Serene B. Hollingsworth
I did not arrive in fragrance through its traditional institutions.
I arrived as an observer.
Long before I became a perfumer, I stood outside the industry, watching from a distance with admiration for its great houses, its history, and the extraordinary beauty that fragrance can hold. As I began building SANCTUAIRE DE FLEURS, A Maison, I stepped closer. What I expected to find was a world filled with thoughtful inquiry. Instead, I found that many of the conversations surrounding fragrance rarely moved beyond the familiar. We spoke of compositions. We spoke of celebrities. We spoke of Grasse. We repeated the stories we had inherited.
Yet fragrance has always been far greater than the stories we continue to tell about it.
The deeper I walked into perfumery, the more I realized there were questions waiting to be asked. Questions about authorship. About institutions. About memory. About culture. About power. About the people shaping fragrance today whose work may never become part of its historical record unless someone chooses to document it.
That pursuit became FRAGRANCE PERSPECTIVES.
This publication was never created to tell readers what to wear. It was created to expand the conversation. To explore fragrance as one of the world's great cultural disciplines and to examine the people, ideas, and institutions that continue to shape it.
Some of the conversations within these pages have simply never been part of fragrance publishing. Others may not happen anywhere else. That is not because they are controversial. It is because no one has paused long enough to ask the questions.
As both an editor and a perfumer, I believe our responsibility extends beyond celebrating beautiful work. We must also examine the ideas that surround it, preserve the voices emerging within it, and leave behind a record that is richer, broader, and more intellectually honest than the one we inherited.
Luxury is not only expressed through what we create.
It is reflected in how deeply we are willing to think.
That belief guides every issue of FRAGRANCE PERSPECTIVES.
Thank you for reading.
With reverence,
Serene B. Hollingsworth
Editor-in-Chief & Founder
FRAGRANCE PERSPECTIVES
Perfumer & Founder
SANCTUAIRE DE FLEURS, A Maison