Michael Edwards has been breathing perfume history since starting on his first annual Fragrances of the World reference guide in 1984.
Glimpses of the resultant accumulation of knowledge — as well as quips — poured out during Edwards’ talk conducted last week in Manhattan. The purpose of the meeting, held by the Perfumed Plume Awards for Fragrance Journalism organization, was to promote publication of his latest book, “Perfume Legends II.” A near capacity crowd of 95 people turned out at the Society of Illustrators headquarters, according to Lyn Leigh, cofounder of Perfumed Plume.
The 360-page, large-sized volume is an update of the original, landmark version “Perfume Legends,” which was published in 1996. Edwards said he was originally motivated by a paucity of materials showcasing perfumers talking about their work.
“The whole purpose of the book is to provide us with a framework in which we start understanding how perfumery has evolved over the last 100 years,” Edwards said. “We never had that before,” he asserted. “What we had was a lot of myths being propagated, but there has never been an in-depth analysis of what they did.”
Edwards said he expects to do an American version of Perfume Legends, perhaps in two years. This
Glimpses of the resultant accumulation of knowledge — as well as quips — poured out during Edwards’ talk conducted last week in Manhattan. The purpose of the meeting, held by the Perfumed Plume Awards for Fragrance Journalism organization, was to promote publication of his latest book, “Perfume Legends II.” A near capacity crowd of 95 people turned out at the Society of Illustrators headquarters, according to Lyn Leigh, cofounder of Perfumed Plume.
The 360-page, large-sized volume is an update of the original, landmark version “Perfume Legends,” which was published in 1996. Edwards said he was originally motivated by a paucity of materials showcasing perfumers talking about their work.
“The whole purpose of the book is to provide us with a framework in which we start understanding how perfumery has evolved over the last 100 years,” Edwards said. “We never had that before,” he asserted. “What we had was a lot of myths being propagated, but there has never been an in-depth analysis of what they did.”
Edwards said he expects to do an American version of Perfume Legends, perhaps in two years. This