The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Favourite Dress arrived in 2022, carrying the particular confidence of a fragrance that knows exactly what it wants to be. The composition reads like an outfit pulled from the closet on instinct, the one you reach for without thinking because it always works. Cherry and artemisia open with that crisp, slightly bitter freshness of getting dressed in good light. The artemisia brings a green, almost herbal quality to the fruit, pulling it toward something more grown-up than simple sweetness. Peony and jasmine build the floral body, lush but not loud, the kind of petals that suggest a garden in late morning rather than a bouquet on a table. The drydown leans warm through patchouli, incense, and vetiver, giving the fragrance its second skin.
The choice of artemisia as a top note does most of the heavy lifting in the opening. It pulls the sweetness of cherry sideways into something herbal and a little austere, almost medicinal in the first minutes, with that cool green bitterness settling over the fruit like morning frost on glass. Then the peony steps in and softens the architecture, its dewy roundness cushioning the sharper edges the artemisia created. Jasmine hums beneath the peony, lending a creamy indolic warmth that keeps the florals from feeling too pristine.
The evolution
The first ten minutes are the showiest. Cherry lands first, bright and almost candied, before artemisia cools the edges into something herbal, faintly bitter, like green stems crushed between fingers. It smells like the moment you spray perfume and nothing has warmed to your skin yet. By the half-hour mark, peony takes over and the whole thing settles into a softer register. Jasmine threads underneath, white and slightly indolic, giving the florals a skin-like quality that wasn't there in the opening. The cherry doesn't disappear. It just retreats, becoming more of a memory than a presence, a faint red tint in an otherwise pale floral wash. The two-hour point is where the base earns its keep. Patchouli grounds everything with that earthy, slightly cocoa-dusted warmth, while incense adds a faint, smoky sweetness that feels like fabric softener on a coat you've worn a hundred times.
Cultural impact
Favourite Dress arrived as a composition that caught attention for its particular approach to the cherry note, an ingredient that appears across perfumery in many different guises. Here, paired with artemisia from the very first spray, the fruit is treated with a kind of herbal seriousness, pulled away from simple sweetness and into more complex territory. The peony and jasmine that follow carry the composition into floral territory, but they do so with a restraint that keeps the whole thing feeling considered rather than decorative.
