On working together to create the perfect AllSaints fragrance collection…

Catherine:

I was so excited about our 30th year, and I thought it was the perfect time to relaunch fragrance, but I wanted it to tell the story of our brand. I wanted for someone to look at the bottle and know it’s an AllSaints fragrance. So, in using leather as the wrap and using the bolt as the cap. And we wanted it to have all the elements of what an AllSaints product is – once they spray it, it reiterates the edginess, the grittiness, but also the luxury of where our brand has evolved to today. And I think, with your help, Gabriela, we have created an incredible line.

Gabriela:

I can say that it was very clear what your goal was. I think that’s the key to developing fragrances, understanding the brand DNA. And in the way that AllSaints has such a signature in terms of fashion – the feeling and the look – it was easy for me to understand you. Developing the fragrances seemed like a very smooth process.

On creating a unisex fragrance…

Catherine:

When I briefed Gabriela, I didn’t want it to be, this is a fragrance for a woman, or this is a fragrance for a man. It didn’t matter – it was just about creating three gorgeous fragrances.

Gabriela:

Yes, I’m really happy to see the evolution in perfumery, where we don’t think about creating fragrances for men or women. It’s definitely old-fashioned, and it was a bit of a marketing tool at the beginning. The origin of fragrance was that we didn’t have masculine or feminine, we just had fragrance.

It allows me to grow my creativity, to explore even more notes, because I can do unexpected combinations between flowers and woods and leather and spices, and I don’t have to think, oh, is this for a man or is this for a woman? I was just thinking about what you were trying to achieve – to have a beautiful leather fragrance, a beautiful rose fragrance. The rose for me was really one that crosses the genders in an unusual way. There’s edginess in the rose, a lot of spiciness. A rose is not just a pretty flower.

On comparing the fragrances to an AllSaints piece…

Catherine:

I would obviously say that Shoreditch Leather is a leather jacket, or any leather piece, basically. It’s the subtlety of how beautiful you feel when you wear a beautiful piece of leather, and how leather, as you wear it more, moulds to your body. And I find with Shoreditch Leather, the more I wear it, the more the fragrance develops.

Gabriela:

When you put a leather jacket on, you transform. It’s like a superpower. When I put a leather jacket on, I feel like I am much more confident. I feel like I’m much cooler. Something about my attitude completely changes. So, when I thought about the fragrance, I wanted it to have the same effect of that transformation, of becoming confident but in an effortless way.

Catherine:

And then if I had to describe Ravaged Rose… So, we’re well-known for our prints, they’re all created in-house, we’ve got amazing illustrators, and to me, it’s a beautiful, dark rose-print piece – it has an element of edge, and it’s definitely on a black background. You get that from the fragrance, that sort of edge, yet it also has the beautiful soft tones of the rose.

And then for Sunset Riot? I always think of Sunset Riot as a beautiful cotton shirt with a straw Fedora, or a cotton embroidered dress. The whole idea about Sunset Riot Intense is, I can just picture it on a beach with the intensity of the sun – as the sun is either rising or setting.

On layering the fragrances…

Catherine:

When we started creating the collection, it was important for me that it wouldn’t just be three fragrances, that you could create nine fragrances just by owning three. When we get dressed in the morning and put on our fragrance, we’re probably going to go straight from the office, or wherever we are, into the night, and you don’t have time to go home, shower and reapply a new fragrance, but you could change the tone of your day by layering on a new fragrance. For example, Shoreditch Leather, you wear that all day, but then I would layer on Sunset Riot Intense, because it’s a bit more going out, it’s a bit more glamorous. Or, if you wanted to go somewhere really sophisticated, I would probably layer it with Ravaged Rose, because it’s a bit more delicate. It’s a gorgeous restaurant with crystal glasses and rich velvet drapes. So, it was the idea to be playful with mixing. I mean, we’ve been doing it for years with lipsticks and nail varnish, why can’t we do it with fragrance?

Gabriela:

Absolutely. It’s not putting on more of the same thing, but changing the tone, changing the mood. And it’s quite playful. I want people to really own the entire collection and just be creative and play with it and discover new combinations that even I didn’t think about.