magazine

Interview, magazine, Press

THE FASHIONGTON POST, USA

Naomi Goodsir ·

TFP NGP.jpg

The Fashiongton Post is a legendary fashion magazine that started it all. Here you will find exclusive interviews with high fashion insiders, beauty & hairstyle trends, model’s diary, photography and illustration works from the world known artists, clothing trends and information on what-to-wear, biographies of noted people in the fashion world.

Iris Cendré, magazine, press

CERCLE MAGAZINE, FRANCE

Naomi Goodsir ·

CERCLE MAGAZINE issue #9. All about flowers, including Iris Cendré by Naomi Goodsir.

Cercle is an independent and thematic french magazine published once a year. Every year, a new issue. Each issue, a new topic. Cercle tries to gather information around one main topic and to propose a support that values ​​contemporary artistic creation, culture and science.

Iris Cendré, Review, Press, Perfume, magazine

HIGHSNOBIETY, USA

Naomi Goodsir ·

HS+LOGO+BLACK.jpg

I ESCAPE ‘POUR HOMME’ HELL & BROUGHT YOU BACK THESE PERFUMES. Article by Thom Bettridge

IRIS CENDRÉ

Powdery flowers is a scent profile that we’ve been trained to associate with granny perfumes, but in order to free oneself from the shackles of the pour homme universe, one must go there and one must commit. Luckily for the flower-curious, perfumers like Naomi Goodsir are making iris- and violet-led perfumes that turn up with hits of tobacco and a smokiness that is reminiscent of a mouthful of peaty scotch.

From the desk of Highsnobiety Editor-in-Chief Thom Bettridge, The Materialist is an editor’s letter in the form of a treasure hunt. Its mission: to look closer at the products that fascinate us as a way to better understand ourselves and our world — or just to find better stuff. For this special FRONTPAGE edition, we're taking a deep dive into fragrances.

For decades, the world of marketing has accidentally conspired to turn young men off of fragrance.

As a child of the Y2K era, I was introduced to the concept of cologne through the frosted blue abs of Jean Paul Gaultier’s bottle for Le Male. Furthermore, my eardrums will forever be stained by the voice of a phone sex operator moaning “Look at that bod” over a popular and oft-maligned 15-second ad for a product called Bod Man Body Spray. And sometime during my elementary school career, a demented soul invented a thing called Axe. (An aside, but shout out to Axe for disowning whoever took their body spray with them into the US Capitol raid.)

Flash forward to 2021, and cultural evolution in men’s fragrance space has been minimal to nonexistent. Johnny Depp and Dior’s quest to make the most racist commercial of all time might be behind us, but even the luxury end of the pour homme world still seems made for a spectrum of humanity that starts with James Bond and ends with Pauly D. Aftershave. Muscles. Warfare. Suits. Barbershops. Dark blue packaging. The mental universe of cologne marketing embodies everything tragic and obsolete about being a man.

I needed to get introduced to perfume — in particular, the lively and unisex scene of niche perfumers — in order to truly understand the magic of fragrance. With the help of olfactory aesthetes in my life, I learned the joys of reeking like a fist full of jasmine. I embraced traces of roses and oud and peppercorns and the other mysterious aromas that ran around corners in my mind as I tried to identify them. And I walked to bodegas smelling like rare species of tree.

During quarantine, I set off down a deeper and more spiraling rabbit hole, sniffing and wear-testing the nearly 200 perfumes that went into the making of this review. Cloistered in my home office, searching for base notes in my mind’s eye, it came into focus that perfume is not inherently social. To smell good around others is a worthwhile endeavor, but the real fun of fragrance comes with using it as a form of mental travel, to the kinds of faraway places, people, and memories that are uniquely evoked by the olfactory senses.

So, without further ado, here are the finest fruits of my voyage, arranged across the traditional scent-wheel categories of Green, Woody, Spicy-slash-Amber, and Floral.

