I have long lusted after a Bella Freud sweater, but never a fragrance. Unless you’re very immersed in the fashion world, it’s easy to miss just how exciting Bella is but the film Hideous Kinky is based on her teenage life in Marrakesh, her great-grandfather was Sigmund Freud, her father is Lucian Freud and she’s worked with Jaeger, Biba and Miss Selfridge so I guess she has plenty to draw on, creatively.
I mean, I think this has to be mine, right? It’s a reference to Jane Birkin, but never mind the detail! You can find Bella’s creations HERE.
Psychoanalysis, in part, pays homage to Sigmund Freud and analysis but also to obsessive love – the comforter, I think to those helpless moments. It’s a unisex fragrance that starts with neroli and petitgrain but quickly turns to a deeper tobacco, leathery and resin affair – the leather is a reference to the couch. It’s warm and reassuring in its way and merges with skin very quickly and easily. By that, I mean it doesn’t sit like a stranger – it kind of blends with you almost straight away. Cedarwood, dry amber and musk sit gently at the base. You know what this made me think of straight away? Navaz’s book, The Modern Gentlewoman. It’s that woman, and yet, also a modern gentleman. In that sense, it’s a commercially clever fragrance because it taps into the mood of the moment where we’re firmly rooted in the frenzy of now but wistful for simpler times, and creatively it makes an emotional connection.
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My sample bottle came with the best little paper magazine called Fashion Neurosis (surely that has to be the next fragrance!) illustrated by Sina Sparrow, that made me laugh out loud. Psychoanalysis is exclusive to Liberty HERE and it’s £165 for 100ml.
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All products are sent to me as samples from brands and agencies unless otherwise stated. Affiliate links may be used. Posts are not affiliate driven.
