Prada’s most intellectual and exquisite compositions trigger precise memories Intellectual and utterly sensual, Olfactories embody the paradoxical Prada mystique. A collection of contradictions, each scent is entirely idiosyncratic. Floral essence acts as a sensory bullet, an unexpected tone triggers a hidden reference, and the synthetic recasts the natural scents that initiate experiences rather than conform to them. Oblique and unprecedented, Olfactories are moments outside of convention, rare experience born of contrasts. They subvert the codes of perfumery and articulate the senses, delighting in the marriage of opposites.
Babylon: A storied palace, a modernist monument made of shimmering sand glints in the distance. The famed kingdom of Babylon lends its name to multiple meanings, an infinite echo of mirages. The creamy combination of Cistus, Amber, and Sandalwood evokes interpretations both ancient and fresh: a mythological city in a neon sky.
Some Velvet Morning: A duet between one sultry, masculine voice and the dreamy chant of hyper-femininity, “Some Velvet Morning” tells the story of coiled harmony. The sounds start off starkly separate, but steadily thread together: The stomping tempo of Musk and Benzoin is plucked with Vanilla, Peach, and Patchouli, gentle strings floating in from the liquid-hot desert air.
Dark Light: An imperceptible glow in the darkness. Like the fulsome, suffused moments just before a massive storm cracks the sky, Dark Light creeps into consciousness. The components are older than memory, the elements of culture and adoration: Musk, real Madagascar vanilla, Myrrh, Angelique, and the deeply complex aura of opoponax gum. Transposing the warmth of amber with the cool cleanliness of aldehydes, Dark Light both defines and defies the orientalist fantasy – replete with ancient resins and priceless elixirs – and deconstructs the myth of the exotic.
Miracle of the Rose: A rose in a thorny wreath. There is a sensation here of a passage through multiple, labyrinthine rooms, each is infused with a different scent. There is a deep architectural sensation – a physical volume of leather, agarwood, and tobacco – layers that build for decades, centuries. But nearby, perhaps an adjacent room, perhaps carried along in the turbulent air of a passing figure, the delicate yet potent notes of Rose Absolute and Patchouli drift into focus. Miracle of the Rose surrounds the elegant flower with an almost unfathomable depth.
Soleil au Zenith: An overload of sensation. The discovery of multiple cultures through convergence. Slow motion in the tangible atmosphere and light suffused through shimmering heat. Soleil au Zenith combines innocently sweet ylang ylang and peach traversed with sophisticated essences of sandalwood built on a deep, dark base of vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, pimento, and cumin.
Cargo de Nuit: An ocean voyage under the cover of night. Celestial navigation and shadowy cargo. A daring yet addictive journey. Handle with care. Cargo de Nuit is the scent of a twilight passage on the high seas.
Day for Night: A modern encounter with the ancient, preserved for eternity in hardened honey. The patient work of a quill pen brings light to a dark chamber. Day for Night is the ultimate amber scent: the fossilized made newly mysterious as the natural becomes precious.
Marienbad: A hotel suspended between Western ease and Eastern ouds. Souvenirs of an elegantly crumbling empire: leather-bound volumes to be devoured with spiced tortes, black coffee, and a view of the Danube. Marienbad is the scent of a charming, baroque escape, otherworldly in its richness.
Pink Flamingos: A cloud of pink bubbles floating through the heart of Tokyo. The joyful embrace of nature and the synthetic animates the familiar to produce a heightened form of beauty. Pink Flamingos is the scent of fluorescent pink blossoms, stylized and innocent.
Purple Rain: Prada’s iconic Iris reimagined. The fragile perennial fortified into an opulent bloom that evokes its namesake goddess of the rainbow: a link between land and sky, heaven and humanity. Purple Rain is the complex yet understated scent of iris, potent in its powdery charms.
Un Chant d’Amour: A pure white cloud dissolves into layers, revealing the complexity of weightlessness. A glimpse ignites a surge of emotion, giving way to tender immersion. Un Chant d’Amour is the scent of human touch, at once calming and carnal.