Decorum Undone, Ta’if Ormonde Jayne 2004 Linda Pilkington Geza Schoen

Abdelrahman Mohammed

Ormonde Jayne (London) and its founder Linda Pilkington have been firmly embedded in my collection of perfumes for quite a few years now. For 20 years, Linda has spearheaded the company from its beginings with scented candles to become one of the most elegant and sophisticated collections of perfumes I have the privilege to know.

Ta’if is a delectable, intoxification of all I find irresitible in perfume, alluring, discrete yet powerful, aloof yet with an undercurrent of hushed breath that seeps into your pores with a whisper of anticipation and secrets to tell if you care to draw breath and listen.

A vivid and complex orchestration of 50 components, this is the masterful balancing act of perfumer Geza Schoen. Ormonde Jayne Ta’if never fails to induce a heady state of refined elegance. It accompanies me in a distinguished fashion and sophisticated air, somehow I move with more grace, yet in its embrace there is something thrilling to rise, it always raises a knowing smile to my lips as gradually it entices me . Forget what you think you know of Ta’if perfumes, this is an entirely different creature. Ta’if is a complete sultry oriental rose, bound with dates and saffron, clothed in amber swathes.

Yet for all its intrepid sojourning in foreign lands, it retains a propriety that takes me to the times of great travel and expeditions, I smile in delight as the form of the quintessential english woman, elegance with unquestionable style arises, slightly overtaken by an intrigue, unfamiliar scents surrounding her, eliciting a flush to the cheeks and the porcelain skin to shed tears as the humours are aroused. Conjuring Tilda Swinton in ‘Only Lovers left Alive’, the Jim Jarmusch film of 2013, as she strolls through Moroccan streets at night, elegant and confident yet with a different creature veiled beneath.

Tilda Swinton - Only Lovers Left Alive

Tilda Swinton - Only Lovers left Alive

Claire Basler - Art

Abdelrahman Mohammed.

The decorum is undone as the wild intoxication of Ta’if Rose, Fressia, Orange flower absolute and Jasmine batter at the defenses and loosen cultural bounds. To succumb is fated…… without question.

Lustrous begloved hands glide over polished balustrades, a slow motion revealing as each digit is released, freed from its constraint, it is the scent of the tumbling of hair loosened by deft hands to fall on pale, perfection of flesh. Luxurious counterpanes in a gilded panelled salon where the stays are loosed, the silken threads of restraint pulled to their length to the accompaniment of sighs in abandon, so inevitable.

Broom , Amber, Dates and Saffron all cultivate an air of inescapable aquiescence to the confluence of cultures.

Ta’if skillfully walks the divide between its aspects of decorum and willing surrender. An envelopment of seductive forces.

Quoted Notes from Ormonde Jayne - pink pepper, saffron, dates, rose accord, freesia, orange flower absolute, jasmin, Ugandan vanilla, broom and amber. But so much more…..

Ta’if can be found on the Ormonde jayne website along with the Ta’if Elixir, with an addition of Oudh.

Ormonde Jayne- Ta’if

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Collage credits - Fabio Interrea

Hairstyle Magazine, Detail of the Venus of Urbino - Titian

Slevin Aaron Bleaq.