Giles Deacon, Memo Paris Look to Capture Harrods in a Fragrance
LONDON — Memo Paris and Giles Deacon have conjured Harrods , in olfactory form, with a fragrance that draws on the store's history and its vast array of merchandise past and present.
The fragrance, which is exclusive to the store, is called Omnia Omnibus Ubique, which means in Latin "all things for all people, everywhere." It is the longtime motto of Harrods , which once had its own bank, a library and a pet kingdom, in addition to the usual fashion and beauty fare.
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Deacon created the design for the bottle's label, which is based on the Art Nouveau ceramic tiles of William James Neatby, which still adorn the walls of Harrods' food hall.
He said the brief was to come up with a design "based upon memory and London and Harrods," which Deacon visited as a young boy in the late 1970s. "I was absolutely mesmerized by all of the tile work and the patterns, and the agricultural and flora and fauna detail of them. It was extraordinary, and so unique, all designed by Neatby."
Deacon's own design has green and yellow swirling irises set against a dark gold background. A black-and-white check frame surrounds the gold.
"I drew my version of a tile with some deco motifs, and we printed it with this beautiful gold. It's got very nice little raised detailing on it, and has been done in phosphorescent ink. The label kind of glows in the dark — for all the fragrance ravers out there," said Deacon, adding that it was Sarah Andelman , the founder and creative director of Colette, who connected him with Memo.
The key notes are iris butter, floral oud and creamy musk. The perfumer, Gaël Montero, said the challenge was to give the oud a softer edge.
The new Memo Paris fragrance for Harrods, Omnia Omnibus Ubique.
"We wanted to explore creaminess. When we linked the two — creaminess and oud — we ended up with a fragrance like silk. We always talk about creating textures, so it's an oud that is actually very soft, but still has strength," he said.
The fragrance includes jasmine absolute, sandalwood essence, vanilla absolute and creamy musk, the latter of which adds a "clean" smell, according to Montero.
This is Montero's fourth fragrance for Memo. "It's an important universe for me, and we have a nice story together. When I was a student in perfumery, I used to always go to Memo store, because I love the poetry around the brand, and the idea of trips and landscapes, and memory," he said.
Montero took direction from Memo's cofounder and artistic director Clara Molloy, who at the outset asked the perfumer to imagine "a silky oud within a landscape that may surprise you — one made of stone, glass, gilding, counters, a thousand visions and sensations."
And because Harrods began as a grocer's, Molloy also wanted some saffron in the mix, too, as well as the "regal flower iris, and other noble woods for this palace of opulence."
The fragrance is unisex and sells in one size, 75 ml., at 250 pounds. Per Deacon, it works just as well in the daytime as at night.
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