Proenza Schouler Just Launched Its First Fragrance—Here’s What You Need to Know
Cozy details abound in Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s Brooklyn brownstone—dark wood floors; deep, down-filled couches; a Newfoundland puppy prowling around the open, airy kitchen. As the eye wanders over the paintings that are handsomely displayed in the living room, it stops momentarily on a mantle that holds a collection of crystal orbs and a lamp made from a sliced-open geode. “I mean, look how cool that is,” McCollough says running his fingers over the sharp points of the lamp’s base while passing around a small, oblong piece of quartz. “We brought back a lot of these things from our road trip,” explains Hernandez, “which was kind of the starting point for the bottle.” Flipping through a pile of papers, he reveals a faceted sketch of what would become Arizona, Proenza Schouler’s first fragrance.
These organic objects and their purported energizing benefits may have inspired the sculptural flacon that houses the bright, mineral overtones of the designers’ debut scent, which premiered in the February issue of Vogue; but it’s where they sourced them that is perhaps more telling of the perfume’s overarching appeal.
Three years ago, right after their Spring 2016 show—a classic mix of technically sophisticated fabrics and characteristic ease—McCollough and Hernandez headed west, first to Texas, then to New Mexico, Utah, and eventually Arizona, to recharge and get reinspired after a long fashion season. With its wide-open desert expanses—and very minimal cell-phone service—the trip presented them with the starting point for a unique ingredient story (Arizona hinges on an innovative, night-blooming cactus flower accord, which has been blended with rich notes of orris root), and a new appreciation for the importance of disconnecting. “When we finally embraced that feeling, to properly unplug and get back in touch with ourselves in some way, it just felt like the ultimate luxury,” says McCollough. “We wanted to bring that into this project.” Here, the designers discuss their own roads to better self-care and the complex process behind creating a timeless scent that captures the current zeitgeist for aspirational escapism.
When did you guys start these trips to the Southwest?
Jack McCollough: After every season, we’ve always tried to take some sort of epic trip—a getaway—to kind of get back in our heads and just get out of the chaos. And the Southwest is one of those places we’ve come back to. It’s close and convenient, but it feels extremely exotic and like you’re really properly removed.
Lazaro Hernandez: . . . And it’s also that whole American road trip thing. There’s such a romantic appeal to that. We go out there every couple of years, and we kind of just chill and get lost. We’ll sometimes get in a car with some camping equipment and just drive. I pitch the tent, Jack makes a fire. . . . We’re pretty good at working together! We have that sort of baked into our relationship.
Compared to the frenetic pace of the collections now—which must have you in a constant cycle of concepting, designing, producing, and showing—what was the process like of making this fragrance?
JM: It’s a very different approach creatively. I mean, we’ve had eight collections in the time it’s taken to create one bottle of fragrance! With those collections, we can be a little more in the moment, you know, just kind of put something right out there and then move on to some other feeling. Whereas, when you’re making a fragrance, you have to stay true to an idea that you know is going to not only feel relevant in two years, when it’s done and on the shelves, but beyond that.
How does one go about creating something timeless?
LH: We did a deep dive into the brand to try to access the core qualities in the work that we’ve done. We kept coming back to a certain casualness. Even if our collections are technically developed, there’s still a laid-back quality. And we wanted the fragrance to have that same kind of thing, instead of the dominatrix, “power gown” quality more common to the world of fragrances—all of those ’80s fragrances feel really loud and big. You can almost imagine the shoulder pads, and the heavy blue eyeshadow, and the big hair! You smell the woman before you see the woman kind of thing. Then the ’90s were really clean and minimal. And then I guess the 2000s were more sweet, edible, and floral-y.
JM: . . . And none of that feels relevant to our girl and the people we know.
So what does feel relevant now? What is the scent of this decade?
JM: The bombardment of technology and information has definitely defined part of this decade, causing people to want to go back to basics in a way, and get back in touch with nature. That’s how our whole Arizona trip ties in, in a way. It’s the idea of going back to the things that are important.
Are there other things, aside from these periodic trips, that you guys indulge in to help mitigate the information overload?
JM: I use Sun Potion ashwagandha powder—and I’m convinced it works. It’s like a natural cortisol reliever! And I’m into meditation. I’ve been meditating for four or five years now. We also go to this place called Villa Ananda in Puerto Vallarta. It’s an Ayurvedic retreat in a private house, on the beach, on the water, and the whole staff is dedicated to your experience—the cooking, the yoga, the massages. You leave just feeling so energetic. Like, the whites of your eyes are glowing!
LH: We did a sweat lodge on the beach last time we were there with volcanic rocks in a teepee. It was so hot and so intense. We chanted, and everyone was kind of going mad, and then they bring out this cooling eucalyptus oil-mud. You feel like you’re tripping a little bit. That’s really where we started to think about this more holistic approach to things—self-care, any of that kind of stuff. It really began there, and we brought some of those practices back home.
So, when you smell the fragrance now, and those solar, cactus flower notes really come out, does it transport you back to these more removed moments—to Mexico, to the Southwest, and to Arizona, specifically?
LH: Well, the fragrance is less about Arizona the state, and more about the state of mind.
JM: It’s more focused on the spirit of the desert. . . .
LH: . . . And the journey inward!
