Breathe

A Crown Legacy

Fall in love with the new his and hers scents from Clive Christian. – By Lisa Marie Hart

Radiating with the romantic warmth of a winter’s night fire, the harmonious new duet of “V” perfumes from Clive Christian’s Private Collection honors one of the designer’s greatest loves: his eldest daughter, Victoria.

As the first daughter of the British interior and furniture designer, Victoria Christian’s young love of perfume blossomed when she and her father discovered an original perfume bottle from the 1800s in the floorboards of the family manor house. The amber bottle was identical to those that had been used by English aristocracy of the era—a memory they would cherish for years.

In 1999, Christian took the reins of  The Crown Perfumery, one of Great Britain’s oldest perfume houses that had planned to close its doors. Queen Victoria herself had crowned the perfume house in 1872, and Christian was moved to preserve
this legacy. He envisioned reviving the original values of the old perfumery—complex formulas, precious natural ingredients and pure perfumes—to create a new line. Each drop would bring unmatched longevity, depth and perhaps most importantly, as Victoria Christian says, “plentiful compliments.”

Of Christian’s children, only Victoria joined her father in the company’s contemporary journey. Together, the pair soon launched a renaissance of the 19th century art of perfumery. “I have always shared my father’s passion for perfume and British luxury,” she says.

She adds that the meticulously blended notes in each “V” perfume bring to mind dusk and twilight, Paris and Venice, and the crisp, sweeping introduction of fall. “Each is smooth, soft, resonant and dry like the gentle, crackling leaves,” Victoria Christian says.

Some of the most striking notes in the women’s fragrance move from feminine florals—including jasmine, rose, gardenia and orange blossom—to the sweetness of honey before giving way to comforting undertones of musk, sandalwood, lavender, chamomile, frankincense and evocative pink and black pepper. The men’s fragrance—a sharp, woody Oriental perfume seemingly reborn from the Old World—shares some of the same notes. Spicy pepper and frankincense become more pronounced and masculine when layered with amber, cedar wood and the lightest wave of vanilla.

When pressed to choose, Victoria Christian reveals that joyful and enchanting orange blossom, one of the heart notes in the women’s version, is her favorite—“It’s something you want to be wearing the moment you meet your soul mate,” she says.

In a historic nod to The Crown Perfumery, Private Collection bottles pay tribute to the original amber-hued apothecary bottles of the day. The Clive Christian signature gold crown sits atop each pressed glass bottle.

“The ‘V’ perfumes are highly spirited yet more reserved,” Victoria Christian says. “This second generation is energetic and brave … I think that’s perhaps what my father sees in me.”