Ormonde Jayne Sets The Record Straight

Perhaps the answer was never that hard to find. Certainly, the nonchalance with which Tania Sanchez names Schoen in her review of Isfarkand suggests that if his involvement was ever a secret, it must have been a pretty transparent one. And besides, purveyors of luxury have tried to exploit the power of mystery since time immemorial, so if Pilkington did keep some aspects of her company’s work to herself, she definitely wasn’t the first person to do so.  

But anyway, all that’s out in the open now. During OJ’s recent London launch of their Four Corners Of The Earth scents (unashamedly inspired by the BRIC countries)*, Schoen was presented alongside Pilkington as the perfumes’ author. Indeed, it was made clear that he’s the person behind all of OJ’s previous releases.

I asked the two of them how their relationship works. Does Pilkington actually produce rough, sketch-like formulations? Does she then pass these on to Schoen for technical improvement?

She shook her head. “No, I don’t go quite that far. About ten years ago, when I first started, a lot of our formulations were quite bog standard. I have about 30 formulations, and they’re all basic accords, which come from a book. Unfortunately, when you read it, you don’t know what they hell they are, because you only recognise half the ingredients. So I realised early on that formulation is more complicated than you realise. When I met Geza, my range was lime and lavender and things like this. But then I was able to say to him, ‘I’m thinking: osmanthus, tea, this, this, this and this,’ and Geza could translate it into a formulation.”

“Don’t forget,” added Schoen, “we did lots of fragrance training. I introduced Linda to ingredients, so that she had a broader mind, and a wider palette in her head. We have thousands of ingredients, of which I use maybe a few hundreds, which is already a lot.”

“To put that into perspective,” said Pilkington, “I’ve got about 70 in my head. That’s about it.”

“It probably would be impossible,” said Schoen, “for someone who isn’t trained properly in the industry to make a fragrance which actually works. And there are some brands out there which do that, and that’s why they don’t work, or they don’t work in a great way.”

Of course, letting the cat out of the bag and allowing an ‘external voice’ to speak for one’s brand in this way isn’t without its risks. For the most part, the interaction between Pilkington and Schoen was slick and professional. But I wonder if she felt that he’d veered away from OJ’s distinctly Sloane-y politeness when he decided to announce that he considers Mugler’s Womanity to be “absolutely hideous. It is the worst fragrance I have ever smelt. The bottle is gimmicky. It looks cheap.”

Pilkington chose not to engage with such topics, preferring to focus on less controversial matters such as OJ’s well-regarded customer service. 

“I say to all the girls who start at Ormonde Jayne, ‘Doesn’t matter what anybody looks like. You treat everybody like they’re an A1 celebrity.’ I remember 10 years ago, a little man coming into the store. He was Sri Lankan. He had open-toed sandals and a little old raincoat. He was very, very sweet. I told him that I had been to his country. He took a sample of the Champaca, because he knew the champac flower from India. And then about a month later, he came back and he bought a bottle of Champaca for his wife. He comes every year and he buys two bottles of Champaca, for the last ten years. When my children were born, he sent a present to the shop, a Hindu book about raising children. And that’s what it’s all about.

Persolaise.

*The Four Corners Of The Earth series comprises: Qi (a Chinese tea scent); Nawab Of Oudh (inspired by India); Montabaco (a South American tobacco fragrance); Tsarina (a floral oriental).