10 at 1:48am
Ahh glad some people see the niche trend too, I guess it's a no brainer since it's a trend going on everywhere, it's due to happen in the perfume industry as well.

Here's an example by the way of "Niche" perfumes being sold by a mass producer, but It still somewhat depends on what you define Niche as:

http://www.nstperfume.com/2010/02/25...ew-fragrances/
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