SM: Raymond, we know that you are a very important part of the fragrance industry and have been for over 20 years. I am very curious to know if there was a turning point in your early career that made you gravitate towards the Fragrance Industry. What was that moment and why? Was it a personal experience or a personal experience with a fragrance that affected you?
Raymond Matts: This will probably surprise most readers there was nothing in my childhood or in my past. I fell into this industry like many.
I was studying Economics with an emphasis in Organized Crime. I was planning a career in the Secret Service and decided this was not for me. After my second college and realizing I was paying for my own education; it was time for me to get serious. I was looking through the SUNY college offerings and saw two that interested me. Wine making and Cosmetic Fragrance and Toiletries at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. I was extremely shallow, and said to myself, let me move to NYC… I bet I will meet many women. It was not until I started working at Firmenich that I started to realize the importance of our sense of smell in the various products. I’ve grown to have a passion for fragrances and the new experiences we could create. While growing up though I always had a fascination with fashion, this is probably the driving force to what I do today.
SM: When did you realize that you had a great sense of smell?
Raymond Matts: Contrary to what some may believe my sense of smell is really something I have learned and have worked on over many years. More importantly, it is the mind and ability to have an olfactive vision that is just equally important.
I attribute my ability to design to my curious nature, my passion for the beauty that surrounds me everyday and my desire to go beyond the surface. I understand how fragrances are constructed and have developed my own language to describe them.
SM: Who did you train with? Was there anyone influential in your life that mentored you or assisted you in your path to be a fragrance designer?
Raymond Matts: I started my career with Firmenich as an Evaluator trainee. I worked exclusively on household products at the time and this gave me a wonderful technical background. It was not until I joined IFF that I began to work on fine fragrances. The first fragrance that I collaborated on was White Diamonds for Elizabeth Taylor. I would say that there have been several extremely influential individuals during my career, Perfumer, Annie Buzantian, Evaluator, Alice O’Chietti and the individual who influenced my way of designing is Perfumer, Sophia Grojsman. We worked many an evening dissecting and then reconstructing accords. Sophia’s technique helped me to develop a style that is uniquely me. The person though that I owe the most gratitude to is Evelyn Lauder… she allowed me to be creative to explore with perfumers where we can go. I owe thanks as well to every perfumer I have worked with who has been willing to take a chance by allowing me to take them to where they may not think to go. This is trust and a true collaboration between two minds.
SM: I also understand that you are one of the few people in the world that is actually allowed into the perfume the labs in America and internationally to work with perfumers and clients, which is virtually off limits to everyone. Do you have any favorite memories in working with any perfumers? Any funny or somber stories you can tell us?
Raymond Matts: I start each fragrance from an idea with a vision. This requires me to sit and smell with a perfumer on a regular basis. We start a fragrance by building the pieces first known as accords; these accords are then combined. Due to my style of designing and the trust I have built with the houses I work with, I do have access to perfumers and labs.
I have many favorite memories, however the funniest was asking a perfumer if she had done her laundry lately… specifically her whites. She thought I was being a little personal. The next day we had our heads over washing machines, smelling the fresh scent of clean towels while being washed. Hence a new fragrance was born. I also remember the experience of my first son’s birth. I realized the odor every mother loves, is the smell of a newborn. I sat with a perfumer smelling many different types of milk. I wanted to redefine the Oriental category and create a feeling of comfort.
I have worked with some of the best perfumers in the world! I’m indebted to them for amazing times and beautiful collaborations. These are the best memories anyone could desire and cherish.
SM: I am aware that you have worked with a multitude of perfumers, do you have your favorites or do you work with any perfumer that the client wishes you to?
Raymond Matts: I work with any perfumer whom wishes to work within my style of creating. We build, which is time consuming and arduous at times. However, we laugh while we work and our goal is to build one beautiful new fragrance. I don’t typically provide a brief and we don’t work within specific families. We work within feelings and textures.
I hope and believe the perfumers enjoy the process because they know my passion for fragrance and that I can take them outside of their style at times. It is rewarding for both of us!
SM: You have worked with many houses such as Abercrombie and Fitch, Clinique and Aramis. In your own personal creativity are there any fragrance that stands out for you and why? What were the notes involved that you felt made the scent very individual?
Raymond Matts: The first would be Clinique Happy because no one believed that it was going to be as big as it became. Michael Edwards coined Happy as the first fragrance that represents this new “casual era”. It was the beginning of my style and was meant to appeal to a mind set not an age. It is still more modern than most of what is being launched today. Happy is an expensive formula and therefore an amazing value to the consumer.
Clinique Simply is another, because, I redefined what an Oriental fragrance could be. It was a good lesson in realizing how essential synergy between all the elements of the marketing mix is. The accords were based on freshness from the texture of feeling the touch of dew laden flower petals. A creamy versus sweet feel from soymilk, which allowed the fragrance to build with an enveloping sensuality, combined with a background texture based on the smell of soy nuts. Sadly, this fragrance has been discontinued… stay tuned!
