Ask 100 people, you will get 10,000 anwers. Marilyn Monroe adored Chanel No. 5, Edith Piaf made Le Cinque de Molyneux her perfume, Givenchy created L'Interdit especially for Audrey Hepburn. Perfume will always be a reflection of personal individuality.

"Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived. The odours of fruits waft me to my southern home, to my childhood frolics in the peach orchard... Other odours, instantaneous and fleeting, cause my heart to dilate joyously or contract with remembered grief. Even as I think of smells, my noise is full of scents that start awake sweet memories of summer gone and ripening fields far away".

When she wrote these words the supremely gifted Helen Keller, who was deaf and blind through having contracted scarlet fever as a baby and who was without speech in her early childhood, evocatively and passionately summed up the unsurpassed power of smell to arouse our emotions more potently than any other sense.

Our sense of smell has been called "the supersense", the mystic sense". "The supersense" seems appropriate since smell-related impressions are stored with astonishing vividness for years. "Nothing revives the past as completely as smell ", Vladimir Nabokov declared in Mary. And "the mystic sense", suggests the association between our deepest emotions and those parts of our brain in which are locked our "smell memories".

Actually it's not surprising that we relate so instinctively to particular smells. The olfactory nerve is the only one of a dozen cranial nerves leading directly to the cerebrum where it connects with the limbic area associated with emotion, sexuality, nourishment. Smell bypasses the thinking brain, the neocortex, in a way not true of sight or sound. It's no wonder then that the smell of a garden full of jonquils reminds us, decades later, of a spring holiday in the mountains, or carnations can summon up thoughts of a first love or sweet tearose brings back poignant childhood memories of a mother's bedtime story ritual.

Those shockingly sweet, and sometimes sad and melancholy associations between smell and place, perfume and person stay with us. Smell, as Nabokov well knew, is strongly linked to memory and imagination. A sense of smell may well regulate relationships. From a smell, friendship or love are born.

Have you noticed that every person has a unique smell? Yet this powerful personal indicator is, in our culture, so often overlooked. Our sense of smell is distorted in a world of deodorants where, on one hand, we seek to smother natural smells and, on the other, to duplicate the smells of nature. Such emotional and sociological side-stepping may be, in part, a result of the puritanical attitudes of the 19th century (some of which still linger today) when children were taught to be horrified of their bodily functions, when smells were regarded as "animalistic".

Even at the turn of the century innovative pioneers of the cosmetics industry like Harriet Hubbard Ayer continued to cling to such residual puritanism. "Fastidious women", she pronounced in 1902, "are as delicately refined in their selection of sweet odours as in every other personal appointment. A high-bred woman does not associate herself with musk or patchouli. The shadow of the clear pungent lavender may precede her but the most sensitive, refined woman shrink intuitively from the odours that attract the parvenu. Some of us, in these days of musk and suffocating rose, have frequently wished the promiscuous use of these powerful odours might be restricted".

But despite this certain sort of evangelism, the modern perfume industry was up and running, pushed along by the imaginative and often radical approaches to perfume creation and marketing by the likes of the great French houses of Guerlain and Houbigant and the brilliant, aggressive Francois Coty. How times have changed snce Harriet Hubbard Ayer gave out her oh-so-proper edicts. Not only is the perfume industry a billion dollar business but many of the thoroughly modern perfumes are designed to smell like a million dollars. Assertive? You got it; the personal perfume of choice may have sledgehammer impact, the appeal coming from a dizzying blow of orange, pimento berries, rose, jasmine, carnation, patchouli, incense, musk, amber, orris, civet, vanilla, Ylang-Ylang.

