The Danish creative director and co-founder of Rotate tells us about her earliest memories of fragrances and the one that means the very most to her
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The power of an emotive scent is undeniable: a particularly strong one can whisk us away to a place of precious memories. Others can remind us of someone we love or once knew, while some can even boost our confidence. Wearing fragrance is an essential part of our beauty and self-care routines for a lot of us. Scent can also be crucial to our identity as we search for different scents at different moments of our lives. And on this constant quest for the perfect perfume, we often find ourselves with a handful of favourites that we keep to match with our mood each day.
Giving us a peek inside her fragrance wardrobe below is Danish Jeanette Madsen, the co-founder and creative director of Copenhagen-based fashion brand Rotate. Ahead, discover how her love affair with scents first began, her favourite perfumes, and a scent she would love to bottle only if she could...
What is your first memory you have of a perfume, either wearing it or smelling it?
My grandmother who would always wear something a bit intense but in the end I didn’t care, and actually started to like it just because I loved her so much.
What was the first perfume you owned and what's the story about it?
When I was 10 my grandmother invited our family to Crete and I remember we were at the airport smelling all these perfumes trying to find one for both my mum and my big sister. We ended up buying Sunflowers (by Elizabeth Arden) and that scent will forever remind of that vacation. After that it became a tradition to buy a new perfume when we went on vacation every second year. When I sprayed it, it reminded me of that exact holiday. The next one that I remember is Cool Water from Davidoff.
What does wearing fragrances mean to you? Maybe it boosts your confidence, perhaps you wear it to express yourself...
I mostly wear perfume when going out and when I have the time. For me, it’s the icing on the cake and that little extra detail that does the trick – just like in an outfit. Its your personal twist, which is so important no matter how your choose to show or wear it.
How many perfumes do you own now?
I think I have 15 – a little bit of everything.
Jeanette's fragrances.
How did these fragrances come to you? How did you discover them?
I’m so lucky that I have been gifted many of them through my job. But some of them I've also bought because I have smelled them on my girlfriends or simply when visiting stores.
Which is your favourite perfume and why?
I have a few favourites and mostly because they remind me of my first visit to Paris with my husband staying at Hotel Costes. They bring back treasured memories; they smell a bit like the iconic scent of Hotel Costes.
How would you describe it to someone who has no scent sense?
Hotel Costes is a good start: think old Paris, romance, glamour, heavy velvet, bordeaux and red roses.
Do you have a scent for different occasions, e.g. a particular perfume you wear when going out on a date?
It very much depends on my mood and if it’s been a while since wearing it. Nothing else.
What is one perfume you'd gift to someone you love and why?
I would always gift something I love myself, so one of my favourites for sure.
If you could bottle a scent that doesn't exist, what would it be?
My babies.
