AROMAG
Aromag, the name an amalgam of "aroma" and "magazine," is a compelling collection of sophisticated contemporary perfumes from China, rooted in a tradition where scent was a scholarly pursuit which historically shaped culture without deference to commerce. This approach allows a rigorous yet balanced clarity to the work: perfume creation as sensory experiment and intellectual exploration. Yet none of this quite prepares you for the dazzling range of harmony and elegance on display in the extensive library of perfumes that makes up the Aromag oeuvre.
Most noticeable is the roster of gifted perfumers working with the house, including Dominique Ropion, Olivier Cresp, Loc Dong, Frank Voelkl, Carlos Benaim and the legendary Jean-Louis Sieuzac, creator of Yves Saint Laurent's original Opium and Fahrenheit and Dune for Dior. It is an adventurous olfactive undertaking with new perfumes appearing regularly, composed with chic ambition and dedication to sensual impact throughout.
The Chinese characters that make up the official Aromag branding translate as vetiver and also "orchid growing in rocks," reflecting the balanced distance and harmony found in Chinese art and now in this beautifully understated collection of perfumes.
What is remarkable across so many perfumers is the coherence of vision: hushed sophistication, resilience and studied artistry throughout, a stylishly curated library of commissioned compositions that feel authored by a single sensibility.
In essence, this astute and timely collection concerns the scholarly iterations of olfactive presence. Materials wash over the paper of our skin. Compositions seeping, blooming, radiating and expanding with time. The perfumes are scented mark-making (yin) on expanses of bare skin (yang) in their interplay of darkness and sparseness. In Chinese art the word liubai describes the deliberate leaving of space as part of the artwork. This concept applies naturally to the perfumes under the Aromag umbrella: compositions that play with washes of scented materials over blank skin.
Anyone who has enjoyed the expert curation found at Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle will find much to admire in the diversity of talent and imagination on display in the Aromag collection. When Malle launched Editions de Parfums, celebrating the authorship of each of the works in the collection by publicly attributing them to the perfumer who made them felt revolutionary. That's now become a much-welcome practice across most of the industry. What feels novel about what Aromag is doing is reversing a longstanding narrative of Western perfumery taking inspiration from Asia. Here, a Chinese house with a Chinese aesthetic philosophy commissions Western perfumers to work within it. The authorship is Eastern. The vision is Eastern. The result is entirely Aromag's.