Michael Edwards raises the curtain on America’s most iconic fragrances in his newest — and closing — tome, “American Legends.”
Within the 308-page e-book, which simply revealed, he begins with the oldest American perfume in steady manufacturing since 1772, Quantity Six from Caswell-Massey, and ends with Santal 33 from Le Labo, launched in 2011.
Edwards was shocked by how little folks understood the evolution of American perfumery, with the likes of Youth-Dew from 1953 or Norell from 1968, and the pivotal function they performed in perfume historical past.
Halston in 1975, Oscar de la Renta in 1977, Giorgio Beverly Hills in 1981, Eternity from Calvin Klein in 1988 and Chinatown from Bond No.9 in 2005 had been amongst launches that shook up the fragrance business and are profiled.
“In ‘American Legends,’ Michael Edwards delivers a dwelling historical past, decade by decade, of perfume in America,” wrote Leonard Lauder within the ahead. “From historic, cultural, industrial and inventive views to the personalities behind the world’s favourite perfumes, the e-book in your hand captures all of it.”
There isn’t a one who is aware of perfume higher than Edwards, who revealed his first annual Fragrances of the World reference information in 1984 to assist folks extra simply discover perfumes they like. At the moment, he already had the notion of “American Legends” in thoughts.
Estée Lauder was visionary in conceiving Youth-Dew, he recalled.
“Again within the Nineteen Fifties, American girls didn’t purchase fragrance for themselves any greater than they might ship themselves a dozen pink roses on Valentine’s Day. It was a present,” Edwards mentioned. “It was Mrs. Lauder who was the primary to articulate it when she mentioned: ‘That’s the issue.’ That’s the reason she got here up with a perfumed bathtub oil.’”
Norell, from Revlon, was one other pivotal perfume.
“It began the change in American perfumery within the ’60s,” Edwards mentioned. “It got here out within the upscale speciality shops, and no one anticipated it to succeed as a result of these elegant shops deep down didn’t imagine that their prospects — the rich girls who lunched — had been that fascinating in fragrance.
“Fragrance was for bizarre Individuals,” he continued. “Certainly, fragrance then was a non-event. A lot of the gross sales had been in drugstores. However abruptly, Norell hit unbelievable gross sales.”
Michael Edwards
Photograph by Louie Douvis / Courtesy of Fragrances of the World
That first designer perfume gave Charles Revson, Revlon’s founder, a solution to compete with Lauder.
“He didn’t anticipate the massive success,” mentioned Edwards, including inadvertently, it opened the door for Lauder.
There was a cascade of transformative American fragrances.
“Fragrance should at all times be associated to its time,” Edwards mentioned.
Within the Seventies, Child Boomers turned intrigued by luxurious trend labels, and so fragrances by the likes of Ralph Lauren, Halston, Invoice Blass and Anne Klein turned blockbusters. Additionally bolstering their success was the labels’ prolonged attain as malls started shifting from metropolis facilities into suburbs as malls expanded.
This translated into large enterprise.
“Halston was extraordinary,” Edwards mentioned. “Two years after its launch, it made $63 million of revenue — greater than the entire of Max Issue.”
Giorgio, he defined, was the primary perfume inflicting malls to treat fragrance as a core product.
Edwards stored updating his preliminary reference information because the variety of new fragrances swelled from 380 yearly within the Seventies to 26,000-something as we speak.
In 2019, Edwards revealed “Fragrance Legends II,” an growth of “Fragrance Legends,” out in 1996.
“Each time I wished to work on ‘American Legends’ I received aspect tracked — till COVID-19,” he mentioned. “I’m glad I left it, as a result of it’s my mature e-book. In some methods, it mirrors my life.
“I began as an assistant to an assistant in England within the Nineteen Sixties,” mentioned Edwards, who turned fascinated with fragrance within the Seventies working with Bristol Meyers on deo-colognes.
He rolled out Halston internationally within the Seventies and ’80s after which started his personal enterprise mid-Nineteen Eighties.
“Actually — life has been fragrance. It’s been a implausible voyage,” Edwards mentioned. “I set out on ‘Fragrance Legends’ and ‘American Legends’ to create a textbook for the longer term. It’s in impact an MBA on perfumery.”
“American Legends” is now accessible for buy at fragrancesoftheworld.com/americanlegends.