Trend Development: Product concept

After many hours of researching into the olfactive trend, I feel I have pin-pointed a strong design concept.

Through WGSN I found an interesting article titled 'Headspace: on scent as design- fragrance symposium'. The article highlights WGSN's fins on 2 experiments that explored scents as timepieces, remedies and unique experiences. The part of the article in which I found most interesting was where it is explained that a fragrance is so much more than a scent, and that it can in fact affect mood, sense of self and can have vast influence on us:

'Tying in with WGSN's macro trend Your Space for Autumn. Winter 2011/12, the designers fused their perception of particular sensations with their sense of smell to produce fragrances that can directly influence people's mood, optimism, nostalgia and appetite. What people choose to surround themselves with and the information they choose to store in their consciousness is unique to each individual, but the experiment highlighted the affect scent can have on our sub consciousness.'

Further more in reference to the idea of mood-effect scents, in WGSN's Beauty Cosmetics trends for 2010 it stated:

'According to leading market research company Mintel's scent predictions for 2010, one key trend will be scents that influence our moods. "During a time of high-stress lifestyles, consumers are looking for any way they can escape the rigors of everyday life".

I decided upon creating a collection of mood-evoking scents in the form of perfume/fragrance. My first idea was to create the collection for an already existing perfume brand with the advertising campaign consisting of some form of pop-up shop at a high-end department store.

I looked into previous pop-up store campaigns which then led me to find an article, again from WGSN titled 'new ways of scenting'. In this there was a range of scented bracelets features which gave me the idea to be a bit more inventive and mix the idea of fragrance with jewellery.

I began researching into new and innovative emerging jewellery trends and found an insightful report of Mintel- Watches and Jewellery Retailing- UK 2010:

'The Mintel inspire trend New Age Wellness documents the interest in holistic health, and in products imbued with functional properties: from aromatherapy and magnetic therapy, to power balance and homeopathy. The thread that links these movements, aside from their celebrity following and lifestyle appeal, is the need they address: effortless mind-body balance.

I have decided to design a collection of scented charms for high-end jewellery brand Pandora.