NEW Miller Harris Stories Collection
The launch event and my selected scents
On Thursday evening, I ventured across a still grey, still chilly London with a spring in my step. I was making my way to the launch of the new Miller Harris Stories Collection, held in the novelesque ballroom at The NoMad hotel in Covent Garden. It was hosted by the Miller Harris creative director, Alex Oprey, and the collections perfumers, Emilie Bouge, Matthieu Nardin and Karine Vinchon-Spehner, who sat with Pandora Sykes not only to discuss the collection, but to explore and emphasise how important scent is in conjuring a personal narrative for the wearer and those around them. The event was held in the ballroom: a small, rectangular space that has a ceiling painted like skies. Around the room were scrolls and stands, the former printed with excerpts from great novels, and the latter hosting the florals and very fragrances that were the reason behind our invites. It was relatively intimate in numbers, which gave us a chance to explore the room, get acquatined with the stories, and engage with the panel discussion. I think I can speak on behalf of everybody in the audience when I say we hung onto every ‘note’ that was said.
The Miller Harris Stories story began with Scherzo, a fragrance launched in 2018 which has become one of the signature scents from the Miller Harris house. Inspired by F Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night, Scherzo is an intensely vibrant scent, bursting with fruits and flowers and sunshine, with notes including tangerine, narcissus, dark rose, peony and oud. It sounds heavy, but I assure you, it is compelling and complex, striking and bold, all without being brash. There’s a reason it’s a bestseller, and the first of the stories collection that you will probably want to take home.
For the new collection, the perfumers were given specific passages of text from famous literature, and granted free reign on interpreting it. Under the guide of Alex, the perfumes were shaped and moulded to fit the Miller Harris trajectory, and they do it seamlessly. The collection takes you from Paris to New York, to China and the Isle of Skye, a journey of exploration, from a page to your person. I tried all four, but there were two particular scents that I absolutely loved, Soufflot and Celadon, which happen to be the first two to be released from the collection and are available today. Here are the stories behind them…
Soufflot EDP (£180 for 100ml)
“In the morning I walked down the Boulevard to the Rue
Soufflot for coffee and brioche. It was a fine morning.
The horse chestnut trees in the Luxembourg gardens
were in bloom. There was the pleasant early morning
feeling of a hot day. I read the papers with the coffee and
then smoked a cigarette. The flower women were coming
up from the market and arranging their daily stock.”
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
A Parisian inspired gourmand scent, Soufflot incorporates the nuttiness of Chestnut and Hazelnut with Cinnamon Leaf and honey to create the sweet sense of fresh brioche paired with coffee, enjoyed at the start of a warm Parisian day. As the wearer wanders through the boulevards of Paris to the Rue Soufflot, lasting impressions of Tobacco Absolute and Leather linger while the white glistening florals of Green Mandarin and Sambac Jasmine Absolute provide a freshness to cut through the buttery warmth of its heart.
*Soufflot went straight to my favourite fragrances list. It is truly magical how every scent from the passage makes itself known in the fragrance, walking you through the narrative, unfolding in a harmonious olfactory tale. The sweet, buttery brioche is enough to make your mouth water, whilst jasmine sambac blooms softly, adding a sensuality to the scent, but it’s the hazelnut, chestnut and touch of tobacco that really bring it for me: soft, sweet, sexual, intriguing and addictive. It’s jaw-droppingly delicious, in a mature and magical way. Shop Soufflot
Celadon (£180 for 100ml)
“What time the sun’s rays’ slant, and the grass waxeth cold,
close the double doors. After a shower of rain, green moss
plenteously covers the whole pot. Beauteous jade, but yet
with thee impurity it cannot ever vie. Thy frame, spotless
as snow, from admiration easy robs me of my wits. Thy
fragrant core is like unto a dot, so full of grace, so delicate!
When the moon reacheth the third watch, thy comely
shade begins to show itself. Do no tell me that a chaste
fairy like three can take wings and passaway.”
Dream of the Red Chamber, Cao Xueqin
An ethereal floral green scent to provide the wearer with a moment of escapism. Inspired by the classical Chinese text, Dream of the Red Chamber, the fragrance places focus on the vibrancy of jade celadon entwined with moss, set amongst the magical light of the moon. Opening with green notes of Tea Ceylon and Tomato Leaves to recall the waxy green grass and jade stone of Imperial China, notes of cardamom, magnolia, smoked tea, and mate export the wearer to another land. Lavender and white musk evoke a fresh sense of purity, while notes of red fruit and rose impart a sense of autumnal rain.
*Celadon is beautiful. It's a refreshing and vibrant green fragrance, opening with tomato leaf and verbena, with a touch of cardamom and tea. I sometimes struggle with tea as a note, but this was light and perfectly balanced on the nose. The florals showcase the morning dew, rather than emphasising the bloom, and a base of musk adds to their purity and gives a little powdery touch. It is the moss, basil rose and tomato leaves that stayed on my skin through the evening: refreshing and captivating, like the lightest rain being blown in the breeze. Shop Celadon
The other two fragrances will be released later this year, but I know I’ve sold my soul to these two (Soufflot has come home with me already), and I hope you will too.