Seldom has the synergy between fashion and fragrance been as strong as it is this spring/summer, thanks to a new trend in both arenas for the colour purple. On the runways, Burberry’s classic trenches were reinvented in lilac, while Versace and Dior both showed sumptuous purple gowns. In fragrance, purple is a scarcely-used shade, but inexplicably this year, even fragrances with scents that aren’t centred around purplish flowers like lilacs and violets are being sold in gleamingly purple bottles, from the rose-based Stella McCartney Sheer, £36.50 to Prada’s new Infusion de Tuberose, £48 and Nina Ricci’s new gardenia scent, Le Paradis de Nina, £34.
Intriguingly, the colour works particularly well for modern bottles like Shiseido’s Zen Purple, £56, a clean blend of tuberose, jasmine and lily of the valley, and Versace Versus, £41, an invigorating mix of star apple, orange blossom and centifolia rose. Purple reigns.