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The Latest Runway Statement Is Totally Invisible
Emerging, each model splashed on Oud Voyager, the house’s freshly launched fragrance. As they walked, a trail of heady oud and effervescent florals followed in their wake. “The smoky and mysterious sensuality of oud brings an ambient warmth to the runway,” says Helen Murphy, the vice president of fragrance development for Tom Ford Beauty, “juxtaposed with luminous, futuristic floral notes of geranium and peony.”
The decision to scent the runway is part of a larger intertwining of fragrance and fashion. Tom Ford isn’t the only house to paint more layers into its shows with scent—last year, Victoria Beckham’s runway was awash in peppery vanilla, thanks to her perfume 21:50 Rêverie (inspired by a date night with David), and Willy Chavarria doused his in Parfums de Marly’s Haltane, an aromatic riot of herbs, spices, and wood.
Fashion designers are also taking cues from perfumers—and vice versa. Vivienne Westwood’s spring 2026 collection was titled “Boudoir,” after the brand’s 1998 scent of the same name, which was discontinued in 2020 but reimagined in a new version this past November. With notes like aldehyde, bergamot, orange blossom, and sandalwood, the fragrance is meant to feel like an instrument for self-expression and a “place where you are nearest to yourself,” per Andreas Kronthaler, the house’s creative director—and that sentiment ran through the collection, which felt intimate and character-driven thanks to gauzy sheers and deconstructed numbers. Though fashion houses have long used perfume as a tool to expand their brands, they’re getting more granular than ever by reconstructing the scent of clothing with molecules and compounds. Dior Beauty’s latest La Collection Privée fragrance, Cuir Saddle, smells like creamy leather and acts like a scratch-and-sniff for Dior’s iconic saddle bag, its inspiration. “I tried to capture the shape of the leather,” says Francis Kurkdjian, perfume creation director at Christian Dior Parfums.
And in a more literal fusion of couture and scent, perfume-bottle necklaces have become the accessory du jour. Also known as pomanders, these pendants have a long history, dating all the way back to the 1300s. According to Jonquil O’Reilly, old master specialist and Christie’s head of sale, classics department, they were originally used for personal hygiene. Journalist and perfume expert April Long says that people also believed bad smells could make you ill, so pomanders worked as a kind of protection. In modern times, they are less function and more fashion, starting with Elsa Peretti’s perfume pendants for Halston and Tiffany & Co. in the 1970s. Today, these functional accessories have popped up at Chanel, Courrèges, and Victoria Beckham.
Fashion has become enamored with perfumes in part because both mediums are a way to tell the world something about yourself. A smoky, spicy perfume gives off the same energy as a little black dress. A soapy, aldehyde-forward spritz is the fragrance equivalent of a freshly pressed white shirt. Sumptuous floral scents are lace-edged skirts, bottled. As Long puts it, “Perfume is an extension of your fashion sense.”
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