The Siren's Call
Black And Roses
Vogue Italia (October 2012)
Photographer: Tim Walker
Model: Kristen McMenamy
Stylist: Jacob K.
Autumn/Winter 2012
Autumn/Winter 2012
The earliest experience of perfume that I can recall is of roses. When I was growing up my parents always had a small glass vial of damask rose otto high on their mantelpiece. A pale gold liquid encased in glass, it was like someone had captured a piece of magic. On special occasions I would be allowed to apply an ever so tiny dab of the oil onto my wrists and neck. I used to look forward to those times, because that smell transported me instantly to a place where everything was beautiful. The smell was, and is, for me linked inexorably to fantasy. We actually used to grow roses in front of the house, and so I would pick up the fallen petals to rub together between my fingers in the hopes of discovering that magic. But the smell was never the same, it was too green. My love affair with roses continue to this day, although now I find myself drawn towards darker, more indolic rose based fragrances. As much as I enjoy the smell of lighter florals, there is for me something far more beautiful and intense in a darker floral, a darker rose. Life, death, beauty, love, eroticism, the rose encapsulates it all.
xxxx