Azzi Glasser: I had to create the sexiest,coolest, most stylish perfume brand for boys on the High Street, reflecting Topman fashion. The pressure was on because it was their first signature fragrance. The design of the packaging, the scent itself and the overall concept needed to reflect Topman's edgy quirkiness. My objective was to make sure that will be a brand leader within that sector of the marketplace, which is kind of "mass-tige". At the moment lots of the High Street fragrances don't stand out in any way, shape or form. They all smell quite similar: there's nothing "wow" about them. Not like the premium brands where you go, "Wow that's a great fragrance," like Comme des Garçons or Tom Ford.
What are the key differences between the two fragrances 16 and 27? Who are they aimed at?
We wanted the fragrances to represent the male consumer that Topman appeals to, so it's quite a broad feel on that front. We came up with two fragrance themes: one which is quite fresh, cool and energetic, which is 16: the key ingredients are pepper, amber and labdanum. The other 27 is more sexy: it's confident, creative and stylish, and the three key ingredients in there are vetiver, sage, and cedar wood. That's a much more of a warmer, sensual, sexy scent, and the other one's much fresher, more energetic, and cooler. They're both quirky in their own right.
So 16 could be for day and 27 could be for night? Or could wear you either all day?
You can wear either all day, but the idea is to have the two, because for evening, guys might not to want to wear the same scent that they've been wearing all day. Whether they do it 16 and then 27, or the other way around is totally up to them, and it's quite nice for them to just have the two, so they won't go through a wardrobe of five, like women tend to do.
Is there a difference between curating a fragrance for men as opposed to women?
Men are different to women, especially in deciding what sort of fragrances they want to wear. They generally like good-quality, well-designed products that are clear representatives of the brand they are buying into, so I suppose they think quite methodically in that way. So we wanted to make sure the design and the fragrance are clear and coherent but still have that edginess to them, in both the scent itself and how it is going to look on their shelf.
What were some of the challenges and limitations to designing a High Street fragrance versus a niche designer fragrance?
Topman aren't doing it through a multinational, they're doing it in-house, so it's a real old-school way of doing it. It allows them to spend more money on what counts, which is the product itself, and not the marketing, which is what the competition does. They already know how to market their products and they've got so many stores they can do that themselves.
How should men put on fragrance?
It's important to know where to spray fragrance. Because their skin is different - they've got larger pores generally and they're hairier as well! [laughs] The best places are the back of the neck, wrists and definitely the chest.
What fragrance did your father wear?
Back in the Seventies and early Eighties, my dad used to wear Brut during the day and Cartier Musk in the evening. That generation were really into their scents: my mum and dad would put on their fragrances before they'd go out to parties and they'd leave this amazing expensive aroma behind, which made me think how glamorous perfume was. There was something really non-accessible about it at that time, whereas now fragrances are so accessible. It's really important when you are doing a perfume with someone to have that quality that will give it that iconic longevity.
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