The power of perfume enhances her presence in the meeting room, noted Sarah Rotheram, who was appointed chief executive of the prestigious House of Creed in mid 2020.
"It's like my coat of armour," she said.
Her invisible aromatic shield on the day of the interview was the new fresh and floral Wind Flowers, composed by sixth-generation Olivier Creed.
His motor-racing son Erwin has joined him in perfumery, playing a key role in the creation of Love in White, Fleurs de Gardenia and Original Vetiver, among others.
"The green and fresh Original Vetiver is great for Thailand's climate," said Rotheram, who also mentioned Aventus, Royal Oud and Viking as other options for self expression.
Since 2010, Aventus has become Creed's bestseller, whose reinterpretations include the fresh and fruity Aventus for Her and the uplifting Aventus Cologne.
"Today, a fragrance is a finishing touch for your outfit. It defines your personality and says something about who you are," she said.
Perfume was originally used to mask bad smell and tailors used it to scent leather gloves and hemlines.
Creed started as a tailoring company in London, and its long history is expressed in the tagline "From father to son since 1760".
"When I joined Creed, I brought in a professional archivist for six months to dig deeper into the history. It goes back over 260 years, and innovativeness has been passed on through seven generations," Rotheram said.
A native of Leicester, James Henry Creed founded the company in the same year that King George III ascended to the throne. A pair of scented gloves was delivered to the king, and the House of Creed became a royal supplier of tailored clothing and commissioned fragrances.
Henry Creed followed in his father's footsteps, and continued supplying the English royal court.
Third generation Henry Creed II then expanded the brand overseas. Under the patronage of Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie, the company officially relocated to Paris in 1854.
After Henry Creed III took over the family business, more royal warrants were awarded in being a supplier of fragrances to other European courts.
Creed's tailoring legacy is symbolised by scissors in the logo. Due to the French and English ethos, the brand is referred to as being Franglais.
"Because of the rich heritage, I see my role more as a custodian of the storied brand and a part of my job is to strengthen its legacy as an authentic perfume house," Rotheram said.
The British chief executive brings her experience of managing niche luxury fragrance and apparel brands to the legendary maison, which began offering its perfumes to the public in 1970 at its boutique at Rue de Paix in Paris.
Since then Olivier Creed has focused more on artisanal perfumery rather than couture. His knowledge and skills have been passed on to seventh-generation Erwin, whose hands-on experience has allowed him to explore his own olfactory signature.
The father and son travel extensively to source for the finest ingredients, and work to create original fragrances at the Creed laboratory in the factory at Fontainebleau, on the outskirts of Paris.
It took Olivier Creed five years to compose Wind Flowers, inspired by the combination of grace and strength of a dancer's flowing movement through the wind in the air.
Its beauty is represented by Royal Ballet principal dancer Lauren Cuthbertson, who uses scents as a performance enhancer.
"While Creed is a fast-moving business, we take time to do things right, and will only launch a new perfume when it's ready," Rotheram said. "Wind Flowers speaks to the modern women, and through its launch we aim to widen our female audience."
A younger clientele is also important to the brand, and Rotheram believes that they don't want to be marketed to.
"They prefer to discover things by themselves and tend to explore niche brands. The sense of exploration covers knowing the ingredients and production processes to find out what they are spending on," she said.
The House of Creed manufactures many of its own essences through a traditional technique. Natural raw ingredients are still weighed, mixed, macerated and filtered by hand. They are blended for a concentrated eau de parfum strength defined as millésime, which is a term adopted from the wine industry to emphasise a fragrance's outstanding quality.
The new Wind Flowers opens with notes of sweet jasmine, Tunisian orange blossom and peach. The floral heart of jasmine sambac, tuberose absolute and rose centifolia leads to base notes of sandalwood, deepened by iris and musk complemented by orange blossom and creamy praline offsetting the dusky floral scent.
"The natural raw materials are handpicked from various sources around the world and each ingredient has its own story, like the grape varieties from different vineyards," Rotheram said. "Creed's artistry and ancestral technique then turn them into small batches of the concentrated eau de parfum. The process is like making vintage wine, and this sets our millésime with the finest ingredients apart from fragrances by other brands."
Discover Creed's fragrances at its boutique on G Floor, Emquartier; Atelier De Prestige, M Floor, Beauty Hall, Paragon Department store; and Atelier De Prestige, M Floor, Iconsiam.
