JOIN USA cache of bottled memories
Fashion designer Shiny Alexxander loves capturing memories and stories of distant places through her perfume collection.
While shifting houses and discarding repetitions have cut down on the numbers, she still has a sizeable amount of unique perfume bottles from varied countries.
“During my designing course, we had to study jewellery design and
many-a-time the still sketches I made would have something to do with glass bottles, I always liked sketching them. I liked how they looked translucent and colourful,” she says.
Later, when Shiny wanted to work on an advertisement for a perfume, she looked through her entire house for a unique bottle to work with. “That’s when I realised that I had at least 100 bottles with me. I also saw that each of the bottles had some perfume left in them, thus acting as a reminder of some story,” she added.
Her collection is made of what she bought during her own travels around the world and what were brought as gifts by family and friends.
She now owns bottles from Spain, France, Germany, Dubai and Bali, among other countries. Brands included in this group are. She lost some bottles while shifting houses and gave away some others that were repeats.
“I have tried to save the uniquely shaped ones. I have a Hugo Boss ball-shaped perfume and another perfume which looks like a diamond. There are even some perfumes which I don’t like but I’ve saved the bottle because it has a unique shape,” she says.
Among the many interesting bottles in her kitty, there is one shaped like a bag and another shaped like a gold bar. Many of the bottles have interesting patterns or colours on them.
“Some of them are from around 18 years ago. I own a lot of men’s perfumes too.”
“I also own around 300 perfume samplers. I preserve many of them along with their wrappers,” she reveals.
What inspired her to build such a collection?
“I’ve realised that every place I go to has a unique smell to it. During my trip to Bali, I felt that a floral fragrance was dominant there. Perfume bottles from different places are connected to different smells and so are reminders of different stories,” she explains.
“Each of the bottles is connected to my childhood, school days or some memory from the past,” she says.
Shiny intends to keep expanding her collection. “I hope to collect a huge variety of perfume bottles. My immediate goal is to own a perfume bottle with a pump,” she says.