Tonight, no mercy, says the London Moon, ruthlessly wiping out all before vanishing leaving behind only a few last glimmers to shield humanity from the dark. For the battle of the perfumes is raging not over granny’s little bottles, but over great vaults that reek of roses and gold dust. HFC Prestige International, Coty’s Swiss arm, is baring its claws and dragging Gucci and Kering into court, over there in perfidious Albion.
Indeed, on 20 October, in a tale of contracts, licences and egos scented with amber and vanilla, the sweet-smelling world of fragrance and the less fragrant world of business are now colliding in the courtroom.
Because, the day before, we learnt that Kering had got all cosy with L’Oréal for fifty years of exclusive love, because they’re worth it. An imperial alliance, half a century of creams, bottles, logos and botoxed smiles. Once the lease with Coty ends in 2028, all being well, Gucci’s perfume will be changing beds.
But beware! Kering swears, cross its heart, that it honours its contracts! That it betrays no one! That it’s as loyal as a saint in a tailored suit! Yet in the world of luxury, when one starts talking about loyalty, one feels a sudden urge to turn celibate of the brain.
And then bang Wednesday arrives, the first-quarter results drop, the figures sing, the analysts sniff the air, and someone asks Sue Nabi, Coty’s powdered general-in-chief, what she thinks. “I will not comment on ongoing litigation. But we shall defend our rights until the very last day, the very last hour of the contract.” As Elizabeth I herself might have done before the Armada of Spanish galleons.
A real war, and one can picture the scene: men in three-piece suits hurling perfume bottles at each other, fragrance as a glitter grenade; and Kering, for its part, feigning outrage, dignity, even wounded pride because in Little Britain, rectitude is still the thing.
Thus the world of perfume, behind its roses and jasmines, reveals its true face: a jungle where fangs and chequebooks abound. Luxury, after all, is always the same story: a little powder and a great deal of powder in the eyes.
FM