And men are wearing them too. I make that point simply as an excuse to drag in a joke from American comedienne Joan Rivers who, when asked how she liked men to smell, replied, "With their noses". OK, silly question, sublime answer. But now here's a question to tackle, and one we think even Joan Rivers would consider seriously because it is a question to which everyone who enjoys perfume has an answer. What are the worlds' great perfumes? Ask a hundred people and you will get 10,000 plus answers. Marily Monroe adored Chanel No. 5, Edith Piaf made Le Cinq de Molyneux her perfume, Dionne Warwick's favour ite is Shalimar, Olivia Newton-John so loved Chloe that she named her baby daughter after it, GIvenchy created L'Interdit especially for Audrey Hepburn and Candice Bergen is identified with Cie. And this writer? I would list Mitsouko (Guerlain), Quadrille (Balenciaga), Ysatis (Givenchy), Versace (Gianni Versaci), Nahema (Guerlain).

With the exception of Nahema, which is a single flora (rose), the first four all happen to belong to the chypre family and it happens, obviously, that I am instinctively attracted by chypre perfumes.

But for the purpose of this exercise, we will not get involved in personal preference. Instead the Vive list has been made on the basis that each fragrance nominated has had stupendous impact in terms of technological innovation, new creative direction, marketing strategy and, the bottom line, public response. The Vive List of the World's Greatest Perfumes was made in consultation with Michael Edwards, formerly International Marketing Director of Halston Fragrances in Paris, and now an eminent freelance world perfume authority and fragrance analyst based in Sydney, Australia. And they are: JICKY, CHANEL NO. 5, MISS DIOR, L'AIR DU TEMPS, YOUTH DEW, CHARLIE, OPIUM, ANAIS ANAIS, GIORGIO.

Fragrances can be divided into generations, recognised world-wide. They are, as follows: The Great Classics, 1920-1948; The Great Subtles, 1948-1965/70; the Great Americans, initial appearance 1952, building up to the period 1973-onwards; and The New LIght Fragrances, 1975-onwards, French expert, Yves de Chiris, Vice President of perfume development at the prestigious Naarden House in Paris, categorises them in even simpler terms: Les Grandes Classiques, 1920-50; Les Grandes Domestiques, 1950-1965; and Les Grandes Americains, 1966-1983. Within each are various families such as Citrus, Floral, Floral Aldehyde, Green, Leather, Chypre, Soft Oriental, Oriental, all of which can be broken down further still into specific styles. No matter its generation, its family, its distinctive style, each fragrance can be individually described and defined by its top note (the fragrance prelude which affects the sense of smell as a first impression); the middle note (also known as the heart note, which unfolds a few moments after the application of the perfume); and the base note (or the soul, the clinging impression that is left behind to embrace the wearer for hours). But however it is placed and for whatever reason, fragrance is a reflection of our society, a means of expression as articultate as language. It is bound up with our art, fashion, music, morality.

JICKY, the perfume of les grandes dames of La Belle Epoque.

During La Belle Epoque, there was an explosion in the perfume industry due to the development of new chemicals, new fragrance crops, new means of extracting old fragrances, easier access to supplies and markets and a growing middle class clientele. Into this receptive market came Jicky, created in 1889 by Aime Guerlain, carrying the family pet name for his young nephew Jacques and presented in a Baccarat bottle designed by Gabriel Guerlain. Jicky was taken up by the grandes dames of the period even though the fragrance was conceived as a man's toiletry, a portent of social change yet many decades away.

Jicky was a blend combining the then new products of solvent extraction - the floral absolutes - with orris and lavender and bergamot, together with some products of the burgeoning field of organic chemistry. It is a classic oriental with a citrusy fresh top note (lemon, bergamot, mandarin, rosewood), a floral woody middle note (jasmin, patchouli, rose, orris, vetiver) and a sweet balsamic and exotic base note (vanilla, benzoin, amber, tonka, civet, leather, incense).

"It was", says Michael Edwards, "the first significant fragrance using the magic new synthetic aromatic notes to add originality and sparkle to the beauty of the floral essences". The word "significant" is important because actually the first fragrance using the new synthetics was Houbigant's Fougere Royale created seven years earlier and which was to become a forerunner of Brut, Canoe, Ambush. "But Jicky was the first 'grand' perfume to use the new aromatics with such a tenacious note as never previously experienced," Edwards added. Jicky is still one of Guerlain's popular, most distinctive fragrances.

