Miller Harris Staccato  courtesy of the brand

“The forbidden love of two characters meeting in a New York apartment. A deep smoky blend of Chinese cedarwood, tobacco and benzoin round off this alluring scent. Addictive and smoky, the scent is inspired by a page taken from the novel ‘The Age of Innocence’ by Edith Wharton. “~ from the Miller Harris website.

Perfumer Karine Vinchon-Spehner, via Robertet

Well, well, Miller Harris. You present me with the above copy and expect me to walk away: that isn’t happening. I could never resist American novelist Edith Wharton to begin with – and when I’m being tantalized by the mere suggestion of erotic détente between an ambitious young affianced lawyer (Newland Archer) and the overtly sensual, free-spirited Countess Olenska (his fiancé’s cousin, who has recently returned from an unsuccessful marriage in Europe), I will be in it for the long haul. Perfumer Karine Vinchon-Spehner has taken up the fragrant gauntlet in Miller Harris’ most recent series of perfumes which correlate to well-known literary bijoux. Miller Harris Staccato is the perfumer’s evocation of the clandestine struggle between upper class respectability/societal norms and unsanctioned desire so perspicaciously explored in Edith Wharton’s turn of the century novel The Age of Innocence.

Wikimedia Commons staccato

Staccato: Italian for “detached”. A musical note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. Staccato is a form of musical articulation: it results in a jumpy, quick, and accented effect.

It’s quite a daring venture to name a fragrance after a musical articulation, especially the staccato: one experiences it as  brief, dramatic, and restless – full of emphasis and import. There is little which is peaceful about staccatoed notes; they may be employed in order to convey a sense of anxiety, a foreshadowing, a rapidly escalating, forward-moving fluctuation of emotion. Musically speaking, its opposite is legato – all smooth undulating lines, full of grace, soothing. Miller Harris’ new fragrance, lyrical and balanced as it may be – is meant to hint at the startling intrigue and sparks between two individuals who really have no business entertaining the possibility of such a seething passion. As I am well-acquainted with Wharton’s novel-as-inspiration, this is my interpretation of how Staccato might have come to be so named.

dried rose via PickPik public domain

Here is the excerpt which was given Mme. Vinchon-Spehner as her brief: “The fact that only two Jacqueminot roses (of which nobody ever bought less than a dozen) had been placed in the slender vase at his elbow, and in the vague pervading perfume that was not what one put on handkerchiefs, but rather like the scent of some far-off bazaar, a smell made up of Turkish coffee and ambergris and dried roses.” ~ excerpt from Chapter Nine of The Age of Innocence.

 

Countess Olenska  and Archer Age of Innocence movie 1993 IMDB

The stage is set from the very beginning: we are intended to conjure Countess Olenska’s ability to transform the shabby rented house she occupies by secretive means which Archer is unable to parse. It is readily apparent that the chamber into which Newland Archer is ushered smells nothing like the polite, omnipresent classic eau de cologne which scents countless society handkerchiefs: no, it is exotic and foreign to the young lawyer, as he feels himself transported by the perfumer’s choices of cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, clove, spicy benzoin, and saffron. This aroma represents the unknown, seductive souk which he has never frequented. While the afore-mentioned coffee note is not present, the ambergris is – as well as rose and the indolic enticement of jasmine sambac and honey. Perhaps this salon sports a venerable leather sofa or armchair, a well-worn cedar trunk: Staccato’s notes certainly suggest it. A smoldering fire lit to warm the chilly evening is intimated by a cautious amount of cade (both cade and saffron are equally capable of embellishing/fleshing out leather nuance, as well). This all contributes to the provocative nature of an intimate space which feels both familiar and other. Wafts of tobacco are de rigueur: Ellen Olenska is a free thinker, and a smoker – and Newland Archer is not above lighting the occasional cigar to accompany his after-dinner brandy. Our perfumer has performed a wearable coup which reflects this complexity with great skill.

 

Staccato Miller Harris courtesy of the brand

Archer and Olenska’s passion is never consummated in the novel, nor in the film. It is unclear as to whether the Countess continues to carry a torch for him with the passage of time; she never mentions it. Archer, however – despite a conventionally ‘successful’ marriage, career, and children – is unable to free himself of regrets and unculminated desire. Miller Harris Staccato may simmer softly throughout its development, but if one is aware, you will uncover the occasional uptick, ever so slight spike which makes this perfume so compelling and enigmatic.

Notes: cinnamon leaf, cardamom, organic ginger, clove bud, saffron, rose, jasmine sambac, leather, honey, tobacco, ambergris, cade, Siam benzoin, Chinese cedarwood

Sample purchased by me. My nose is my own…

~ Ida Meister, Deputy and Natural Perfumery Editor

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