Perfume Bottle Designers Reveal What Goes Into Their Creations

The idea of working from a blank canvas may have its artistic appeal, but it doesn't necessarily translate into creative freedom for bottle designers. If anything, it requires them to be even more thoughtful and deliberate in their approach. "I can design you a beautiful bottle, but there are billions of beautiful bottles out there," says Baron. "That isn't the point. It's about matching the history and the values and the psyche of the brand to a cultural moment and then aligning all of those elements into one clear message... The story is the most important thing."

Without a cohesive story to translate the world of a fragrance, says Baron, the entire project falls apart at the seams. "Even if the perfume is amazing, people won't buy it if they don't understand it. They need to feel a connection or it just doesn't work."

It might not seem logical to think that a perfume's image is more important than its smell, but then again, the fragrance industry hasn't grown into a multibillion-dollar affair by selling us cold, hard facts. Just consider: Chanel No. 5 rarely performs well in blind smell tests; our modern sensibilities are accustomed to lighter, airier compositions. But housed in its classic glass flacon, the fragrance is a global best seller. "People love the story and what it stands for," says Baron of the full, iconic package. Psychologically (and maybe even biologically), this makes sense. Think of how we grow to appreciate the little quirks and imperfections in the people we fall in love with. The stronger our emotional connection, the more beauty we see.

That's why the art of perfume bottle design has acquired new weight in an era where consumers often go online to experience fragrance instead of walking up to a store counter. Without the benefit of touch, human interaction, and the alchemy of scent on skin, people need something else to engage their senses and ignite their interest. And more often than not, the perfume bottle is what fills that virtual space. "It's the first form of communication and the first form of contact that people have with the scent," says De Baschmakoff. "So of course it has to resonate."

The trick is to design a bottle that resonates across the board — no small feat. A perfume can mean anything to anyone. Nina Ricci L'Air du Temps reminds me of my mother; it reminds my mother of balmy summer nights in Austria. But the bottle itself is a fixed quantity. It feels the same in our hands, it looks the same on our shelf, and it releases the same nimbus cloud of scent. It connects us.

The story behind a perfume bottle is just as heady and complex as the fragrance inside. Below, we asked designers who have dreamed up some of our favorite bottles in recent years to distill their creative vision.

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