sillage
/sēˈäZH/
noun
the degree to which a perfume's fragrance lingers in the air when worn.
"neither scent has a very strong sillage"
Welcome. I don’t know how you made it here, but I’m glad it happened. My name is Emily Jensen, I’m a freelance writer and editor living in New York City. I write a lot about fragrance, hence the name of this substack. And I’ll probably cover a lot of that here, but I’m interested in the concept of sillage for more than just perfume. What causes something to linger, to stay with us? That’s what I’m curious about, how something in the beauty, fashion or cultural sphere permeates the air and leaves a trail.
A bit more about me. I used to live and work in Buenos Aires, then Rio de Janeiro, with a few stints in California before coming here. Somehow now I’ve been in New York enough years to lose count. I’ve been a magazine editor, a travel writer, a fashion editor. Also mediocre bartender, and very good restaurants hostess. But these days I mostly cover fashion and beauty, with an emphasis on the latter.
Because of my beat people often ask me for brand or product recommendations, and I have my own favorites. But to be honest I don’t really give shopping recommendations. Who am I to tell you what’s cool or what you should try? What I’m most interested is moreso why and how people buy and consume things — how did this brand become cool? How did this seemingly random thing become a trend, and what does that say about our culture at large? I’m interested in the machinations behind why you buy things and what you put on your body.
But a little smattering of my work. Maybe if you’re here, you’ve read some of it already. I’ve written plenty of straightforward fashion and beauty coverage: I’ve interviewed pioneers like Telfar Clemens, Rick Owens, Pharrell, Frederic Malle. I also love the weirder, everyday corners of fashion, like the enduring appeal of David Kibbe’s body types or the enigma that is Jeremy Fragrance. And of course I write about perfume trends like vegetable-forward scents and the wide world of wedding fragrances. I also write essays from time to time, on topics like the maddening obessing with having an orgasm “through sex” that frames intercourse as the only valid type of sex, or the way “skincare first” beauty tries to sell us on progressive values while simply putting a higher premium on having “good skin.”
What will I be covering here? Probably a lot of ideas like those above, but I’m hoping to showcase ideas and writing that doesn’t always have a home in the other outlets I write for. But we’ll see. I’m glad you’re here.
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