Press Release 23rd January 2014 FRAGRANCES OF THE WORLD 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION “In the 30th year anniversary of Michael Edwards’ masterwork, Fragrances of the World, it is remarkable to realise that what he has accomplished will serve the industry for generations to come” - Annette Green, President Emeritus, The Fragrance Foundation Think back to the 1980s and the era of the super-scents, the extroverted fragrances that mirrored the excess and colour of the time. They were the groundbreaking perfumes that couldn’t be ignored: Giorgio Beverly Hills, Ysatis, Paris, Poison, and Obsession to name a few. They took the wearer to places she had never been before and the fragrance industry to new heights. And it was in 1984, the year Chanel presented Coco, the first fragrance to be released since the death of Mlle Chanel, that Michael Edwards launched his unrivalled Fragrances of the World guide and a career that has led Evelyn Lauder to call him ‘the perfume experts’ expert’. An explosion of scents had bombarded customers and Edwards saw a need to make sense of it all. Having worked in the fragrance industry since the 1970s, he had experienced at first hand the speed at which ingredients and technology changed. At the counters, he could see sales associates grappling with the new perfume releases, mostly selling the fragrances they liked, their ‘tried-and-tested’. Edwards envisioned a guide to help distance them from their personal likes and dislikes and simplify the process of selecting alternative fragrances from similar families. Fortuitously, a transfer from his role at Halston in Paris to Sydney proved to be the catalyst for such a guide. “One of my first clients was a group of pharmacies, who asked me to help develop their fragrance category,” explains Edwards “I could train their staff, but I needed a guide, a sales tool to help them select the right fragrances for each customer. The only one then available was very technical which was why I was forced to create my first guide. The 1984 edition listed just 38 new fragrances. In my wildest dreams, I could never have imagined that thirty years later, I would track more than 1,400 new fragrances in a single year or that the tiny guide would grow to become the industry's 'fragrance bible’ ''. Annette Green, President Emeritus, The Fragrance Foundation, remembers meeting Edwards in 1984 when he proudly presented that first small, spiral bound guide with some 300 fragrances. “I would have no idea at the time how far his passion for fragrance would take him” she recalls. Critic Luca Turin calls Edwards “the Linnaeus of perfume”. Yves de Chiris, who as former Senior Vice President/Quest directed such iconic fragrances as Angel and Féminité du Bois, agrees: “Today there is nothing in the industry that matches the quality of Michael’s material. His classification is not only simple and easy to use but also extremely rich. It has everything one may wish to make fragrance recommendations and of equal importance, it is the only one to remain consistent from year to year.”
Edwards and his dedicated team - still based in Sydney, Australia - make no charge for listings and don’t accept advertising enabling them to work independently with every brand and every perfumer. Every fragrance launch including celebrity, limited edition and niche is categorised, giving the reader the ultimate reference tool at their fingertips. For the 30th Anniversary Edition, Edwards’ famous Fragrance Wheel’ comes to life with a pictorial timeline that shows the evolution of the iconic fragrances within each family. An icon himself in the fragrance world, Edwards has gained the respect and trust of his peers and his remarkable guide can be found in perfumeries around the world. The 2014 30th Anniversary Edition is a must-have resource for perfumers, executives, journalists, retailers, collectors and shoppers who want to stay up to date with what’s happening in the world of fragrance. Fragrances of the World 2014 30th Anniversary Edition available from www.fragrancesoftheworld.com For further information please contact Margaret Khoury email: mk@fragrancesoftheworld.com T +61 2 9546 2951