Something's in the Air

Annie Block, Mark McMenamin, and Meghan Edwards -- Interior Design, 4/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

Sight and smell are mingling more than ever. Among the whiffs of evidence: limited-edition packaging, furniture begetting fragrance, designers turned perfumers. New York's Museum of Modern Art and Parsons the New School for Design have even teamed up for a symposium called Headspace: On Scent as Design. What's next—scratch 'n sniff CAD drawings?

The connection between scent and site fascinates interior designer Ben Gorham, so much so that he branched out to found ByRedo Parfums for men and women. (The name derives from by redolence.) Four years later, he's designed the first ByRedo shop, a 400-square-foot Stockholm space.

Hugo Man, the Hugo Boss fragrance, marks its 15th anniversary with a bottle by Karim Rashid. Inspired by military-issue canteens, the 1,000 signed and numbered ABS plastic bottles come complete with a green canvas strap. The digital graphics on both the bottle and the egg-shape outer packaging are meant to look topographical.

After years spent manufacturing chairs, tables, and floor lamps, Artek has joined forces with fashion label Commes des Garçons to launch Standard. This unisex fragrance, awash in floral and rusty notes, purportedly embodies the sensibility of Artek cofounder Alvar Aalto.

Mut-Architecture went Anglophile at a Parisian private club, Le Cercle, where the bar is completely camouflaged by 3,200 used cricket balls. The worn leather smells heavenly to sports enthusiasts. Freshly mowed grass, anyone?

Deck chairs and picnic tables are rather bulky for gift bags, so outdoor-furniture specialist Janus et Cie turned to Beekman 1802 for something more compact: a co-branded poppy-scented soap. Pick yours up at the upcoming NeoCon fair in Chicago.

"Making Scents: The Art and Passion of Fragrance," running through November 21 at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, identifies the plants behind iconic perfumes. Exceptional containers get their due as well, for example Lalique's Ondines limited-edition crystal bottle from 1998.

French perfumer Creed counts Michelle Obama among its clients. Perhaps her next New York weekend will include a stop at the 250-year-old company's first U.S. store, a collaboration between EZCT Architecture & Design Research, Tomas Frenes Design Studio, and Space Architects.