A corpse flower inspired DS & Durga’s latest perfume – in a good way
The world's stinkiest plant is back from the dead, thanks to hypnotic notes of bog cedar, tuberose and lily. Here's why you should catch a whiff
A certain segment of New York’s population will get in line for just about anything – pastries, soft serve, the Jimmy Choo sample sale. Late January was no exception when throngs of people queued to catch a whiff of the rare Amorphophallus gigas, more commonly known as the Corpse Flower, at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.
The putrid blossom smells like carrion to attract pollinators and only blooms for a few days. But the flower, christened ‘Smelliot’ by garden staffers, made a lasting impression on US400 perfumer David Seth Moltz, the co-founder of the cult New York fragrance brand, DS & Durga.
‘I was tracking it on their socials like everyone else. I happened to time [my visit] at peak stink,’ Moltz tells Wallpaper* says of his visit to BBG. ‘The aroma was so multifaceted - layers of cheese, garbage, rotten fish, death, rubber lily.’
Such a stink would cause most to run for the hills. But for Moltz, who has synesthesia, a condition in which the act of smelling can also present visual images and colors, the scent was a revelation.
‘I stuck my nose inside and stayed there for a while,’ he says. ‘I started to think how cool it would be if the most putrid flower was reborn in gorgeous opposition – rubber lily bulb becomes Madonna lily, cheese becomes tuberose, etcetera. Synesthesia comes into the process of how I make all perfumes – like painting and shading a scent based on the colours triggered by what I sniff.’
The result is one of the most unusual, and hypnotic, perfumes to hit the market recently, Resurrected Corpse Flower. The fragrance is the diametric opposite to its odiferous inspiration. Where the corpse flower smells like rot, this aroma is fresh and primordial with notes of bog cedar, heady lily and hypnotic tuberose.
‘It’s a balance of contrasts,’ Moltz explains. ‘Most of the notes are multidimensional. It opens with green olive – which is salty, yet fresh. Grapefruit – bitter, but floral and fresh. Tuberose – floral but chalky. Green banana – tart.’ All told, it brings to mind a very sexy swamp.
Moltz hopes that the new perfume draws plant lovers and ‘anyone who is interested in flowers with a real interesting twist.’ It's a twist that's certainly well worth the whiff. But those who want the opportunity to inhale the aroma of the real McCoy will have to wait – Smelliot only blooms once every few years.