In the Men’s category, Tommy T is one to this day a fragrance that I wish I could re-launch. This fragrance epitomized clean versus fresh and is a fragrance built with very interesting aldehydes not typical in fine fragrances. This fragrance shows creativity and how to think outside the box. A fragrance that was creative with tremendous commercial viability.
SM: You also have helped many well known perfumers create very well known perfumes. Does this encompass what you do as Fragrance Architect? What is a Fragrance Architect?
Raymond Matts: As a Fragrance Architect I have a vision that I share with the perfumer and then ultimately orchestrate while conducting a fragrance compilation. My ideas are inspired by the very sensations, emotions and experiences that surround one everyday. My main focus has been to redefine what a fragrance can be and how do we evolve. We collaborate and combine our expertise towards building one beautiful fragrance.
I can relate to Howard Roark, the Architect in Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead”. I guess you can say my vision is the blueprint that we follow at times.
SM: What do you think is lacking in the general fragrance media that should be addressed?
Raymond Matts: Creativity combined with a common language used to describe what we smell beyond top, middle and bottom notes. We are not creating dreams anymore within the media and we do not take the consumer on an olfactive journey. We don’t tease our senses; we use sex without being flirtatious. The media is too literal at times and does not intrigue our imaginations. Where is the emotion in the product we create and sell? The format is rote done the same way over and over.
SM: Are there any problem areas today they you think could be improved upon in the fragrance industry or at the sales counters, could you enlighten us a little?
Raymond Matts: Sadly, we have many problems and this economic climate has not helped the situation. We must remember as designers, marketers, fragrance suppliers and retailers that we sell a product that is not tangible. This proposes many challenging situations for all requiring a degree of expertise within. We as an industry need to look at how the world is changing around us; the attitudes and tastes and appeal to them.
I personally would like to see our language of how we describe fragrances to evolve whereby bringing the consumer to understand beyond top, middle and bottom notes. The consumer needs to be enticed, romanced and allowed to dream once again.
It is easy to attack the point of sale or distribution, the marketers, fragrance houses the list could go on and on. As a fragrance designer I desire creative concepts that entice the consumer to want to visit the point of sale with excitement and the realization that the total experience is something new. I want them to come back again and again because we have made a lasting impression.
We are an industry with amazing talent and passion for the very product we create. As like any industry it is time to rethink how we do business. It is time to let creativity shine once again. It is time to take chances and strive to bring them on a magical olfactive journey.
SM: If I could give you a perfume magic wand and change the style of perfumery, what direction would you like it to go?
Raymond Matts: My interest would not be to change any style. I would prefer to evolve and provide the consumer with another choice. I still believe we can build classic fragrances for a new generation of user. My hope is to continue redefining what a fragrance can be by exploring different structures. It is the history of where we have been that can take us on a journey to where we could go.
My work with perfumers has been to manipulate structures to build fragrances around the adjectives that describe the very emotions and feelings we obtain from what we smell.
I see a fragrance as an aura and as Michael Edwards has stated “Liquid Emotion”
I understand how do design a fragrance that is “creative with the opportunity to be “commercially successful”. We like to refer to this as signature.
I want people to dream again, to be captivated by what they smell!
SM: Talk to us about “olfactive poetry”. What does this mean to you?
Raymond Matts:
A fragrance is like a poem….
Each note takes on its own meaning…
Each accord touches the depths of one soul…
A fragrance should caress the heart of each,
always providing their own individuality…
A fragrance should make one dream,
of everything that surrounds them.
Fragrance should bring one closer.
Yes, olfactive poetry is creating dreams through our sense of smell.
SM: If you had an opportunity to write for Sniffapalooza Magazine would you? Many of us would love to see you have your own column. I am sure that you also have a great deal to say about the industry.
Raymond Matts: Yes, I would welcome the opportunity. I have a different approach and philosophy towards the creation of fragrances. It would be rewarding to share my thoughts with your readers. I would love for people to understand what is involved in the creation of a fragrance. I’ve always entertained the thought of widening individual’s perception of what a fragrance actually is or could be.
Interview with International Fragrance Designer
Raymond Matts
Working with the internationally renowned fragrance houses of Firmenich and, later, IFF, Raymond Matts implemented fragrance concepts for new and existing products and was accountable for all stages of development. The experience of a liaison between perfumers, salesperson and client played an essential part of his career today.
“Having that technical and creative knowledge from my work at the fragrance houses has helped nurture partnerships and aid in the development process. It has proved invaluable.”
At Estée Lauder, Raymond Matts held the position of Vice President of Corporate Fragrance Development Worldwide and was responsible for the strategic, conceptual development and general management of the company's global product group. At Elizabeth Arden, again with instinct and elegance, Raymond Matts designed fragrances that captured an essence and defined an era.
Currently, Mr. Matts continues to collaborate with the worlds top perfumers to explore modern olfaction in timeless, inventive ways; reaching the sophisticated consumer, designing signature fragrances with contemporary style. All unique and all true to raymond matts the art of perfumery inc.
Raymond Matts has created hundreds of fragrances and is a true giant in the industry. Sniffapalooza Magazine warmly welcomes Raymond Matts, fragrance designer.
