Floris Director Edward Bodenham talks 007 and new boutique

Floris celebrated the opening of a new boutique inside the Fairmont Windsor Park Hotel. Bond Lifestyle sent reporter Pete Brooker to smell the Floris x 007 Eau de Parfum and talk to Floris Director Edward Bodenham about how the 007 Fragrance was created. Find a 10% discount code at the end of this article.

Pete Brooker and Floris Director Edward Bodenham at the opening of the new Floris Boutique in the Fairmont Windsor Park Hotel

Edward Bodenham is the current director and 9th (!) generation of the Floris family since the brand’s inception in the year 1730. The original and flagship shop is still located at 89 Jermyn Street, and all of their fragrances are still created in the perfumery behind the shop.

Earlier this week, Floris celebrated the opening of a new small Floris boutique inside the Fairmont Windsor Park Hotel, just outside of London. The new luxury hotel was opened in January of 2022, and is owned by the Arora Group.

Fairmont Windsor Park Hotel

Edward explains that the boutique in the hotel came together quite quickly. It started when one of the family members that owns the Arora Group stepped into the Floris shop on Jermyn Street and had their own fragrance created there as a wedding present. Then when they were building this new hotel out in the countryside for the Arora family business, they offered Floris a boutique within the hotel.

The new Floris Boutique in Fairmont Windsor Park Hotel

At the opening celebration of this boutique, Pete Brooker sat down with Floris director Edward Bodenham to talk about the new 007 Fragrance and asked him, how it came to be, and what the early conversations with EON were like.

Bodenham: “We were approached by EON pretty much out of the blue. Being a Bond fan myself, having grown up with Bond films and the books as well, I was absolutely delighted and thrilled to be asked to work on a fragrance to celebrate 60 Years since Dr. No.”

“I've grown up in the business, learning perfumery from my grandfather and father and outside perfumeries as well over the years.”

Brooker: “So has this been percolating in your mind for a while because obviously you have the connections with Bond. Even before this partnership comes up, were you thinking of what a Bond fragrance might smell like?”

Bodenham: “Subconsciously certainly, because you sort of get a feel through the experiences of watching the films and imagine the sensations of the drinks and the atmosphere. It’s obviously been something that's been close to my heart. So when we arrived on the final fragrance we instantly knew: this is the one, definitely.”

Brooker: “And where does that process start? You have mood boards up? Is there a picture of Sean Connery on the wall or Morland cigarettes kind of scattered around and wafting in the office? What's going on there?”

Bodenham: “No, it's really just just sitting in our perfumery, which is in Jermyn Street, through the back of the shop. It's quite atmospheric, which is very inspiring - as soon as you're in there working on something new, focusing on on it, getting a lot of inspiration within the walls, the building itself is inspiring, being in the heart of St. James's, it all goes into the creative process."

Brooker: “Do you share that creative process with EON? Do they get involved or did they leave you to it and have the trust in you to put a good fragrance together?”

Bodenham: “They had an input into the fragrance, but they were very trusting in us. They knew about our company, and that we've obviously been making perfumes for a long time now. They gave us a few pointers, things that they were thinking of, just to give us a bit of a steer, but we were all thinking the same thing anyway. It made it all such a pleasure. Because when we had made our final choice, and they tried it, they fortunately agreed with us as well. That was excellent.”

Floris x 007 and 007 luggage tags

Brooker: “You mentioned about some of the notes in there. What are the main notes that you feel are this big signature for Bond, the real character for Bond? What are those notes that are coming through when people buy this fragrance and they smell it for the first time?”

Bodenham: “I suppose the Juniper, because of the Gin connection and of course the Martini, that's probably one of the most prominent ingredients.

It's hard because it's such a sum of the ingredients together.

The Amber note, which gives this warmth and the woodiness thinking of St James's areas of the gentlemen's clubs. That slight smokiness and boozy element to the fragrance, which is from the Dianthus. And the woody elements of course, Sandalwood and Cedarwood.

When you're talking about James Bond, you're thinking of all the different locations, all the different films. So it’s picking out little bits from from here and there. Rum for example, we wanted to have that connection to Jamaica, so there's a bit of a rum note in there.

Bringing all the notes together just seemed to encapsulate everything.”

The Floris 007 Fragrance is now available at Floris (UK) for £200, but you can get 10% OFF any item at the Floris website using the exclusive discount code FLORISJBLIFESTYLE (code is valid through midnight on September 11, 2022).
You wil also get a 007 Travel Tag if you order via the Floris website.

Read more about Floris and James Bond

More about the 007 Fragrance

More about about the Fairmont Windsor Park Hotel