LoveShackFancy Expands Into Beauty With Their First Fragrance Collection

You simply can’t have LoveShackFancy without flowers. From the floral motifs that adorn the dresses to the petal-powered décor of their boutiques to the live blooms that are found at every event, flowers are truly a motif of the brand. “Everything is always inspired by flowers, so I think that fragrance has been the most natural extension of LoveShackFancy,” says LoveShackFancy Founder and Creative Director Rebecca Hessel Cohen. “Fragrance is embedded into the DNA of the brand, since the beginning, because nothing happens without flowers ever.”

That makes LoveShackFancy’s expansion into beauty, starting with a fragrance collection, an organic next step of the unmistakable pink, frilly, floral universe that Cohen has created. Pegged to the tenth anniversary of LoveShackFancy, they’re launching with three fragrances on September 15 at Sephora. Each bottle is adorned with one of their signature hand-painted florals from their vast collection of prints and topped with a bow. Forever in Love is a fruity floral with green pear, gardenia and cedarwood, created by Firmenich master perfumer Honorine Blonc. Moondance is a warm floral dreamed up by IFF master perfumer Yves Cassar that spotlights rose, pink rhubarb, blackcurrant, oakmoss and sandalwood. A clean and classic floral made by Firmenich master perfumer Frank Voelkl, peony takes center stage in Bohéme, complemented by blackcurrant and soft white amber.

“I couldn’t decide on one because LoveShackFancy is about maximalism and it’s about sisterhood, fun and optimism,” Cohen says. “I tested out hundreds of different fragrances, I lived with about 20 for a good few months and then I fell in love with the last three. It makes perfect sense because for LoveShackFancy I always conceptualize and build out the worlds of three different personas, but they can all exist within one person. Each of the fragrances can be layered and a different part of whatever energy you’re leaning into. You can feel spontaneous and layer them, you can mix it up or you can just stick with one that’s your forever, but I personally love all of them.”

Two years in the making, LoveShackFancy is launching the fragrances on their own without a licensing partner. “Honestly, we never follow the rules or do what’s typical of what has been the norm for fashion or beauty brands,” Cohen says. “We paved our own path in terms of opening retail stores when everything else was closing. I’ve always listened to my gut and the authentic version of myself. This felt the best way to be able to have full control and to do things the way that we wanted to and listen to our customers and be able to have that direct relationship and follow our instincts as opposed to someone else’s idea of what we should be doing.”

Cohen expressed her vision with the master perfumers she worked with by sharing her favorite fragrances throughout her life and creating detailed mood boards for each of the LoveShackFancy personas. As a former editor at Cosmpolitan magazine, Cohen is no stranger to storytelling through visuals. “We put so much care, love and attention into all of it at LoveShackFancy, so I love seeing everyone having so much fun with beauty and it’s incredible to be able to take everyone on this journey together,” she says. “Marrying fragrance and fashion with all of these textures and colors and emotions and feelings is very cool and exciting.”

LoveShackFancy’s fragrance collection was deeply inspired by Cohen’s personal olfactive journey, both in life and for her brand. LoveShackFancy was born when Cohen made her bridesmaids’ dresses for her wedding at her family‘s house in Bridgehampton. “There’s a huge pear tree over the pool that I’ve looked at my entire life,” she says, and Forever in Love was built around the green pear note. “This very much has this feeling of home and nostalgia, of innocence, youth and coming of age, so we leaned into this beautiful notion of the green pear and mixed it with the white gardenia and the cedarwood. This is the entry point to LoveShackFancy and the dress is personified in layers of every pink you could possibly imagine with tulles and ruffles, and this fun, spirited, magnetic energy and personality that we feel is very much a part of the essence of every LoveShackFancy girl.”

Cohen’s mother was an editor at Seventeen for years, and her earliest memory of perfume was watching her mother get ready for events and spritzing on fragrance. “She was there during the heyday and so I grew up in the fashion and beauty closet there,” she says. “I was always so enamored as I would sit on her bed while she was getting dressed to go to a work event. She had these beautiful silver trays for her collection of antique perfume bottles and her Chanel No. 5. It felt like this very fancy, special thing watching her put on perfume.” Cohen hopes customers will look to her perfume bottles as heirlooms that they’ll want to put on display too.

The first LoveShackFancy fashion shows were filled with flowers, so the scent of champagne and florals evoke those memories for Cohen. “We always have an element of this party spirit and collective of girls together feeling beautiful, confident and sexy, and just having fun. That moment when all the confetti goes in the air, and the music is blasting and it’s that sense of euphoria is bottled up together.” And very soon people can take that scent with them wherever they go.