In the Studio with Penhaligon’s

When one thinks of iconic, quintessentially British institutions – those which have stood the test of time, while capturing the very specific joy of our traditional eccentricities – what comes to mind? Yes, there are the village fetes and stately homes, the Austens and Orwells, and, we like to think, Liberty ourselves. But there is one name in perfumery that easily enters the conversation: Penhaligon’s.

Founded by William Penhaligon in 1870, six years before Sir Arthur Lasenby Liberty first opened the doors to his Regent Street emporium, the brand is a byword for quality, curiosity, individuality and artistry, and has been since its earliest years. Inspired, much like Liberty, by a fascination with global exploration and a true passion for craft, through its 156 history the brand has been favoured by artists, musicians, and even royalty.

As Penhaligon’s launches in Liberty, Director of Heritage and Education, Dominic Collingridge, invited Liberty for a tour of the Penhaligon’s archive: home to a vast selection of olfactive artefacts from the brand’s storied history, from early scents and extracts to elegant vessels charting the evolution of each signature creation. While steeped in history, each archival discovery, alongside Collingridge’s encyclopaedic knowledge, charts the journey of a brand that has always been modern – constantly seeking innovations, experimentations and new ways of thinking about the art of scent. As Collingridge puts it, Penhaligon’s is a brand for the rebels of the future, and it always has been.

As custodian of the brand’s story, who could be better to help chart a course through Penhaligon’s eclectic, ever-so-British, history?

Tell us the story of Penhaligon's – how did the brand first begin?

It all starts with William Penhaligon, who came from Penzance in Cornwall. He trained as a barber's apprentice in the mid-1800s from the age of 15, and in the 1860s he ended up moving to London and working at a Turkish Hammam as a barber on Jermyn Street. This is really where it all began.

The inspiration for our first fragrance, Hammam Bouquet, which was created in 1872, came from the scent of the Hammam coming through the doors into the barbershop. The Hammam was effectively inspired by a traditional Turkish Hammam – you had things like rose oils and the coolness of the plunge pools, the warm massage oils with rosemary treatments, and all of these scents would come through the doors of the Hammam into the barbershop. William was so enamoured by it that he captured all of these things, and so the fragrance is very much a love letter to that kind of curious, travelling experience of being in a Turkish Hammam in London.

Does that scent still exist today?

We still make it today, absolutely. Hammam Bouquet is a very special one for us – we haven't ever stopped producing it. It really captures that spirit of being in this Turkish Hammam. It's like stepping into steam. It's very evocative. There's a lovely story around the ‘extract’ edition of the scent – it was always said to be what you would buy for an 18th birthday present, but purchased at the time of the child's birth, because it would mature and become perfect by the time the child had turned 18.

How would you describe the Penhaligon's ethos?

The interesting thing about Penhaligon's is that we are a historical brand, but we're also a contemporary brand that has existed in the modern world throughout our entire history. The beginnings of Penhaligon's were William creating something unique and modern for his time, and we continue to create unique and modern fragrances whilst also having a respect for our history and the culture of being a British brand.

We were founded in London, all of our inspiration comes from being in London and from our British culture and heritage, and we really care enormously about craftsmanship. Penhaligon's social mission is about championing Britain's eccentric craftsmanship – creating a platform that supports and develops the opportunities for craftsmanship and eccentricity to shine. We've been supporting organisations like the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust for over 25 years now, and that alignment with British artists and artisans is really important to us.

Penhaligon's creates a space for people to be truly curious. To come and find something unique to themselves. It's not about following a trend. We have fragrances from the 1870s all the way through to the present day. This idea of Penhaligon's as a home for the curious, the creative, the artistic shopper – that's very much where we sit, and it's what makes the relationship with Liberty feel so right.

How has the brand evolved to where it is today?

We've been around for 156 years, so in the way the world has changed in 156 years, the brand has changed. We've lived through lots of different eras – from the Art Nouveau movement, through two world wars, the hippie movement, the era of punk. We have so much to speak to, especially when it comes to London history.

Last year was our 155th anniversary and we talked about Penhaligon's being for rebels of the future, which I think is a really nice reference because our fragrances are about giving people identity for any version of themselves. When you think of history through the time we've lived through, there are so many versions of people – the same customers who've lived through that experience from being young people to becoming parents or grandparents.

Visually it has changed quite a bit over the last 156 years, but we often go back to the origins. The bow on many of our British Tales bottles, for example, speaks to a very practical purpose– the ribbon would seal the stopper in place.