After the First World War, there emerged in Europe a new wealthy elite which sought, in its houses, art, clothes, fragrances to differentiate itself from the rest of the people. During a time of social, cultural and intellectual revolution, when the world became modern and nurtured the talents of Braque and Picasso, Freud, Bakst and Benois, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky and Sergei Diaghilev, people looked for statements of personal identity. After Paul Poiret had single-handedly created the visual idea of early twentieth-century womanhood, there followed the new couturiers - Lanvin, Gres, Schiaparelli, Ricci, Molyneux, Patou, most of whom eventually released exclusive fragrances bearing their own names.

CHANEL NO. 5 the most identifiable signature in the world.

It was Coco Chanel who was first to create a signature perfume that represented not just emotion and fashion but rather identified a personal creative philosophy and lifestyle. In 1921 she launched Chanel No. 5 still the most identifiable signature in the world. "And certainly the most enduringly famous", says Michael Edwards. "Chanel No. 5 was totally different from any perfume that had gone before. Houbigant, Guerlain, Coty, Poiret, Piver had all perceived perfume as a spell - indeed the names say as much: Essence Mysterieuse, Coeur de Jeanette, Nuit de Chine, Le Fruit Defendu, Jardin de Mon Cure, L'Heure Bleue - whereas Chanel's perfume mirrored her fashion approach of ruthless severity".

Chanel was diametrically opposed to the exotic ideal espoused by Poiret and loved instead the austere well-bred look of the British aristocracy. The bottle for her signature fragrance was an interpretation of a man's cologne bottle, the label was black and white, the box grey and the name a bare cipher. "Chanel No. 5 is as extraordinary as the approch to its creation was simple. It was avant garde, the first of the strong 'aldehydic' perfumes of modern times". Edwards said.

Daring and arresting, Chanel No. 5 has a soft, sensual aldehyde topnote (with touches of bergamot, lemon, nerol), softened and bolstered by an elegant floral middle note (jasmin, rose, lily of the valley, orris, ylang-ylang) and a sensual, feminine base note (vetiver, sandal, cedar, vanilla, amber, civet, musk). It is one of the all-time successes of perfume history and remains one of the economic supports of the House of Chanel.

Then came World War II and its aftermath. Britain was under rationing and there were acute shortages in France. The French fashion and perfume industry was a pale reflection of its former glory. "The industry had been raped by the war," Edwards said. But after a couple of years, a peace had been established secure enough for innovation in dress when, on February 12, 1947, a new fashion house and a new fashion were launched simultaneously by Christian Dior. Described by Camel Snow of Harper's Bazaar magazine, as "The New Look", it was in fact, an old look. Predating Paul Poiret's first revolutionary collection, it was a return to the fin de siecle on Dior's part.

Some years later Dior said: "I thank Heaven I lived in Paris in the last years of the Belle Epoque. They marked me for life". The New Look showed natural, rounded shoulders and rounded, even padded, breasts, nipped waists, wide padded hips and skirts sweeping to the top of the ankles. Who in Europe or America of 1947 did not yearn for that idyllic past before the nightmare of two wars? The New Look was the embodiment of hopes for the unknown in terms of memories of the known. It was romantic and feminine and out of a too recent past of horrific privation, The New Look seduced the world.

MISS DIOR - the romantic, feminine and desirable luxury.

Perfume, of course, rode on the success of this rediscovered sense of romance. In the same year as he launched The New Look, Christian Dior released his great fragrance, Miss Dior, accompanied by elegant posters which depicted the Dior woman as an aristocratic swan with a trailing black bow. Dior's accomplishment, says Michael Edwards, was even more extraordinary because he created a whole new market for perfumes.

