Celebrating British Brands: An interview with Linda Pilkington from Ormonde Jayne
Ormonde Jayne is a house with a passion for creation at its heart. Linda Pilkington has been a pioneer in the British perfumery landscape, creating scents for nearly 25 years she has developed a niche of experimental, creative, and interesting scents with a focus on unusual and transformative ingredients. Through her journey into the industry has grown a love for the sense of smell and also a solidification of her passion for creating. In this interview, we celebrate Ormonde Jayne’s new boutique and achievements by delving into Linda’s fascinating story of how she joined the industry and the processes behind creating scented experiences
What does the power of scent mean to you and has it always been a big part of your life?
It’s always been a big part of my life since I was around 14. Originally, I always loved and appreciated craftsmanship and I loved making things by hand which is why I now always want our products to look fantastic. I got into this whole thing of wanting to sell things that I have made as a little bit of me is entrepreneurial. The things that I would make I would end up knocking on the village doors to sell. Then there was a turning point as my mother was given a bottle of Madame Rochas which she gave to me. At that point, I was on White-Musk-Body-Shop and then suddenly I had this beautiful eight-sided bottle, the colour of cognac, with a lovely heavy gold stopper - but at that point, I didn’t think about the smell of the perfume!
I was much more attracted to the way it looked optically; I thought it looked so sophisticated like a piece of treasure that sat on my dressing table to elevate my bedroom. It then became a question of getting more bottles. So, I asked all my mother’s friends if they had any. It still wasn’t a big part of my life as I wasn’t thinking about the scents themselves – it was more about how they looked and the sophistication. At 16 one of my mother’s friends asked which perfume was my favourite and I realised I hadn’t even thought about it! That’s when it changed. Aged 16 onwards was when I started to emerge into perfume and it grew from there bit by bit, sporadically. I got hooked on going to department stores and conning the sales assistants out of samples which, in those days, was the same bottle design as the full-sized. It was again like perfume treasure!
When someone asked me whether I had ever thought about being a perfumer it hadn’t even crossed my mind. It was a journey that was planted in my head. I’ve also always loved cooking and flavours. Flavours and fragrances are quite intertwined. When you go to houses in Grasse it always says ‘fragrance and flavours’ above the door. In my travels, I was always interested in finding the local markets and the local spices, smells, and colours – cardamon, juniper berries, turmeric. I was inspired to open an ice cream parlour first and find a way to incorporate these spices and unusual ingredients into the ice cream. When I then shifted to perfumery it felt like a full circle moment. I had discovered the bottles, discovered the perfumes, discovered the spices and unusual ingredients, discovered the gourmand and ultimately this felt like the ingredients for me to start to create perfumes.
Congratulations on opening the new boutique, how will the space be used to create or enhance the consumer experience?
I’ve got two things that I aim to bring. Now that the boutique is a lot bigger, we have a dedicated space for Scent Strength Style. We will advertise this experience a lot more going into the future. Of course, there will be champagne and chocolates on arrival and then we’d introduce them to the perfumes and concept of Ormonde Jayne. They can pick their perfume and learn about their strengths, and we will make it up for them. We want to include the engraving and gift wrapping in the boutique to finish off the experience. I always see it as a nice gift to give to someone. A perfume experience.
Then the other thing, I have this concept that I have never launched mainly because the previous space was too small. This concept is called Scent IQ and will be launched in April. There will be accords for people to choose from that are ready- made with 5-8 ingredients. They can pick an accord and mix and match it with another accord on offer. Maybe they’ll go with Accord 1 and Accord 3. It would be a way for the consumer to discover and learn about the ingredients and mixing of a fragrance. Of course, it’s a concept with regulations and testing that need to ensure that all possible outcomes work within the guidelines of the industry. But the whole experience is a journey of discovery and personalisation. We will be able to keep it as their special formula and recreate it for them in the future.
In the way you’ve discovered scent yourself but also opened a door for the consumer to experience and discover scent in new explorative ways, have you found yourself and your love of fragrance has developed and blossomed?
Well, I’ve been at it for 23 years! I’m still privately owned and enjoy what I do immensely. We have evolved bit by bit into a perfume house with a bigger space. It’s gone from the kitchen table to a very serious outfit. And I’ve evolved in my own time with what suits me and what feels right. I try to be relevant at all times so I do have a look at the market today and its demands. I particularly like elegant and classic perfumes but I do realise that at the same time, perfume tastes are changing. Luckily for me, everyone seems to like gourmand which works well for me I love gourmand and I’ve been doing it for years with Champaca and the basmati rice, tea notes and date oil. So I feel I have grown in my way and seem to be always in the zeitgeist, at the right time. Occasionally, you can end up with a bit of good luck.
