Naomi Goodsir: niche perfumes combinig Australian roots and French savoir-faire

Naomi Goodsir is a multi-talented, multimedia designer, who works successfully between various creative fields. The artistic microcosm she has built is part personal expression and part flamboyant fantasy. On one hand, Goodsir’s creative output has a secretive, elegant nobility. On the other, it is edgy and avant-garde. One constant is the fact that everything Naomi Goodsir touches has a unique beauty that is singularly hers.

A native of Australia, Naomi Goodsir first made a name for herself internationally in France as a milliner and accessory designer producing timelessly dark and romantic haute-couture goods. However, her most defining contribution to the world of beauty and fashion is undoubtedly her fragrances, which are often cited as pioneers in niche perfumery.

Collaborating both with partner Renaud Coutaudier and with some of the perfume industry’s most respected noses, Naomi Goodsir concocts exceptional fragrances that represent a natural extension of her distinctive universe. Like an artist’s signature, Naomi Goodsir fragrances are original compositions with an emblematic style, operating outside of time and defying ephemeral trends.

In both her aesthetic and olfactory creations, Naomi Goodsir continues to intrigue with her hands-on artisan approach, use of high quality raw materials, vintage aesthetics and irreverent bending of traditional gender norms.

Couture between landed gentry and enfant terrible

In January 2015, Vogue Italy named Naomi Goodsir one of the world’s most promising ‘new talents’ thanks to her unique allure and attitude. Goodsir’s unerring talent for stirring up trouble by reinterpreting hats, bags and other accessories with unbridled imagination won her many fans with those who love vintage but want modern.

Naomi Goodsir’s unique stylistic world effortlessly combines elements of the classic English country look with punk rebellion. In terms of style, Goodsir’s millinery and accessory designs would be equally at home at a rock concert, a day at the races, or an occult session. In terms of provenance, they blur the lines between Victorian England, Paris of the 20s and a Mad-Max-esque future.

Perhaps it’s the Australian irreverence mixed with a deep respect for French haute-couture that allows her work to occupy an impossibly elegant position between contexts and temporalities. Naomi Goodsir has certainly paid her respects to ancestral proficiency. The last 15 years has seen her produce unique, handmade pieces with luxury textiles sourced from Living Heritage Companies (EPV). Leather and exotic skins (including Australian crocodile) are also heavily favoured by the designer and are applied in the form of body accoutrements – a salute to her Australian origins.

Niche perfumes inspired by texture and form

After being introduced to perfumery by Renaud Coutaudier, Naomi Goodsir quickly realized that the art of fragrance was a vibrant medium through which she could express her creativity and vision. The fashion industry lends her olfactive art a hands-on aesthetic sensibility. Naomi Goodsir perfumes have a tactile dimension to them and at her studio they are even referred to as ‘tangible invisible accessories’.

Naomi Goodsir niche perfumes incorporate a multi-sensoriality where touch and visual understanding come into play – offering new depth to perfume art thanks to the power of association. No matter how delicately sophisticated, Naomi Goodsir fragrances have structured layers and differing textures – for a rounded sensorial experience.

Nuit de Bakélite Eau de Parfum is an award winning scent featuring avant-garde green notes and tuberose decadently dipped into dark resins. The result has the glossy chewiness of the scent’s eponymous proto-plastic often used in art deco jewellery. True to the brand’s expert ability to blend and combine, this is nature corrupted by early 20th century luxury modernism.

Thanks to its strong tactile and visual connotations, leather often features in Naomi Goodsir perfumes. In Corpus Equus Eau de Parfum, the designer has tapped into her experience in millinery and accessories design. The fragrance is almost touchable as she translates the contrasting feeling of tanned leather and dry, ashy suede into an engrossing leather niche perfume inspired by a wild horse restrained by riding gear. Cuir Velours Eau de Parfum is a velvety soft suede scent in which a powdered amber sweetness meets the bone-dry texture of ash.

Notes of smoke and ash are often layered upon florals, adding a dry, dusted powder facet to more conventional arrangements. In Iris Cendré Eau de Parfum, iris is made surprisingly decadent by smokey incense and tobacco.

Niche perfume with a personal touch

An antidote to the current saturation of perfumes on the market, Naomi Goodsir works slowly and deliberately on individual fragrances that reflect her unique voice in the world of perfumery. True to her respect for the craftsmanship behind haute-couture and artisan products, her olfactive creations take a number of years to devise, concoct and deliver.

The spirit of Naomi Goodsir Parfums follows the lineage of traditional, independent perfume houses. Behind the scents is a passionate creator whose vision and atypical style inspire compositions that allow us to discover a unique universe.

Case in point Bois D’Ascese, a perfume inspired by time spent in the Australian outback with her father. The perfume takes us to an old wooden church with an incense infused interior set amid a landscape often ablaze in bushfire. The result is smokey, personal, spiritual even, with a hermit-like introspection.

Or du Serail is inspired by an oriental painting by Eugene Delecroix, featuring the world of the ‘seraglia’, the hidden chambers of an Ottoman palace where the harem lived. To smell it is to be transported to the decadence of a more sensual place and time.

World class niche perfumers and high quality ingredients

Attaching as much importance to savoir-faire as to inspiration, Naomi Goodsir has surrounded herself with world-renowned independent perfumers, including Julien Rasquinet, Bertrand Duchaufour and Isabelle Doyen.

The perfumes are formulated around the finest raw materials used in haute parfumerie. They are united through a distinct olfactory identity in terms of facets and texture. Natural ingredients feature heavily in Naomi Goodsir perfumes. Cistus Labdanum, the smoky, animalistic resin from the Mediterranean rockrose plant, is an ever present feature of her works. Leather, as well as subtle use of smoke and ash are signature Goodsir materials.

Awards and recognition for Nuit de Bakélite

In 2018 Nuit de Bakélite won both ‘best independent and niche brand fragrance’ at the Fifi Awards and ‘best independent perfume’ at the prestigious Art & Olfaction Awards.

Nuit de Bakélite was also ranked among the 111 perfumes to smell before dying, selected over 130 years from Jicky (1889) to Nuit de Bakéite (2017) by Nez Magazine.

According to Au Parfum editorial staff, Nuit de Bakélite was voted number two on a list of the top 10 most influential niche perfumes that marked the decade between 2010 and 2020. A timespan when a record 20,000 niche fragrances were released.

Timeless packaging which defies trends

Fitting of a designer with a precise aesthetic vision, Naomi Goodsir bottles are characterised by refined charm and unassuming slenderness – making them stand out particularly to the trained eye. No matter how simple, every aspect of the design is overseen by the Naomi Goodsir studio, down to the sophisticated caps which are made of bakelite, an homage to Goodsir’s love of the vintage precursor to contemporary plastic.

The sleek, minimalistic boxes are so delicately thin they seem to defy the laws of physics and are designed by an age-old, family-run company in Italy. All Naomi Goodsir Parfums are made and hand packed near Grasse on the French Riviera, where Naomi lives and works.