OPINION
THE CASE
AGAINST
DUPES
In this extract from her provocative new book, Demo Accords, perfumer PIA LONG takes a stand against ‘inspired-by’ brands
A
re aspects of the fragrance trade elitist? Oh boy, are they! Obviously. Back when I was utterly convinced that I had to learn perfumery somehow, through any means, I heard ‘it’s not possible’ a lot from people within the trade. Even after I’d already worked as a junior perfumer for a couple of years, an experienced corporate perfumer looked me up and down during a fragrance event and said: ‘You cannot learn enough at your age. You will never become a perfumer.’ The perfumery bug bit me in my late twenties. But after investigating all possible routes into fragrance that I could think of at the time, almost all of them seemed totally inaccessible. I was not born into a wealthy family. I did not know anyone on the inside. I didn’t have a chemistry degree or fluency in French. I was too mature to even dream of applying to one of the in-house perfumery schools at fragrance houses and my qualification was in theatre make-up and wig dressing. Fast-forward. At the time of writing, I am 53 years old and have been a professional and at least somewhat gainfully employed perfumer for 16 years. Every bit of learning thus far has been hard won, every sacrifice I’ve made (and every act of support from my loved ones), all the hours, days, weeks, months and years spent smelling, reading, experimenting, failing, trying new things out… have given me the opportunity to lead the life of a full-time creative perfumer. I’m never going to be rich, but that is not why I got into this in the first place. I felt an inescapable need to create with aromatic materials and still do. Not every person I encountered in my early days was elitist. There have been many supportive figures throughout my career in all kinds of roles, even in high-up-the-hierarchy corporate ones. And there is a type of person who starts to glow from within when talking about perfumery. They might be a fragrance chemist in China, an attar maker in India, an artisanal perfumer in USA, an in-house perfumer for an historic brand or the head of a 34 ON THE SCENT
perfumery school in France. We have something in common: we value this craft. Many businesspeople view fragrance as merely a single line on a cost of goods calculation for a retail product, as a way to get rich, caring little about the actual fragrance, the people who produced its raw materials, or those who created a brand that became desirable. These people do not think that perfumery is a particularly important or an irreplaceable skill. They’d rather skip to the part where there’s a product they can sell. And some of those cynical and greedy people start dupe brands. ‘Inspired by’ and ‘smells just like it’. The overt ‘you’re-getting-the-same-for-less’ brands and the thinly disguised ‘we’ve-given-it-aslightly-different-look-but-it-is-totally-like-thatother-perfume’ brands. Now I can appreciate the intelligent thrift
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There is a type of person who starts to
GLOW FROM WITHIN when talking about perfumery
mentality when, for example, sourcing clothing from secondhand stores or opting for a generic version of a branded medicine. Buying a dupe perfume is not the same thing. First, we don’t need perfume to live. It enhances our lives, it adds beauty and art into the everyday, it is fun, it can be sexy, it can be significant for nostalgia: yes, all those things and more. But none of us will perish without perfume, much less without a specific perfume. When you buy a dupe, though, you are lining the pockets of predatory business owners who steal the labour of other people in order to make profit. Now, do I believe that perfumery should be democratised? With my background, obviously. Greater access at all levels, be it to enter and learn
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