Meet the Perfumer: Hamid Merati-Kashani
The creator of Liberty LBTY. Fragrance’s new Tana Meadow fragrance tells us how he transformed Tana Lawn cotton into a scent
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Meet the Perfumer: Hamid Merati-Kashani
The creator of Liberty LBTY. Fragrance’s new Tana Meadow fragrance tells us how he transformed Tana Lawn cotton into a scent
It’s a steamy day in June, and the sun is beating down on a lush field of wildflowers that stretches as far as the eye can see. Beneath the dazzling summer sun, a small bottle glitters in the hands of one of the world’s principal perfumers, Hamid Merati-Kashani, the creator of Liberty LBTY. Fragrance’s new Tana Meadow scent.
This isn’t Merati-Kashani’s first LBTY. outing - he also designed the verdant Adelphi Sun fragrance, and collaborated with Honorine Blanc on the mysterious Wild Rosinda. But instead of taking its inspiration from an archival Liberty print like Adelphi Sun and Wild Rosinda, Tana Meadow is based on our smooth Tana Lawn™ cotton, the quintessential Liberty textile onto which our designs are printed. Here, Merati-Kashani tells us more about bringing the fabric to life through fragrance.
Can you talk about your first encounter with the brief. How did you go about translating the feeling of Tana Lawn cotton into a perfume?
I started to imagine that I was in the middle of a field of cotton, closing my eyes and touching it with my hands. Trying to translate that feeling into a scent.
How did you begin to construct the fragrance notes around that feeling?
I was concentrating on top notes which bring some freshness, like the bright pear, and also a lot of base ingredients like ambrox, vanilla and beautiful soft cotton musk. The middle note of the fragrance is built on the beautiful structure of that cap and the pattern of the floral Thorpe print. So the mid notes are quite floral.
Liberty LBTY. Fragrance
Tana Meadow Eau de Parfum 100ml
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Liberty LBTY. Fragrance
Wild Rosinda Eau de Parfum 100ml
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Liberty LBTY. Fragrance
Adelphi Sun Eau de Parfum 100ml
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Liberty LBTY. Fragrance
Woody Discovery Set 3 x 8ml
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Liberty LBTY. Fragrance
Liberty Maze Eau de Parfum 100ml
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Liberty LBTY. Fragrance
Vine Thief Eau de Parfum 100ml
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What is your signature as a perfumer?
My signature fragrances are strong, long-lasting fragrances with a lot of character. Also I’m known for using ingredients which don’t really match with each other. So there are some contrasts, like vanilla together with pear, vanilla with ginger. And I don’t just use a little bit, I like to overdose those ingredients. Then later, I round it off with specific ingredients which I use quite often, like cinnamon and cardamom.
In general, I like to work with spicy notes. I used cinnamon because it brings out these beautiful spices and makes the fragrance a little bit gourmand. It brings an edible quality into the fragrance and rounds out the edgier notes. Then the cardamom gives it a little bit of smokiness. The sweetness of Tana Meadow comes from the creamy vanilla and the fruitiness and brightness of the pear.
How do you want someone to feel when they are wearing Tana Meadow?
It’s a unisex fragrance, so I want him or her to feel very comfortable. Very self-sufficient and strong, like the fragrance. But at the same time, to make other people think, “Wow, that person smells really good. Maybe I need to ask them what they’re using.”
So much of this scent is about the feeling of summer. If there was a memory or an emotion that you’d associate with Tana Meadow, what would it be?
Tana Meadow invites a lot of memories, especially from my childhood when I was living in Iran and we had the chance to visit the beautiful rose gardens in Kashan. It's an area in Iran which is very well known for rose oil and rose water, and I visited many times. It was those visits that inspired me to become a perfumer later on, when we moved from Iran back to Germany.
You’ve said that the two sides of your heritage reflect the two sides of your perfumery practice. Can you talk about how your roots influence the way that you create fragrances?
On the Iranian side I have more memories and emotions, whereas my organized side is more German, and expresses itself in structuring a fragrance in the correct way.
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