HIGHSNOBIETY

Avalaible in the US from LUCKYSCENT

Fashion, magazine, Parfums, press

GARAGE MAGAZINE ISSUE 19, USA

Naomi Goodsir ·

Garage1a.jpg
 

The endless gray stretch of quarantine has warped time into units previously unknown to me, measuring hours by phantom presences. Perfume—a closetful of it, so many bottles and vials that I can barely shut the door, a reminder of past travels and smiles—has been a faithful companion during this disembodying hover-year. Its mirror: the pulled-down shades and soft dark envelopment of watching films, light flickering off a beat-up laptop, offering respite and another layer of other—real time—pass and melt. In both, vaporous, fickle media, ever-changing, light particles dancing off my face and skin, I surrender myself to their own inner workings, worlds, and pathways—they give my rolling, fretful, nearly-always-bursting-with-question-marks mind a chance to stop, collect itself, drift, play. 

Where can my physical body go if it is locked indoors? I can transfer and inhabit, nibble, feed off, empathize, and fall in love with actors and scents, a new one a day, according to my mood. In losing yourself, you get re-embodied. My heart beats with different screens, varied scents. Here is a scattering of stars, ones who have nurtured me and provided escape and pleasure during this year, individualistic women who shine gemlike, inspire and dazzle, with fragrances dreamed and real paired with them.

Collage by Joy Matashi. Fashion Editor : Jared Ellner. Article by KASHINA, NOV. 2020

PEARL CHANG WOULD LOVE THE NOTES OF AMBER IN NUIT DE BAKÉLITE BY NAOMI GOODSIR, ENSCONCED BY THIS DRAMATIC, JEWEL-ENCRUSTED RING BY VALENTINO GARAVANI. SAIRA BANU SUMMONS ADAMEKU BY DI SER, SCENTED WITH MEDICINAL MUSKDANA AND CANTALOUPE, AND THIS EMERALD-EYED, ONYX-NOSED PANTHER RING BY CARTIER.TOP PEARL CHANG IN 'THE SHADOW CHASER' (1973), 'WOLF DEVIL WOMAN' (1982), 'THE WAR OF THE BOUNDARY' (1978) COURTESY OF HONG-KONG MOVIE DATABASE. BOTTOM: COURTESY OF ALAMY.

PEARL CHANG 

The Taiwanese martial arts supernova behind the unclassifiable and fantastical Wolf Devil Woman (1982), Pearl Chang was a multi-talented director, writer, producer, star—often all at once. Her extreme energy spiraled in all directions. She tore through her kung fu epics with whirlwind power and lightning-bolt editing, whiplash-inducing battles fought in outrageous jeweled and tasseled headdresses, poles and swords flying through the air. Australian designer Naomi Goodsir has created perfumes as unpredictable, illogical, and daredevil as Pearl—the electric, forked-tongue Nuit de Bakélite, with its livid, shape-shifting, furious green tuberose that lasts for days on the skin. And Bois d’Ascèse and its soilish, dampened-ash scent of dripping caverns, unearthed pu’er tea, gnarled roots, just-plucked feathers with flesh still attached, and spat-out wine. They’re both visceral, wildly inventive scents fit for the untetherable force of nature that is Pearl.

GARAGE MAGAZINE, full article

inspiration, Interview, magazine, Nuit de Bakélite, Parfumeur

THE GENESIS OF NUIT DE BAKÉLITE BY AU PARFUM

Naomi Goodsir ·

Au Parfum vous propose un dossier qui présente la genèse, le développement et les rouages d’une création olfactive hors normes, Nuit de Bakélite d’Isabelle Doyen pour Naomi Goodsir. Cette série est née de la même envie de décortiquer un parfum unique comme le premier article consacré à L’Heure perdue de Mathilde Laurent pour Cartier.

FULL INTERVIEW & ARTICLE : The Genesis of Nuit de Bakélite

Nobuyoshi Araki, Feast of Angels : Sex Scenes, 1992 (Source : Artsy)

Alberto Giacometti, Fil tendu, 1932 (Source : Kunsthaus Zürich)

Isabelle Doyen, Perfumer - Credit Evgeniya Chudakova for Fragrantica

Isabelle Doyen & Naomi Goodsir, Credit Egobox

Isabelle Doyen & Naomi Goodsir, Credit Egobox

Louise Bourgeois, Insomnia, 1996 (Source : The Museum of Modern Art), The Small Hours de la série What is the Shape of this Problem ?, 1999 (Source : Malin Gallery) et Untitled, no. 68 of 220, de la série The Insomnia Drawings, 1995 (Source : The Museum of Modern Art)

Art, design, Fashion, inspiration, magazine, Nuit de Bakélite, Press

SINDROMS JOURNAL - SHADES OF GREEN

Naomi Goodsir ·

Sindroms is a journal of monochrome states of mind, published in print biannually. Curating its content based on specific colours, it investigates them across culture and immerses its readers in the feelings and moods evoked by each colour.

