PARIS – Hermès is wooing Millennials with Twilly d’Hermès, its latest fragrance. The house’s perfumer Christine Nagel was given carte blanche to create the feminine scent, for which she was inspired by the creative way young women wear Hermès scarves. “They twist everything, they transform,” said Nagel. “They appropriate Hermès’ codes to do other things. I said to myself, it’s an interesting way to see things, and perhaps that could simply be a way to formulate [perfume] differently.
“If I take the major codes of perfumery and I shake them up a little, can I obtain other textures?” she continued. “So I started with that idea. I chose to twist three of perfumery’s raw materials: ginger, a white spice; tuberose, a flower that is a bit disconcerting, and sandalwood, an elegant wood.” Ginger, which generally is used in a small quantity, is used in abundance in Twilly, according to Nagel. “It’s really an enormous quantity,” she added, referring to the spice’s fresh extraction as fibrous, burning and pungent. “Tuberose for me perfectly represents the hidden face, a bit unsettling, of these young women,” she continued, describing them as almost childlike, with round cheeks, while being womanly at the same time. Nagel said sandalwood is generally olfactively milky and tender, but that for Tilly, the idea was to play up its more animal quality.
Drawing again a parallel with Millennials, who tend to hang out in packs yet have a strong sense of individuality, the perfumer explained Twilly’s three primary notes work well together while being strong on their own. She also spoke of the free spirit of young women today and of Hermès in how it conceives creations. Florence Manlik, the designer of the house’s scarves, masterminded Twilly’s bottle, which takes the form of a carriage’s lantern — an iconic emblem of the house — in truncated form. The cap, meanwhile, is reminiscent of an oversized black hat. Bali Barret, Hermès’ deputy creative director for women’s, opted to take a “spaghetti” strand of silk from one of the label’s scarves and twist it around the flacon’s neck, just as women do with the narrow model Hermès makes called Twilly. Each is affixed to the bottle by hand.
The perfume Twilly’s outer packaging is multicolored like the scarves. Twilly d’Hermès will be sold in most international markets — in Hermès stores, perfumeries and department stores — starting on Aug. 28. The scent will launch in Latin America during the fall and in China beginning next year. In France, the eau de parfum is to be sold in a 30-ml. bottle for 59 euros, a 50-ml. iteration for 88 euros and an 85-ml. version for 122 euros. While Hermès executives would not discuss sales projections, industry sources estimate Twilly will generate 25 million euros in first-year wholesale revenues worldwide. Fragrance marketers have Millennials very much in their scopes these days, and it is a demographic with specific shopping habits.
According to “The Millennial Fragrance Shopper” report by Teads that was carried out by Global Web Index, which studied the behavior of more than 1,500 Millennials in Europe and the U.S., young people tend first to test fragrance in store then go online to find out more information prior to making a purchase. Almost 30 percent of Millennials try out a perfume before buying it, and 38 percent would share their personal information with a brand to receive fragrance samples at home. The study said a perfume’s scent influences 41 percent of Millennials’ purchasing decisions, while packaging and design informs 35 percent of their choices. “Despite the vast spend by brands on celebrity endorsements, just 4 percent of Millennials say this influences their decision to purchase a fragrance,” Teads said.