Amidst a mid-winter’s blizzard in Manhattan, a field of fragrant roses bloomed in Soho. As snow blanketed the city, rounding its edges into meringue, Tadashi Shoji introduced his inaugural fragrance, Eau de Rose, with the presentation of his F/W 2017 collection at Skylight Clarkson Square for New York Fashion Week.
Against a rose-red floral brocade backdrop that flickered across the crowd, Shoji sparked a rose revolution that brilliantly captured the zeitgeist. For centuries, the rose has represented anti-authoritarianism, particularly in post-World War II Europe where the rose symbolized socialist movements. With a collection that evoked the rebellious spirit of the Sixties and Seventies, alongside its sensual glamour, Shoji debuted a fragrance that captures the era’s floral beauty and subversive power.
Eau de Rose’s opening notes of citrus — a combination of bergamot, mandarin, and grapefruit — meld with the tartness of rhubarb. The sweetness of black currant segues into the fragrance’s heart notes: a floral punch of jasmine and rose, osmanthus and lily of the valley. At this point, it’s easy to sink into a reverie that returns you to a favored garden, say the Regent’s Park in London or Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. A sanctuary where you took the time to smell the rose, put a flower in your hair.
With a sensual woody drydown marked by musk and labdanum, Eau de Rose becomes certifiably intoxicating. If there’s a rollerball within reach, it’s tempting to keep reapplying: so seductive are the notes of rose absolute and oudh oil — and a faint hint of patchouli that evokes the signature scent of those at the forefront of the sexual revolution.
As a student in Japan, Shoji was trained as an artist in Sendai before founding his fashion company in 1982. During New York Fashion Week in 2007, Shoji launched his runway collection, which received stellar reviews for its diaphanous gowns and daring dresses. Shoji’s clients include Former First Lady Michelle Obama, as well as Octavia Spencer, Kate Hudson, Miranda Kerr, and Katy Perry. According to Shoji, “In the thirty plus years that I have been designing, I’ve learned that all women regardless of shape, size, and culture want the same thing — to feel beautiful and confident in their own being.”
Amorous and provocative, Eau de Rose is available as a parfum bottle spray, rollerball, and body crème from the Shoji online boutique, as well as various department stores.
Throughout history, the rose has been coveted for its beauty and fragrance; thousands of cultivars have been created, many of them named for illustrious individuals. Eau de Rose makes a case for a rose named Shoji.