The night had two rules. The first one was the most straightforward: no phone photos. The second, where everyone had to select a new perfume to wear, was more creative. But my God, were they both hard. For some, it took hours (yes, hours!) to land on a final scent. Thankfully there were plenty of fries and filet mignon medallions making their way around the table to fuel the process, and martinis (as martinis tend to do) allowed everyone to let their hair down. Hosted by yours truly, the night was a first for us. Let’s talk about ITG’s first-ever fragrance night, shall we?
It started with the most basic idea: gather a bunch of interesting people and get them to wax poetic about the one beauty product they can’t get enough of. It would be kind of like a live, rapid-fire Top Shelf. Then, after hearing about everyone’s favorite something, they’d get to try that something out that night, and ultimately, go home with it. The idea felt central to what ITG is about: discovering beauty through the lived experiences of others. After deciding to narrow the category to fragrance, and inviting a bunch of ITG friends, we asked everyone to email their favorite perfume and a one-liner on why they liked it. Bear in mind that we only said we were inviting them to dinner. And the reason we were asking about a favorite fragrance? Never you mind, they’d find out later!
Now, we couldn’t just do this in New York—we wanted to think globally. So we hosted the first dinner last week at Le Veau d’Or on the Upper East Side, and a second just yesterday at Automat in London, co-hosted by the one and only Celia Burton. Guests at both places were greeted with a big fat ITG sticker that they had to slap on top of their iPhone lens. The idea of a room full of people overanalyzing their digital snaps didn’t sit right with us, but we’re not monsters; photos were still allowed! They’d just have to use one of the disposable cameras we passed around and wait a week for the results, just like the old days. The ’90s are back, no?
At both restaurants, we set up a fragrance bar featuring all the perfumes the guests had emailed us about. Each bottle was tagged with its corresponding one-liner. People read, sniffed, and made their initial picks before sitting down for dinner, where we double-clicked into a few of the stories behind the scents. One person chose a scent because it was a parent’s signature fragrance, another liked a scent because they were introduced to it at a pivotal moment in their life. The fragrance I provided was Glossier’s Soie, which was the first fragrance I wore after a long pregnancy and postpartum hiatus from scents of any kind. I loved that it was creamy and comforting, but at the same time transportive. It smelled like how lying in a hammock on the beach at 6PM feels. I hadn’t been on the beach of any kind in ages, and beauty-wise I was working with the bare minimum—so a perfume? Well that was an extra I didn’t have the time or energy to explore. But then two years post-baby (and two years ago from today) I found myself in a space where I wasn’t just trying to survive. That’s when I got a whiff of Soie in a PD sample, and it’s been my signature scent since.
Listen, I understand I’m an unreliable narrator here, but both nights felt like magic. Freed from the Olympics of trying to capture the most Instagram-worthy photos, we could kick up our feet and relax. And it wasn’t all fragrance talk. In New York, I chatted up Sofie Pavitt about elementary schools and the party scene with Gabriella Khalil. Of course Rachel Tashjian, Lynette Nylander and I talked about the new Chanel. I was convinced to try a new cleansing oil from the brand 39bc by Isabella Burley and Evie Henderson in London. Funmi Fetto and I discovered we were both wearing Completed Works jewelry, although I really wished I had a pair of Simone Rocha Crocs to match hers as well.
At the end of the night, Alva Claire and Celia and I were imagining what a version of this dinner might look like in LA. Would people gatekeep their favorite fragrances? Would they open up about how scent makes them feel?
Should we find out?
—Ashley Weatherford
photos via ITG