"In the preceding three decades, perfume was mostly bought by the wealthy but the beauty of Miss Dior appealed to a far wider audience. It took perfume from the realm of costly extravagance to that of being a desirable luxury for women all over the world." Created by the renowned perfumer Roudnitska in his laboratory at Cabris, Miss Dior is a chypre with fresh green notes. It has an aldehydic top note (aldehyde, gardenia, galbanum, bergamot, clary sage), a narcotic floral middle note (jasmin, narcissus, rose, orris, carnation, muguet) and a woody, mossy and warm base note (patchouli, amber, vetiver, sandalwood, leather, moss).

L'AIR DU TEMPS, a classic, with its famous crystal love birds.

In line with the romantic, creative thrust of Miss Dior was Robert Ricci's L'Air du Temps (meaning, appropriately, something in the air) with its famous crystal lovebirds, created in 1948 and so beautifully representing the romantic French notion of "l'amour et l'air du temps". A classic floral with spicy notes, it has a fresh flowery topnote (bergamot, rosewood, neroli, peach, spice notes), a floral spicy middle note (clove, rose de mai, ylang-ylang, orris, orchid, lily) and a mild, powdery and feminine base note (sandalwood, musk, vetiver, benzoin, cedar, amber, moss). "Neither Miss Dior nor L'Air du Temps are as eccentric as some of the earlier great fragrances (Piquet's Bandit, Rochas' Femme, Guerlain's Shalimar, Balmain's Vent Vert) but the two of them created an attitude so exquisite, so appealing and tender, that they were immediately recognised as being totally wearable. But still perfume was regarded as being for special occasions," Edwards said. And fragrance was still synonymous with France.

Actually, at this point it is timely to look at the direction in which the French perfume industry was headed for it was to have a profound effect on the development of the industry elsewhere. Not long after the release of L'Air du Temps there occurred the consolidation of the era of The Great Subtle fragranes when refined middle class values of breeding, good manners and reserve became influential.

Flamboyance was replaced with elegance and gentility. Most of the newly released perfumes of the period were interpretations of the classics. That master of the art of subtle good taste, Givenchy, took Chanel No. 5 as inspiration for L'Interdit in 1957 (and later, in 1964 Yves Saint Laurent added green notes to it to create Y). From Bandit, Gres created the more subtle interpretation, Cabochard, in 1958. From Arpege came Madam Rochas in 1960. Fidji, in 1966, was Guy Laroche's development on L'Air du Temps.

From the late 1940s and during the next 20 years, Frances started to lose its grip on the international marketplace. "Subtlety, delicacy, refinement became the new watchwords. The trouble is, taken to extremes, that can become boring. A lot of the newer fragrances had little character and made no statement," says Michael Edwards. While the French perfume houses had set themselves on a careful, conservative course, early into the fray came the dynamic American Estee Lauder with Youth Dew, launched in 1952.

YOUTH DEW, the first great American perfume, a tigress in a market of pussy cats.

Youth Dew was the first great American perfume and Lauder's first million dollar success. "It was a controversial, tenacious perfume and the vision of one of the most extraordinary 'noses' of our century," Edwards said. "More importantly, Lauder read the market right. She realised that women, fuelled by the interest in Miss Dior and L'Air du Temps, loved perfume but few of them would actually go out and buy it for themselves. And so she hit upon an idea, a stroke of genius."

Youth Dew was sold in a novel form, as a bath oil with a greater concentration of essential oils (three times that of t he most popular perfume being sold at the time). Lauder's format was clever and timely, for although most women still considered perfume a special occasion luxury, a bath oil could be used with every bath.

The fragrance's potency and the marketing approach struck as a responsive chord. "You can imagine the impact of a tigress like Youth Dew in a market of pussy cats." Or to put it another way, as Edwards did, "Youth Dew is like a Wagner opera with the singer on a high note all the time". After it had established its presence, Lauder introduced Youth Dew as a perfume in 1954. "In encouraging women to buy perfume for themselves, Estee Lauder came out with the marvellous gift-with-purchase idea, an idea born out of necessity because she couldn't afford to match the big money budgets of the perfume giants. And so she almost single-handedly provoked women to sample fragrances for themselves".

