When Hermès debuted the Twilly scarf in the 1930s, it quickly became a chic alternative to the classic versions the brand is known for. Women would wear these long, narrow silk scarves with a different attitude—casually worn as a bracelet, tied onto a handbag, or worn as a ribbon in their hair. “There are girls who play fast and loose with the Hermès codes—I see them in the street, and they’re in my family,” says Hermès’s in-house perfumer, Christine Nagel. “They reinterpret [the classics] and make them their own.”

The Twilly perfume collection has been crafted to share the same spirit that the ‘Hermes Girls’ are known for; playful, full of sparkle, and can take a classic and make it their own.

Nagel created a fragrance collection with the very same spirit: The Twilly collection. Less precious and more playful than the full stable of Hermés perfumes, Twilly scents are all based on raw materials “used in great abundance,” says Nagel. The first was centred around tuberose, the second pink peony, the third, and the newest, Twilly d’Hermès Eau Ginger.

While ginger is often used in men’s colognes—it has a particular bite and crispness—Nagel tempers it with one of the most hyper-feminine flowers on Earth: the peony. This “special and unusual flower” gives the scent an airy, floaty feeling. It’s the kind of fragrance that’s difficult to overuse—it opens up bright and has a delicate cedar dry down on the skin. It doesn’t overpower but envelops you and radiates out just enough.

“Many women’s fragrances are very sweet and sugary, and I wanted a different baseline, which is how I decided on ginger. There is ginger in all three Twilly scents, but for the latest Twilly Eau Ginger, I wanted to use both the floral facets of ginger and candied ginger. I went with peony as the main floral note as well, which can be complicated as it is what’s referred to as a mute flower. This doesn’t mean it has no scent – the scent or a peony is beautiful – it just means you cannot produce a natural extract. So to recreate, you need to combine other ingredients – it is almost like poetry. And to give the fragrance some backbone, I always add a woody note – in this case, I chose cedar.”

That sort of easygoing, uplifting vibe is precisely the sort of thing people are looking for right now, says Nagel. In 2021, fragrance has a new function: “It should act as a bubble of pleasure around you,” she says.

“We’re living in an unusual time,” she continues. “The global pandemic made us realize that we lost the pleasure of life—that included the sense of smell. Now, it’s more meaningful when you leave a trail of perfume behind you.”