From Tom Ford’s new genderless skincare line to fashion giant H&M’s unisex clothing launches for both kids and adults earlier this year, non-binary fashion and beauty are the new ‘It’ things. Even Gucci’s own fashion pieces have been marring the lines between feminity and masculinity since Alessandro Michele first introduced unisex collections.
Naturally, the newly-revived beauty arm of the brand that’s also helmed by Michele would follow suit. Enter its first gender-neutral product: the Memoire d’une Odeur – a universal perfume that’s unassigned to a gender or a time, it’s a fragrance that transcends gender and instead focuses on individuality.
The launch of this fragrance also disrupts the traditional olfactive families of how fragrances are classified. Gucci’s Memoire d’une Odeur is quite literally in a league of its own because it just established a new category called Mineral Aromatic. Created by perfumer Alberto Morillas, this modern olfactive family is special because it weaves together scents and emotions – airy, musky, transparent and authentic.
At the heart of this fragrance lies Roman chamomile, a flower that was chosen by Michele himself. Having been grown around Rome in terraced gardens since the 16th and 17th centuries, chamomile is said to be quite the character that radiates joy and smell like honey and green apple. The reason it was chosen? “No one had done it before. Chamomile is known all over the world. Everyone has smelt it at some point, but as a dream, a memory of childhood, something timeless, and never in a fragrance,” explained Morillas.
The Roman chamomile is mixed with Indian coral jasmine petals for tenderness, musks for depth, and woods like the warm sandalwood and the airy, subtle cedarwood.
Now available at all Gucci Beauty counters, the fragrance comes in a vintage transparent light green glass bottle. It’s grooved like a column from the olden times and crowned with a shiny gold cap. “The packaging comes from the past, inspired by an old Gucci perfume from the early ’90s. I didn’t want the bottle to take on a shape or size that is too feminine or too masculine because the perfume could be very much for women or very much for men,” explained Michele.
Just like how free-spirited the fragrance is, the campaign shots are too. They were fronted by a diverse cast that ranged from singer, songwriter and actor Harry Styles to the genderfluid young designer Harris Reed. Something that they all have in common? They embody the inclusive and ageless new Gucci world dreamed up by Michele, and are reflective of the changing attitudes and identities of young people around the world. “The guiding element of the entire campaign is the idea of freedom; the idea of the non-era, the non-place, the non-social. I pictured a world that was a fresco of a ‘mythological’ life in which the family is a private community with its own social framework where total freedom of expression prevails and where the roles of people and things aren’t clear,” Michele shared.
Plus, you’d be pleased to know that Styles actually wears and adores the perfume. In an interview with Dazed Digital, styles shared that he wears it all the time. Yes, even when he heads to bed. He said, “I really like wearing it because it’s (Gucci’s) first universal fragrance.”