And what's more, women with money to spend who bought Youth Dew were in no doubt that they were getting what they paid for in the lotus-bud shaped bottle, the contents of which so powerfully alluded to youth. A soft Oriental classic, Youth Dew has a fruity spicy top note (orange, spice oils, bergamot, peach, aldehydes), a spicy floral and exotic middle note (spicy carnation, rose, ylang ylang, cassie, cinnamon, bark, jasmin, orchid) and a balsamic, warm base note (amber, tolu, patchouli, incense, oakmoss, peru balsam, benzoin, vanilla). It was a catalyst in more ways than one. It spurred the development of a rival to the French perfume industry so profoundly that today there are two great world centres of perfume, New York and Paris.

"The other thing that Youth Dew did was to fuel a marvellous ding dong battle between Estee Lauder and Charles Revson, the genius behind Revlon," Michael Edwards says. "Revson wasn't a man to take such threats (as Youth Dew represented) idly. He decided that if Lauder could do it, so could he and from then on the battle raged".

In 1955 he introduced Intimate, still regarded as one of the most beautiful fragrances. With Youth Dew becoming a million dollar success and Intimate doing the same, a decade later both Lauder and Revson had businesses of such size that they were willing to become more adventurous. In 1965 Lauder showed people how to sell expensive men's fragrances with the release of Aramis. Revson then launched, in 1968, the first American designer fragrance, Norell, the designer so popular with Jacqueline Kennedy, Lauder retailed with her signature fragrance Estee, in 1969, Alliage, 1972, and Private Collection in 1973, the year in which Revson released Ciara. But it was Revlon which was responsible for the final, biggest commercial breakthrough.

CHARLIE - It was flip, it was sassy, it was forthright, it was lifestyle.

"In 1973 the accident called Charlie was born," MIchael Edwards says. "It was an accident because, in marketing, it's not very difficult to encourage people to use one brand over another but what is difficult is to change peoples' habits. Until then few women wore perfume on a daily basis. And they had this reverend attitude towards it, as a result they tended to use only one, maybe two fragrances. The idea of having an entire wardrobe of fragrances was entirely foreign and into this market came Charlie.

"Charlie was extraordinary, not because of the bottle, it was a pretty bottle, not because of the perfume, it was a pretty perfume, an interpretation, in fact, of Guy Laroche's Fidji, but because of its approach," says Edwards. "It was flip, it was sassy, it was forthright, it tickled people in a way that fragrance had never tickled people before. And it turned a fairly small gift market into one of the mass markets of the 1980s". Although Charles Revson might have liked to claim that he understood the revolutionary changes that Charlie would effect, most perfume industry leaders agree that Charlie's appearance and subsequent impact was due more to good luck than good management.

Charlie is a floral with green spicy notes. It has a fresh green topnote (citrus oils, peach, hyacinth, estragon), a light floral middle note (jasmin, rose, lily of the valley, cyclamen, carnation, orris) and a powdery, sensuous base note (cedarwood, sandal, oakmoss, musk, vanilla). Pretty but not spectacular, as Edwards says, but Charlie's most powerful hidden, and unplanned, note was "lifestyle".

American fragrance guru Amelia Bassin (who, as former director of new product development at Faberge, should know everything about perfume populism) said that "Charlie won immediate acceptance, not particularly because it was 'lifestyle' but because it suggested spirit and choices and anti-establishment and all those gratifying new things women were just beginning to experience. For the first time, women in droves started buying fragrances for themselves, for the first time, women in droves began wearing fragrance freely, all day, everyday".

OPIUM - Scandalous, controversial and a knock-out success.

