The dress elicited fragility in the face of convention. It felt youthful but attempting to be more…like a girl trying on her mother’s dress. I felt the temporal nature of living in society. That this moment and all that is dreamed of it will change to new moments with new expectations and new requirements. I also felt something about the fleeting nature of fashions. When the paper dress was first delivered, I immediately felt a ‘story’ coming about a girl going to a party, a cotillion or something like that. The piece gave the impression that this might be a debutante’s coming out gown. And it seemed retro, so I was immediately drawn to vintage ingredients. I wanted to express the sense of the paper, the color and the shape. The ruffles gave the impression of carnations from a florist, so that was my focal heart note. As the dress was retro (it seemed mid-twentieth century) I thought that the historical reference of aldehydes and a slightly animalic drydown would speak to the perfumes in vogue at the time. I wanted to create the perfume that represented the dress itself as well as to create the perfume that the “wearer” might lavish on themselves while wearing the dress. In this way, the perfume IS the dress as well as the person who wears it.