Nuit de Bakélite by perfumer Isabelle Doyen is happy to be part of this evergreen sindrom - Design by Studio Goodsir. Photo by Jean-Michel Sordello

SINDROMS JOURNAL

Art, Collaborations, Fashion, magazine, press

VOGUE US - HEAD OVER HEELS BY AUTUMN DE WILDE

Naomi Goodsir ·

VOGUE US, August 2020 issue. Cover by photographer Annie Leibovitz, model Simone Biles.

Crown flutters with butterflies, a handmade piece designed for the shoot by Naomi Goodsir & commissioned by the great Amanda Harlech (Fashion Editor/Stylist). Photographer Autumn de Wilde who is also the Director of EMMA, a movie adapted from Jane Austen’s novel. Actress Tanya Reynolds is wearing the crown.

magazine, Parfums, press, Review

HOW TO SPEND IT, UK

Naomi Goodsir ·

The smoky aromas of bonfires, roasted chestnuts, frankincense and lapsang souchong tea are among the most complex, and I know quite a few individuals who fantasise about a fragrance that smells like a charcoal-grilled steak. There is a difference, however, between enjoying a scent in its proper context – charred ribeye at a barbecue or burning leaves in an autumnal park – and wearing a fragrance that reprises such odours. For this reason, the perfumery interpretations of smoke tend to blend it into a more familiar setting of woods, spices and resins.

One of the best introductions to a smoky perfume is L’Artisan Parfumeur’s Passage d’Enfer (£105 for 100ml EDT). Perfumer Olivia Giacobetti is known for her ability to create olfactory watercolours – airy, transparent compositions. Passage d’Enfer combines lilies and incense, filling the spaces between the white, cool petals with smoke. Giacobetti’s touch is light, and the perfume remains soft and radiant, from the smoky opening to the vanilla- and cedarwood-accented drydown.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention another delicate and smoky perfume created by Giacobetti for Hôtel Costes in Paris. Capturing the idea of woods and velvet, the perfumer composed a sandalwood and rose fragrance laced with incense. Hôtel Costes Splash (€110 for 125ml EDT) proves that smoke can be glamorous as well as intriguing.

Smoky nuances in perfumery aren’t new, and classics like Chanel’s Cuir de Russie (£150 for 75ml EDP), Guerlain’s Shalimar (£99 for 90ml EDP) or Molinard’s Habanita (€94 for 75ml EDP) have flirted with the smouldering inflections of frankincense, benzoin or amber. What makes the modern smoky fragrances different is their boldness. Naomi Goodsir’s Bois d'Ascèse (€140 for 50ml EDP) doesn’t hold back on dramatic materials like birch tar, leather and incense, and the effect is striking. The fragrance smells smoky, but it’s so cleverly balanced that wearing it is no different from enjoying a classical woody oriental blend, albeit one with more verve.

Those who indeed want to smell of charcoal and tar can have their wish granted by Comme des Garçons’ Black (£80 for 100ml EDT). The name doesn’t lie. It’s a dark perfume that evokes charred woods, crushed black pepper and tanned leather. The first time I wore it, I was shocked, because I didn’t expect such an explosive effect – and so much smoke out of a bottle. The fragrance turned out to be addictive, however, and I’ve grown to enjoy the potent opening and the unexpectedly tender and warm drydown. It transpired that perfumer Guillaume Flavigny used a gingerbread accent to round out the edges of Black, thus making smoke smell sweet.

HOW TO SPEND IT

Article by Victoria Frolova, December 2018.

magazine, Perfume, press

HAIR'S HOW MAGAZINE, RUSSIA

Naomi Goodsir ·

Thank you to HAIR’S HOW MAGAZINE Russia for their interview about Naomi Goodsir, part of an issue dedicated to Australia.