Perfumer H and Studio Nicholson are two brands with a lot in common. Aesthetically, they share that blend of the refined and idiosyncratic that is so closely associated with British style; both are founded by women who are experts in their respective fields (Lyn Harris with perfume, Nick Wakeman with clothes); and both brands are built on an appreciation for craft and an exacting, meticulous attention to detail.
So it’s not surprising the two are now collaborating – if anything, it’s surprising it’s taken them this long to do it. ‘Lyn and I have known each other for years,’ Wakeman says on a call from her London office. ‘It’s just an unspoken commitment, I guess, that at some point we would do something together.’
That something is Soap, a perfume and incense that blends cardamom and white pepper with aldehydes, fresh orange flower and gentle white musks, which will now become the signature scent of Studio Nicholson, fragrancing and available to purchase from its shops. For Harris, bottling the essence of Studio Nicholson was a matter of evoking the feeling of soft fabric against skin, like slipping on a clean, well-worn shirt – fresh but still retaining the unique scent of its owner’s skin.
To create that sensation, she incorporated an intense level of aldehydes to create, in her words, a ‘transparent, clean and intently white note’. The addition of these clean notes was also inspired by Wakeman’s love of traditional barber shops. ‘My friends go to this particular gentleman's hairdresser in Mayfair and I always love smelling their hair when they come out, because they've got this kind of cologne in it,’ says Wakeman. ‘I love smells like that, anything medicinal, so there's an element of that in the fragrance. But the final thing doesn’t have that kind of fabricated smell – it's a very earthy, human-type smell, it's soft, and it sort of lingers. I've never smelled anything like it.’
Harris echoes the sentiment. ‘I think it’s a very seductive scent. The people I know who have worn it have people stopping them and asking what they’re wearing.’
The fragrance launches in conjunction with a capsule collection of clothing inspired by Harris’ personal uniform: a lightweight Italian cotton shirt, soft cotton twill pants and a blue Soap baseball cap, which will also be available in Studio Nicholson shops. The entire collection is currently available from Studio Nicholson’s Paris store, and will be available worldwide from 4 February.
