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THE FERRETTI EFFECT; She's famous for her dreamy chiffon creations, but Alberta Ferretti is made of more robust stuff herself, running a manufacturing empire and renovating medieval towns when she's not designing her A-list-covetable collections. But, she tells Liz Jones, there's no reason why a woman can't look delicate and act tough, a philosophy that has been bottled in her new fragrance.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Liz Jones

Nothing tells the history of fashion, women's rights, sexual liberation, new technology and the economy better than the story of perfume. In 1921, with No 5, Coco Chanel created the first ever wraparound fashion brand. In 1925, in tune with the fact that women had cut their hair and discarded their corsets, Jacques Guerlain created the scandalous Shalimar. The name means garden of love; it evokes the exotic smell of India and, according to Guerlain himself, 'the scent of my mistresses'. In 1929, Jean Patou launched Joy, the costliest perfume in the world, just in time for the Wall Street crash. Instead of shelving the scent, he had it delivered to the homes of New York's wealthiest, sure to be in need of a little luxury as their fortunes faltered. In 1936 came Elizabeth Arden's Blue Grass, the first fresh, outdoorsy perfume, inspired by her love of horses; it would dominate the market for 25 years.

L'Air du Temps by Nina Ricci arrived in 1948: spicy and floral, the bottle depicted two doves of peace in an embrace. It summed up the postwar zeitgeist and was the first scent that a woman, used to standing on her own two feet during the war, would buy for herself. Estee Lauder dreamed up Youth Dew in 1952. One of the first oil-based perfumes (French perfumes were all alcohol-based), the colour was so dark it was thought that no one would buy it. Lauder's genius was to come up with the idea of scent as bath oil, which kept the price low, democratising luxury for the first time.

And then came the signature scents of the 70s: No 19 from Chanel was launched in 1970. It was made from the root of the iris after it had been soaked for two years, and the result was young and...

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