Celebrities are quick to release their own signature fragrances these days, but for Iman—founder of the revolutionary, shade-inclusive Iman Cosmetics, established in 1994—creating her own perfume just never crossed her mind. “I’ve always thought scent was too personal,” the model and entrepreneur says. (For years, she wore Robert Piguet Fracas.)
But now, with her first fragrance, Love Memoir, out now on HSN, getting personal is exactly the point. Love Memoir was created as an olfactive tribute to her relationship with her husband, the late, great musician David Bowie. The pair lived in New York City, but also shared a home in upstate New York. During the pandemic, Iman found herself alone, revisiting some of the memories she shared with Bowie, many of them at their upstate property.
“It’s been five years, and I thought I had processed my grief, but I hadn’t. I was actually helping my [then] teenage daughter through hers,” Iman tells BAZAAR.com. Sometime around the New Year, Iman went to the house to shelter in place on her own. Typically, she would never stay more than a weekend, because the place made her too sad. But this year, “What happened was truly remarkable.”
Spending time alone in nature, outside of the house, Iman says, “The landscapes and sunsets … the mountains and the trees … they were magical. They helped me come through the other side.” She adds, “There is nowhere to escape, nowhere to run to. All of the sudden, the memories that were sad became joyful.”
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Since Bowie passed away, Iman had exclusively been wearing Bowie’s signature fragrance, Tom Ford Noir Extreme (“This way, I could be with [David] all day and all night long,” she says), but there came a shift where she wanted to create something to wear, something new to honor him, and also share her memories of him with others.
“I wanted to create a tribute to the memories I had with my husband for three decades,” she says. “The fragrance couldn’t be trendy. It had to have a past.” Something that captured “the hot, steamy days in the beginning, and how that changed when two people commit to themselves when you get married. It’s romance and devotion.”
The resulting juice is a blend of vetiver (one of Bowie’s favorite notes), along with bergamot, a nod to Florence, where they got married. The scent also has notes of orris and patchouli. The perfume is dramatic, yet soft, and has major staying power. Between the powdery and woody notes, there’s a real nostalgia to it.
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The glass bottle is designed to resemble stacked stones. “As I walked the property, I started collecting stones and stacking them—it was calming. I Googled to see why I was gravitating toward this, and I saw stacked stones are actually called cairns. This practice has many different spiritual meanings across cultures. For some, it’s a memorial, and in others, it’s a symbol of infinity,” she says. “Cairns also let others walking behind you know that they are walking on the right path.”
Not only did Iman stack stones to find peace, she surprised herself by beginning to paint. She wanted to capture those epic sunsets she shared with Bowie—paintings would eventually be used in the inner packaging for Love Memoir. Though she’d hardly ever picked up a paintbrush before in her life, that didn’t stop her from trying during the pandemic. (“You start running out of things to do!” she says.) “I went on Amazon and bought some colors,” she shares. While Bowie’s work has sold at auction houses, Iman wasn’t intimidated by the process. “One of the things I like about myself is that I get out of my own way. Also, I thought David would get a kick out of it.”
Shop Iman Love Memoir, $85, online at hsn.com.
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