This Perfume Bottles the Free-Spirited Scent of Spain’s Balearic Islands
When the French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH tapped creative director Jonathan Anderson to helm Loewe in 2013, it charged the Irish-born designer with giving a new energy to the esteemed but sleepy Spanish leather brand that resonated with the next generation. Lauded as one of the most forward-thinking designers of his time, Anderson not only reinvigorated its men’s and women’s fashion lines with couture pieces such as calfskin handbags and leather biker jackets, but also revived the house’s tradition of perfume-making, which blossomed when it unveiled its inaugural women’s fragrance in 1972. Loewe 001, the first fragrance under Anderson’s direction, launched in 2016 with notes of bergamot, sandalwood, and white musk. The brand has since incorporated it into an entire repertoire of fragrances known as Botanical Rainbow, released in March, that includes myriad botanically inspired perfumes, bottled in a kaleidoscope of colors.
Loewe’s latest scent, Paula’s Ibiza, is a unisex fragrance that adds a sensual, olfactory dimension to the brand’s annual capsule collection of ready-to-wear, bags, and accessories made in collaboration with Paula’s, a legendary Spanish boutique that served as a hub for Balearic style in the 1970s. (The perfume debuted with last year’s Loewe Paula’s Ibiza line, and returned in April with a new campaign and film, captured by photographer Gray Sorrenti.) Created by Anderson in collaboration with the brand’s in-house perfumer, Núria Cruelles, the scent layers tropical top notes of coconut water and Madagascan mandarin oil with a heady base of Sulawesi patchouli oil, vanilla, and sweet and earthy ambergris. Housed in a rainbow-hued ombré cylinder with a glossy sky-blue cap that can be easily opened even with sunscreen-covered fingers, the scent evokes a relaxed, beachside spirit. For Anderson, a single spritz can transport a wearer into the cheery realm his capsule collection embraces as its muse. “The perfume was created to encapsulate Paula’s Ibiza’s barefoot, bohemian vibes,” he says, “where effortlessness and optimism go hand in hand.”