Fashion’s favourite brand consultant – with a wardrobe that makes us cry – reveals her olfactory Achilles heel.

'I’m wearing Portrait of a Lady by Frederic Malle. I have worn a different Frederic Malle fragrance every year for the past 13 years - En Passant, Lys Meditarranee, Le Parfum de Therese, Carnal Flower, Une Rose and finally, Portrait of a Lady. 

I was involved in Frederic’s launch into Australia when I lived there at age 24 – and then I was also there for his UK launch into Liberty, which was really nice. 

When I smell each of these scents, they have the power to take me back to a very specific time in my life, and with that comes everything which surrounded that moment in my history. Together these fragrances are like my own little private memory box. I think it stems from having worn each fragrance exclusively for those years, and that is why they all have such strong, clear connotations in my mind. 

As much as I love Carnal Flower, I can never go back to it, because it carries the most intense memories of a particularly challenging time in my life – so even though I love it the most, I can’t go back there, because I need to keep moving forward.

Portrait of a Lady is a combination of oriental rose, benzoin, cinnamon, sandalwood, patchouli, musk and frankincense. I have always been drawn to fragrances with rose as a key note, and I have always adored sandalwood. If it is a portrait of a lady, to me it smells like a self-assured, strong lady. It’s funny, because I can smell it for that brief moment when I put it on in the morning, but then for the rest of the day I don’t sense it. I think it has just become such a part of me that I only notice when it is missing.' 

 

Frederic Malle, Portrait of a Lady, £195 at Liberty