Maxi- Colour
By Jo Phillips
Synaesthesia is a neurological ‘condition’ when people’s senses connect simultaneously. Information meant to stimulate one of a person’s senses stimulates several senses at the same time. People with Synesthesia can often “see” music as colours when they hear it, and “taste” textures like “round” or “pointy” when they eat foods. Many also ‘smell’ colours and often we hear about perfume makers having just this experience. So how would colours smell? Find out more in. Maxi-Colour. Illustration Keny Kakadia.
The Greek-born fashion designer Mary Katrantzou is known for her highly patterned and maximalist styles of clothing. Trompe l’oeil jewellery-print shift dresses, kick-starting her stellar career. Best known for her digital prints, Katrantzou’s creations boast grown-up graphics and kaleidoscopic artistry as well as intricate needlepoint work Showing since 2008 in London Fashion week. She studied at Saint Martin’s on the MA course and has been lauded since she first showed. Patterns and florals fuze in a cacophony of imagery
Now she is celebrating her love of colour and flowers as she is collaborating with Bulgari together launching a new Omnia fragrance which is an utter exploration of her work via perfume.
Described as uplifting and generous; a vibrant floral Eau de Parfum that is an olfactive kaleidoscope where Mandarin, Gardenia accord and Fig Leaf notes intertwine like an abstract piece of art.
The Gardinia being Mary’s favourite flower is blended by none other than the Spanish perfume genius that is Alberto Morillas.
The Jazz singer Billie Holliday was known to tuck a gardenia blossom behind her ear before performing. This heady flower smells opulent, as sultry as a summer evening and is utterly intoxicating, and this white flower is one of the priciest ingredients in the world of scent.
At night its scent is at its strongest with hints of jasmine alongside creamy coconut and peachy skin but can go all the way sharing some aspects with lily, lily of the valley, ylang-ylang, and even rose. When fully ripe find accents of sharp green ‘mushroom’ overtones.
Alberto Morillas blends all the floral facets with bright notes of Mandarin and the freshness of Figleaves. A unique olfactive construction layering a myriad of colours, lights and textures, playing on the intersection between saturated hues and naturality, like overexposed olfactory photography.
A total reflection of the fashion work of Mary the perfume is the explosion of her unique vision in a bottle of scent.
“For this collaboration, I re-imagined the Omnia bottle as a sculptural vase holding a bouquet of flowers and colours that represent the notes Alberto Morillas used to create together this universe of optimism. The combination of gardenia and the luminous notes of mandarin and orange blossom resulted in an uplifting scent that settles like a memory into your soul”-
The fashion designer also talks of the inspiration of a serpent; this reptile that sheds its skin to allow for new growth; this represents so much from the earliest of societies like ancient Greece and Roman mythology. A sacred symbolism of metaphophsis adaptation and growth alongside healing and rebirth.
Fashion Designer Mary Katrantzou
