The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
The Other Room began with a story. Not a brief, not a market analysis, a memory of a masked ball. The kind where formalities dissolve and strangers become whoever they needed to be for one night. The rich, the infamous, the simply curious: all of them wanted access to what they called the other room. That image, of desire, anonymity, and the hour when social rules go quiet, became the brief. Jérôme Epinette translated it into a fragrance that holds that tension: bright enough to intrigue, warm enough to linger, mysterious enough to mean something different to everyone who wears it.
What makes The Other Room unusual is the combination at its heart: carnation, davana, and saffron blossom. Three materials rarely found together, and davana especially, one of perfumery's most underused aromatics, with its own strange, herbal complexity. Here it threads between the clove-laced authority of carnation and the warm, slightly leathery quality of saffron, creating a heart that feels both intimate and slightly unsettling. The drydown leans into that tension. Labdanum brings its powdery balsamic warmth. Patchouli anchors everything in earthy depth. Vetiver adds a smoky-green edge that keeps the sweetness from taking over.
The evolution
Wearers describe it as the scent of someone who walks into a room and doesn't need to announce themselves. But here's what nobody warns you about, the opening. On some skin, the first 30 minutes reads as undefined and herbal. Like you've walked into a room where the previous guest left behind a tincture. The carnation hasn't arrived yet. The saffron is still thinking about it. This is the part that divides people. Some reviewers say they almost put it down. Then, around the 30-minute mark, the flowers show up. Carnation arrives with its clove-laced warmth. Davana adds an herbal complexity that catches you off guard. The saffron finally steps forward, not loud but present, threading through the heart like a warm hand in a glove. By the second hour, the drydown begins its work. Labdanum introduces its powdery warmth. Patchouli anchors everything with an earthy depth. Vetiver adds a smoky-green edge that keeps the composition from becoming too sweet. What emerges is warm, intimate, and close, worn close to the skin rather than announced.
Cultural impact
Multiple reviewers describe The Other Room as the scent of someone who walks into a room and doesn't need to announce themselves. The unusual combination of carnation, davana, and saffron blossom has drawn wearers looking for something outside the mainstream niche fragrance landscape. The warm, powdery character from labdanum and patchouli gives it a vintage sensibility that some find distinctive and others find unfamiliar. The 2023 launch places it in a crowded field of indie and niche releases, but its specific character, aromatic, woody, warm spicy with a powdery drydown, sets it apart for those who find it.
