Burberry's chief creative officer, Christopher Bailey, loves live music. This passion inspired Burberry's first fragrance since it brought the operations of its beauty business in-house in April.
"When it's a licensed business, you have much less control over all aspects," said Bailey. Now that the business is in-house, "we have been able to have a very consistent message from working with the noses, all the way to working with the bottle suppliers, and to all the imagery as well. You can really work through the way you are going to communicate it, the way you are going to talk to consumers, the way that you are going to put this fragrance out into the world, you can really look at all the aspects of it."
Bailey said the scent, called
Burberry Brit Rhythm, is inspired by the music in the brand's DNA. "Music has become such an integral part of our world, from the
digital site that we have - Burberry acoustic - to the things that we do at all the shows with the music team here that I set up," he told
WWD.
With Rhythm, the brand is going beyond sound and aiming to capture the emotion, excitement and attitude attached to live music, he said. "It's really that kind of adrenaline feeling that you get from music. The effect of hairs rising on the back of your neck. The moment where you are anticipating your favorite band coming on, or when you are listening to a beautiful piece," said Bailey. "It's a sexy fragrance because I think there is a sexiness to that kind of rock 'n' roll world. It's very leathery. It's sexy and a little bit smoky and sensuous and I kind of like that idea of skin and leather. They were the starting points."
Bailey collaborated with International Flavors & Fragrances and perfumers Dominique Ropion, Anne Flipo and Olivier Polge to create Rhythym, which includes top notes of fresh basil verveina, spicy cardamom and juniper berries. In the middle, there's black leather, patchouli and styrax resin. The base has a heady mix of cedarwood, incense and tonka bean.
Bailey pointed out that within the Burberry fragrance portfolio, this is the first scent with a certain edge. "We don't have anything with this kind of attitude. They are either a little more classic or traditional or they don't have this kind of sexiness or attitude," he said. "It's a really big thing, because it's a completely different approach to any other fragrances that we have got and that we have worked on."
Look for Rhythym this August at major retailers like Macy's, Printemps, Hong Kong's Harvey Nichols and Lane Crawford stores, Burberry stores, Harrods and Selfridges and then globally.
.png)
.png)
