Iceland review - 2012, Qupperneq 36

34 ICELAND REVIEW
magazine Wallpaper the ball started rolling. And then, just as we
were trying to gain a foothold in the market, Intertrade came
into the picture.”
Since partnering with Intertrade, the brand has flourished. It
is now available at many of the world’s leading perfumeries and
department stores, including Henri Bendel in New York and
Printemps in Paris. In Reykjavík, it is available at Kronkron and
Spark Design Space. Soon, it will be featured in London’s pres-
tigious department store Harvey Nichols, on display between
Armani and Chanel.
“Niche perfumes are a world apart from the commercial
ones. Italy is very advanced in this sense and retailers in big
cities, such as New York, London and Paris are catching on fast,
increasingly dedicating space to them. After all, niche perfumes
are clearly what consumers are interested in. They don’t want
to smell like everybody else. If you spend your time and money
shopping for quality clothing, you want to do the same when
it comes to perfume. You want a scent that lasts and is made of
the finest natural ingredients. The reception of our fragrances
has been remarkable. Our customers keep coming back. They
can smell the quality.”
In the niche perfume world you have to have a story, contin-
ues Andrea. “We didn’t realize that we had a business idea on
our hands until two years later. Like our distributor said: The
best thing is a true story. We had been busy putting on art exhibi-
tions and designing scents but never wanted to sell them. You
can‘t make this up!”
Andrea’s approach to perfume is quite radical. “To me it
never made sense that perfumes should take you to the
past. So many perfumes want to bring you back to your grand-
mother’s garden when you were five, or a park in Japan. As a
visual artist I had the freedom to move away from this kind of
nostalgia. Perhaps to provoke the world of perfume a little bit
by saying that these are the scents of the future that will take
you forward as opposed to holding you back. You might be
starting a new job or you’re fantasizing about what you want
to do with the rest of your life. Why shouldn’t your perfume
accompany you there? The same goes for the packaging and the
names. They are all simple and very direct and as it turned out,
that was a breakthrough in the industry!”
Another thing that sets them apart from the rest—all Andrea’s
fragrances are unisex. According to her, anyone can wear them.
“It could be your grandmother or your thirteen-year-old niece.
Basically they are worn by people who like to take their time
exploring perfumes. Interestingly, the popularity of each fra-
grance varies between countries. At the end of the day we are
launching fragrances we are happy with and that are made in
adherence with the highest quality standards.”
Andrea has now begun developing fragrances that are not
tied to an art exhibition but to a concept. SILK is a delicate
scent that pays tribute to French fashion houses and their heri-
tage of silk scarves. “I wanted to make a fragrance built on tex-
tile notes and so I designed a scarf. The concept is that you can
spray the fragrance on it if you prefer that to wearing it on your
skin. And with DARK, I wanted to take a classic scent such as
the rose, and rework it completely in a darker way.”
Many exciting things are on the horizon for Andrea
Maack. She’s busy designing more scarves to accompany
her perfumes, allowing each store to choose their unique print.
“We’re also about to launch a new fragrance entitled COAL. It
was inspired by a charcoal drawing; a little bit more masculine
than the others, which is something I had wanted to do. As
an artist I enjoy the freedom to experiment with all kinds of
things. I incorporate visual art into the fragrances and then I
incorporate fragrance into my artistic exhibitions. It’s one big
melting pot. I like the way the artistic element has remained
strong and that people are interested in that,” she says and
admits that a clothing collection might even be on the agenda.
“Inadvertently we have begun building a brand and within that,
there is room for many things, although we always tread care-
fully in our projects. But my perfumes will always be the core
of my work.” 
ART