“Lizzie Ostrom’s entertaining romp through a century of perfumes, ten per decade from 1900 to 1999… This book is as delectable an artefact as the product it describes.” - Suzi Feay, Independent

 

Signature scents and now lost masterpieces; the visionaries who conceived them; the wild and wonderful campaigns that launched them; the women and men who wore them – every perfume has a tale to tell. Join me on an olfactory tour of the century as I explore the trends and crazes that have shaped the way we’ve spritzed.

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On these pages I’ve captured the elusive but important role scent has played in our cultural history, and the ways it has intertwined with with film, fashion, advertising, advertising, social change and sexual revolution.

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Perfume: A Century of Scents is published in the UK by Hutchinson (£16.99).

Published internationally in the United States, Russia and Poland with other countries to be announced soon.

Images by book illustrator, Cynthia Kittler. 

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