Menagerie
Frater Perfumes (2022)

Jamie Frater, Perfumer & Creative Director:

Whilst sojourning with my brother in Windsor, England, we took a trip to a steam fair to while away a winterly day. It was situated on a family farm upon which a caravan of colourful gypsies had settled in for a short stay. The cold wet air and the odour of dank hay and smoke from the nearby village chimneys created a truly Dickensian scene. Wild-eyed, the gypsy children gleefully skipped amongst the throng with giant copper pennies clutched in their hands—these were the only coins that would operate the Victorian steam machines. An antique calliope wheezed and groaned as it played an old circus tune.

Clouds of pink candy floss and blood-red orbs of toffee apples bobbed past in the hands of the crowd, punctuating the grey day, and nuts crackled and popped as they were roasted over a brazier burning brightly. It was an experience I determined never to forget. And so, in time, I found myself working to distill the pleasures of that day into a fragrance. Thus was born Menagerie.