Not surprisingly, the chain reaction set in motion by those two amazing egocentrics, Lauder and Revson, resulted in France's first real response to the American invasion of the international perfume mrket and the creation of a spectacular perfume. In 1977 Yves Saint Laurent launched Opium and in doing so, says Michael Edwards, joined American impact with French flair. "Opium was a perfume that attempted to build upon the designer prestige, the strength of fragrance that had become popular in America and what Saint Laurent perceived to be a mood within the contemporary market. And although the fragrance was conceived in France, it was aimed at the lucrative American market", reports Edwin Morris, a lecturer in fragrance at New York University and the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Saint Laurent wanted Opium to be for the woman "who wanted to be feminine again" so while it imitated Youth Dew in certain ways, it eschewed the attitudes of the go-getting Charlie. The fragrance was deliberately made very potent, rich in essential oils and the genre was oriental, like Shalimar, Tabu and Youth Dew. Opium has an aldehyde spicy top note (aldehydes, orange, pimento berri´s, bay) a spicy floral middle note (carnation, rose, ylang ylang, cinnamon, peach, jasmin, orris) and a balsamic, sweet and warm base note (benzoin, tolu, vanilla, sandal, patchouli, incense, amber, musk).

The name and attitude were scandalous and controversial and Opium has been a knockout success ever since. Indeed it led the way to the new generation of provocative perfumes such as Poison, Obsession, L'Insolence, Notorious. For some French fashion leaders, designers perfumes have enabled them to recapture markets almost lost in the 1960s. Yves Saint Laurent's Opium royalties are worth more than US$35 million a year and in some cases, a perfume may generate as much as 70 per cent of the income of a French fashion house.

A study of trends over the past eight decades reveals a continuous movement from light to heavy to light, wave-like in its rhythm. In recent years, the speed of developing trends has accelerated to such an extent that, frequently, several trends run parallel. As the subtles overlapped with the rich American fragrances, so the latter is now running parallel with a newly-developed area. The Lights. An exclusively European trend, the light fragrances an be traced back to Eau Sauvage (launched by Christian Dior as a male fragrance in 1966, 70 per cent of its sales in Europe are to women), through O de Lancome (1969), Diorella (1972), Cristalle by Chanel (1974), Quartz by Molyneux (1977) and Anai Anais by Cacharel in 1978.

ANAIS ANAIS - for a woman's own pleasure and self-awareness.

In the new trend to the light fragrances, Anais Anais, was to be a memorable catalyst. The name itself is memorable, if unpronouncable to many people, "It is an incantation, a chant," says Michael Edwards who explains further that the words have several interpretations. "Well there's one suggestion of Anais Nils, the writer of some of the most erotic but perceptive, sensitive French literature around; in the south of France, anais is a term of endearment for a very special, pretty little girl; Anaitis is the Persian goddess of love. But whether or not you can pronounce it, or understand it, doesn't lessen its magic one bit. From a perfume point, it is extraordinary, the first of a new generation of perfumes that used the fresh white flower notes of lily of the valley, hyacinth, white jasmine to give a soft, fresh, feminine nuance to perfume. Within two years of its launch it was one of the most significant French perfumes and a year after its launch in America in 1981, it had made such an impact on the market that today iÝ is within the top five perfumes there".

Cacharel's launch of Anais Anais was explained by the company's director general of perfumes, Pierre Sajot, when he was on a promotional world tour several years ago. "In the 60s and 70s, a woman wore a fragrance for the impact it had on others. She felt that because a fragrance was promoted to have a particular, independant image, by wearing it she should assume that image. With Anais Anais came the time for women to wear one of a wardrobe of fragrances and fragrance strengths for her own pleasure and self-awareness". The Lights, Michael Edwards added, reflect the continuing European feeling for the body, for fitness. It is a desire for lighter, crisper fragrances in the same way as there has been a trend to lighter, more delicate food and body-conscious fashions that lightly drape and mould to the figure.

Anais Anais has a fresh green floral top note (leafy green, bergamot, galbannum, fruit note), delicate, floral and romantic middle note (jasmin, lily of the valley, rose, tuerose, ylang ylang, orris) and a woody, powdery base note (cedarwood, sandal, vetiver, musk, moss, amber). WIth its success, says Michael Edwards, the perfume world realised that there was a whole new appealing way to use the fresh white flower notes and it has been consistently plagiarised.