Did you ever imagine that from the kitchen table, you’d be where you are now?
No, because that was never my ambition. What I thought I would be doing was creating luxury candles for luxury clients as I didn’t want to be mass-produced. For me, it was about having the autonomy to create something from scratch and have an end product. It was always very satisfying for me. I envisioned starting with candles, which I created for the likes of CHANEL and Burberry and also envisioned creating cashmere cushions. I found a way to combine these two things. I enjoy the hands-on creation. There were a lot of different avenues I thought I would go down but I got stuck with candles! We moved on from that to room sprays, to bathing oils, then to perfumes and that was the road I went down. I have a big imagination and would create products without considering things like costs so I had to bring in a fantastic team to keep me on the straight and narrow!
You have brought a hands-on approach to the business in many different ways but why do you think it is important for the consumer to experience the exploration of scent in perhaps a similar way to how you have?
It’s all about the experience. It’s why I base myself at the boutique so I can have that exchange and form of communication. I think that’s why we retain our clients. People I serve today I was serving them 23 years ago. It’s about that natural love that you share with your clients about the fragrances. When I was serving people in the shop I would give them the history of the fragrance, why I chose to create it, what it means, how it came about, how long it took – it’s that personalised touch. Also for the clients to know that it was made here in England, with British manufacturers, they know the whole providence of the scent journey. It’s that connection with the client that makes me tick.
You have several amazing collections in place. When you create a scent do you keep these collections in mind or do you find that it just falls into place in a space already existing?
The whole philosophy of Ormonde Jayne was based on the fine art of travel. We have three collections but it wasn’t initially designed that way. In my case, it was an evolution that I then made sense of.
We have the signature collection which is all about using ingredients that aren’t widely used in the fragrance industry. That’s when we launched Champaca, Ta’if, and Tolu. Then we had The Four Corners of the Earth collection which is actually about experiencing London through a new lens, exploring the diversity and freedom we have in the United Kingdom, especially in London, and how we are enriched by people with different cultures that become part of our community. The Four Corners of the Earth is a reflection of our hometown and all the different nationalities that make it and the ingredients
that we can explore through experiencing these corners. The last collection is La Route De La Roie, the Silk Road, which is again all about travel. Thousands of years ago the merchants would arrive on their horses and bring to Europe silks, gunpowder, and mathematics from places in the East and China.
Off the back of that, I got a book called The Silk Road which was all about the shrubs and flowers and I built a map of this road and what is bringing along the way. It was a departure as the ingredients weren’t what I was expecting them to be. It was things like rhubarb, apples, and peonies but creating a collection around these types of ingredients worked out well as it brought us a younger generation of clients. Now, when new ingredients come along in creations, I can slot them into a collection that I think will work best.
Collections make it easier for the consumer to navigate, and you have a new collection for 2024, the Montabaco Series, what can you tell us about this?
Originally, Montabaco was the best seller. Then we had Verano which was the summer version and also did very well so we gave it its own SKU to split the two. Then Harrods, Selfridges, and Fortnum & Mason all wanted their version of Montabaco! For Fortnum’s we did a Montabaco Flor but with pure gardenia oil and some floral notes. For Selfridges, we did Montabaco Cuba which we created as more international and modern with more tobacco flowers, vanilla and mandarin.
And for Harrods, we had Montabaco Ivoire with patchouli and peppers to fit their clientele. There was limited stock for each retailer and it was all gone in a month! From this lots of our clients elsewhere wanted to experience these new developments in Montabaco. So this year for the first time we took out all the references to the exclusivity of the retail spaces and talked just about the scent itself. Coming up this year with have Montabaco Rio which is a funky, and fruity scent with caramel and pineapple along with the tobacco. My favourite is Ivoire as I like the classic and elegant touch of gardenia. But with the tastes of perfume changing creating a series like this allows us to adapt to the different demographics.
As we look forward to celebrating your 25th year in British perfumery, what excites you about the fragrance industry and how have you seen the landscape change?
Since 2006 we’ve been gender-free and grouped our scents with fragrance families instead. We’ve taken away the word oriental in the industry and replaced it with ambergris and that lends an awareness to focus on the ingredients. And we’ve seen acknowledgements and awareness in general in the industry to question what is the right way to present a scent. It’s been looked at through a fine lens to see what is out-of-date. We’ve of course seen a rise in sustainable thinking. I get audited so I have to prove where my ingredients come from. You can’t make it up as you go along! People are awoken to their sense of smell and have retrained. The art of smelling is a big topic and people are looking for ways to train their smell. It’s a promising place to be.