One of the less well-known things about Andy Warhol was his obsession with fragrance. He is said to have had a collection that he called his “permanent smell collection,” which was made up of hundreds of bottles, many half-used. Halston cologne, Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet eau de toilette, Braggi cologne, Ma Griffe by Carven, Paris by Yves Saint Laurent, and Devin cologne by Aramis are a few he collected.
[...] Warhol began amassing his collection of semi-used perfumes in the early 1960s— “Before that, the smells in my life were all just whatever happened to hit my nose by chance,” he wrote. “But then I realized I had to have a kind of smell museum so certain smells wouldn’t get lost forever.”
— Perfumer Francis Kurkdjian, in a 2018 interview with Rain magazine. Read more in Francis Kurkdjian, Hitting the Right Notes.
This really piqued my interest. I knew that Warhol collected archives (i.e. his time capsules) but had no idea about his affinity for olfactory memories. I found an interesting article on Jstor on the subject of the nexus between smell, memory, and the visual:
‘Perfume and Vinegar: Olfactory Knowledge, Remembrance, and Record keeping’ by Anna Chen
Source: The American Archivist , SPRING/SUMMER 2016, Vol. 79, No. 1 (SPRING/SUMMER 2016), pp. 103-120
Here’s an excerpt:
“I switch perfumes all the time. If I’ve been wearing one perfume for three months, I force myself to give it up, even if I still feel like wearing it, so when ever 1 smell it again it will always remind me of those three months. I never go back to wearing it again… it becomes part of my permanent smell collection. … My collection of semi-used perfumes is very big by now, although I didn’t start wearing lots of them until the early 60s. Before that the smells in my life were all just whatever happened to hit my nose by chance. But then I realized I had to have a kind of smell museum so certain smells wouldn’t get lost forever.”
I am moving to a new condo rental today- just temporary- in the middle of a heatwave in Toronto. Here’s hoping that I do not get a heatstroke! Only limiting myself to a trio of bottles to bring from home; tough decisions to come.
Happy weekend all!
I am late seeing this but thank you so much for the quote!
and do hope your move went well.
A kind NST friend sent me a copy of NEZ, and in it is an article about Warhol. His top 5 favorite fragrances listed two of mine (which, I’ll admit, thrilled me): Cristalle EDT and Bellodgia. Back in the early 1990’s, I saw the documentary about Andrew Warhola/Andy Warhol titled “Superstar.” It was wonderful and sad and funny: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0103008/
Oh yay for both picks!
It’s kind of cute that the interviewer (not FK, incidentally) rolled out that story as an interview prompt…it’s been around for a while. Here are a few of my thoughts on it from a while back…
https://perfumeprofessor.net/2019/01/28/andy-warhols-perfume-philosophy/
Marianne B wrote a piece on Warhol and fragrance for CaFleurBon a few months back.
The NEZ article that ElleBe mentioned was really interesting, too.
Thanks J!
I knew I had just read this somewhere. Glad you reminded us, Ms. Jessica! Your quoting of that stuck with me because I seldom feel any affinity with Andy Warhol but this did resonate. Perfume is all about time travel for me…