Those that have followed in the flower strewn path established by Anais Anais include Eau de Gucci (1982), Armani (1982), Fleurs D'Orlane (1983), Gianfranco Ferre (1984), Lumiere (Rochas, 1984), Maxim's de Paris (Cardin, 1984), Beautiful (Lauder, 1985), Perry Ellis (1985) and Giorgio (1981).

GIORGIO - a fireworks perfume.

Giorgio we mention last, because it is the last in our list of great perfumes. There is no doubt it is an American perfume being, says Michael Edwards, a big "molecule" perfume. "It seems to swim in the air around you, it's a fireworks perfume. You may love it, you may loathe it but you can't ignore it. It has presence". Giorgio is a jasmine twist on the Chloe tuberose accord. It is a floral bouquet of jasmine, tuberose, rose, gardenia, orange, chamomile and patchouli and is uncharacteristically effusive and lasting for a floral perfume.

It was launched from its glitzy parent boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills by owners Gale and Fred Hayman. Within a couple of years it had sales worth US $60 million. Its success, says Fred Hayman, has obvious elements. "Part of it is the prestige and quality of the store, and our image, taste and integrity; the city of Beverly Hills; Giorgio and its aura of the stars; sunshine, good managers and their expertise in following through; timing. Everything was right".

What Hayman didn't think to mention was Giorgio's unique marketing strategy. The Haymans didn't have millions to invest in glossy advertising so they took what they had - a limited budget, the motif of the signature white and yellow striped awnings of the Rodeo Drive store, the social and Hollywood image of the Giorgio clientele and the perfume, and put the lot together in a powerful direct mail promotional drive.

And the real success to their secret was the then new development, the scent strip. "No-one had really used it properly before", says Michael Edwards, "and the Haymans realised that it allowed people to be able to sample the fragrance, to try it without having to go into a store. They sampled milions of people. They turned Giorgio into a phenomenon and the scent strip market into the sampling technique of the 80s." But undeniable proof of its awe-inspiring inroad into the American consciousness is the fact that in 1985 Estee Lauder offered US$110 million for the fragrance. The deal fell through but everyone continues to clamour for Giorgio.

So fragrance exerts its magic chemistry over the personal and powerful convolutions of memory, imagination, emotions and the public profitable business of trends, timing and marketing techniques. If you think our list is lacking, you are one of many. When we really get to the bottom line, perfume is simply, and only, personal preference. The choices are dazzling and increasing every year. The era of great perfumes is not yet over. How can it be when perfumers had, at the start of the century, 300 ingredients and today they have 3000!

The world of perfumes is a highly specialised one. A perfume can become "great" through its own trend-setting fragrance and subsequent place in history or through an innovative marketing technique which has resulted in a best seller. The choice of the "World's Greatest Perfumes" becomes a task of evaluating fragrances according to the criteria you wish to choose.

Before we made our own list, we consulted the opinions of experts worldwide, including the creators of these outstanding perfumes. Their response was varied according to the criteria they enlisted to determine "greatness" amongst perfumes. International Flavours & Fragrances (France) made suggestions distinguished "by their originality, their fame and their quality of precursors among the most prestigious prototypes of contemporary perfumery. They all have been originally of great olfactive families and have, nowadays, a numerous lineage". Roure Bertrand Dupont (Paris) suggested fragrances which had become best sellers; their "greatness" achieved through strong commercial success. From Naarden International in Paris, we received two categories. The first, a list of inspirational and individual fragrances which have established trends without necessarily being outstanding best sellers. The second category represented those fragrances whose marketing innovation, together with their intrinsic perfume qualities, ensured them of outstanding commercial success.

As a result of the suggestions made by these world authorities, we have compiled our own definitive list of the "World's Greatest Perfumes" as being outstanding examples of individual fragrances which became trendsettes within the industry and which also had a resounding impact commercially through their success.

Many new fragrances have been launched since we compiled this list, and we will be studying them carefully to add in upcoming issues as the greatest fragrances of the 80, 90's. See you there!