We currently have four collections. British Tales speaks to the history of the brand, with Hammam Bouquet at its heart. Portraits imagines a fictitious, playful aristocratic family, each with a very strong identity represented by the bottle. Potions & Remedies is more apothecary in style, with each fragrance addressing emotional ailments in some way. And Trade Routes is about travel and exploration around the world – the Silk Route and beyond. Penhaligon's is very much about going on a journey, always exploring but always bringing you back to London as well.

How does the idea of the joy of the unexpected resonate with the brand, and how does artistry come through day-to-day?

The idea of never being able to find the expected is very much what Penhaligon's is about. We have fragrances that look a certain way and smell another way entirely. Bluebell is a good reference – it looks like a very innocent, clean, fresh floral, but when you smell it, you have the earth, the depth and the grittiness of the countryside within the floral. You never really get what you're expecting, which is why it's important to us to interact with our customers properly, to get a sense of what makes them tick so we can find them the right fragrance.

One of the things I love about the synergy between Liberty and Penhaligon's is that we both have this lovely connection to Oscar Wilde – he was one of our customers, as well as Liberty’s. He wore Hammam Bouquet.

We used to have a phrase on some of our bottles historically: Utile Dulci, which means the useful with the pleasurable. That goes back to the idea of artistry– art is about something that's beautiful and brings pleasure, but is also useful. From a perfumery perspective, you have so much to talk to: the artistry of the perfume itself from the perfumer, the design of the packaging, the campaign content and storytelling that brings it to life. We really care about bringing creativity to the forefront of our brand. We've done a great deal of work with the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust and the King's Foundation, working with their artisans and artists for many, many years. Fragrance is an ephemeral thing, and we care enormously about art as a way of emphasising how important that is.

Are there any signatures scents that particularly encapsulate Penhaligon's story?

So many. Blenheim Bouquet was one of our earliest, from 1902 – a commission for the Ninth Duke of Marlborough. He lived at Blenheim Palace, hence the name. What makes it really interesting is that it was one of the earliest colognes to have base notes: the essences that fix to the skin. Traditionally, fragrances with citrus notes would be fresh but last only half an hour or so before you'd need to reapply. Blenheim Bouquet was very interesting because it gave a citrus fragrance some depth that would last on the skin for longer.

Halfeti is our globally best-selling fragrance, and is inspired by the black roses that grow on the riverbanks of the Euphrates in Turkey, in the town of Halfeti. It captures this spirit of mystery; it's the idea of the black rose rather than literally containing black roses. We take inspiration a great deal in how we create our fragrances, and I think it's about allowing people to use their imagination and letting the storytelling really take over.

Can you tell us about the craft of perfumery itself and what that looks like for Penhaligon's today?

The craft of perfumery is very broad for us. Some fragrances are very distinctly tied to place. Our King's Foundation collaborations – Highgrove Bouquet and Daphne Bouquet – are both inspired by different parts of Highgrove Gardens, the King's private estate. They are very distinctively associated with the flora of that environment. Highgrove Bouquet, for example, is inspired by the silver leaf lime blossom that comes out every July and August – the scent the King could smell through the windows of his house. When we created it, we used something called headspace technology, where you capture the molecules being given off by a plant and then mimic it with essences to recreate that experience in that moment.

Then it can come from a feeling – Bold Blend is inspired by the idea of feeling emboldened, and the essences refer back to that. With Halfeti it was the idea of mystery, inspired by this rose.

We work with lots of different perfumers from all over the world, and sometimes with the same perfumers over many years. We like to work with lots of different people, looking at how we want to storytell something specific and bring the brand to life in different ways. There is no one set way of going about creating a fragrance for us.

How do you see Penhaligon's and Liberty as connected?

They're both brands with a history in Victorian London. We received our first Royal Warrant in 1903, and Walter Penhaligon, the son of the founder, was running the brand until 1921. So you have this really specific period of alignment between the two.

In terms of inspiration – from history, from places, from travel – essences come from all over the world. That outward-looking perspective on how we take inspiration for what we're creating is quite aligned between us. And a curiosity, a curiosity to create something that perhaps has never been smelt before, or to mimic something that exists in nature, or to create something truly unique to the individual who's wearing it. Those things align quite beautifully.

In the way that Liberty is the home for the artistic shopper and creates a space for curious minds, Penhaligon's is very like that. We create a space for people to come in and explore something that is perhaps slightly out there for themselves. When we interact with our customers, we offer something called fragrance profiling, which is about getting to know who they are and what makes them tick – finding a specific aspect of their personality and exploring that version of them so that we can find something truly unique for them. Something that makes them feel connected to the brand, but also connected to themselves.