This article was first published in the November 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Scent designer Lizzie Ostrom wants you to think differently about smell. Odette Toilette, Ostrom's London-based design firm, uses olfactory experiences to evoke reactions our other senses cannot -- from reimagining paintings as perfume to exploring the subconscious through events and products. "A lot of my practice is about how to apply fragrance where it's not normally used," says Ostrom, 33.
Take ode, her device designed to help stimulate appetite for people with dementia through smell. "As dementia progresses, you see high instances of malnutrition," she says. Like an alarm clock, ode emits hunger-stimulating scents around mealtimes. "Sweeter fragrances seem to be very good at stimulating appetite," she says. "We did a test with 50 people, and over a ten-week period more than half of them put on weight." ode is now being used in care homes around the UK.
Self-taught in the art of scent-making, Ostrom insists she is not a parfumier. "I didn't go to France and train for seven years," she laughs."I think of myself as an entrepreneur."
Add author to the CV: on October 22 her first book, Perfume: A Century of Scents, is published by Henderson. "It's a story about technology and innovations in the perfume industry, but also how lifestyles and cultures changed," she says. She also recently worked with design studio Flying Object on Tate Sensorium, a multi-sensory installation at London's Tate Britain museum.
Such high-profile projects, Ostrom says, illustrate the quiet revolution happening in the perfume world. "There's been a huge growth in the indie or 'scent designer' scene," she says. "Fragrance has been shrouded in mystery. My work is trying to help dispel that."
Photography: Iwan Baan; Max Oppenheim. Hair and makeup: Caroline Sims
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
