A year and a day. Interview with Eva Skovranova, owner of 1907 brand.

The symbol of “Fleur de Lis” with 1907 written under it lighted up in another city of Slovakia. The owner of 1907 brand, Evka Skovranova, on the 3^th of September 2015, festively opened her second niche perfumery. This time in Bratislava. She succeeded in locating it on the best address, Hviezdoslavovo square, in the Carlton Hotel’s passage. To the festive opening, respected colleagues from the world of luxury perfumes came to support her. But the history of the brand starts much earlier. It started in 2009 when the brand was established. In less than 5 years, on the 16^th of October 2014, the brand presented to the media and the public, their own line of perfumes 1907, putting Slovakia on the world map of perfumes. On the shelfs of 1907 cosmetics, perfumes started to keep them company. What happened within a year and a day from the 16^th of October 2014 till today? Evka Skovranova responds to the questions.

1. Let’s go back 366 days. What this day meant for the perfume brand 1907?

On the 16^th of October 2014, for the first time the perfume line of 1907 brand was presented to the public. Three days later, the first perfume of 1907 was sold in Paris. It was the “Pepper” fragrance. Then the first blogs about us where published abroad. It was a shock for me, we were not prepared for such an avalanche. From Paris, the brand started to spread to other cities in Europe.

2. So emotions were at its highest. How did you lived over with them? (how did you lived with them?)

When it was clear that all the line of 1907’s perfume is going to Paris, came a huge emotional explosion. It was a dream coming true, and it took me some time to realize that it’s for real. Reality that it was hard to believe. I could not stop crying from happiness.

3. From those days a year went by, what happened during this time?

The brand got in other European cities, we are working on another perfume line that will be quite different that the first one. The first line honors a concrete perfume ingredient. With the second line, we want to show another sophisticated beauty of perfumes. Master perfumers are already working on the assignments. We really are not in a hurry. During the next year we want to bring out the first perfumes of the second line.

4. Why did you decide to offer other niche brands apart yours as well in your perfumeries?

To show people that there is also a different world of perfumes hiding behind the word niche perfumes, independent perfumes, artistic perfumes…. perfumes with a story, emotion, image, that are presented and sold in a totally different way as people are used to it.

5. So in what it is different than the usual?

The usual is to live fast, buy fast, consume fast. We try to pull people to another world, the world of tranquility, fantasy. The shopper that comes to us should have time, an open mind, and looking for something different than he can buy in the classical perfumeries. The buying process of such a perfume should be relaxing, something pleasant that he should dedicate time to it. It is not about spraying the perfume on the hand and going away. It is like about selecting your partner, it also needs time, and needs to sit well with you.

Perfume is your second skin, it is a fragrant signature, something you don’t see, but your entourage subconsciously perceives. That’s why it should be the best representation of your personality, and the way you want to present yourself.

6. What angers you the most in the perfume world?

It angers me that the goal of some of the brands is to sell whatever, wherever possible, just to sell as much as possible. It loses the quality and originality. Marketing and advertisement are doing their job. If you take a look at peoples shelfs of perfumes, you will find more or less the same brands. It is enough to just sit down somewhere, and in an hour at least 3 women will pass by with the same perfume. For me to speak about those perfumes about originality is really hard. It makes me angry.

7. With what the perfume world makes you happiest?

It makes me happy that honest perfumery still exists, that works as in the old times. It is not for everyone. No big quantities are manufactured, and the highest quality of ingredients are used. These ingredients are demanding from financial point of view, and those that manufacture in big amounts cannot afford to buy them. There still are master perfumers and brands, that preferred quality and originality before quantity, love and ardor before profit. With that I don’t want to say that they don’t want to sell their perfumes, they do, but not wherever, and under whatever conditions. They are not pushing to the masses their perfumes with advertising, the best advertising for these perfumes is the quality and enjoyment of the clients. If a client is satisfied, will express the satisfaction by recommending, and that is the best advertising.

8. Would it be simpler elsewhere than in Slovakia?

Sure. It would be simpler doing it elsewhere. In Slovakia there is no background that you could rely upon. There are almost no raw materials, no master perfumer resides in here. In Slovakia there is no one with whom to make highest quality perfumes. Selling this kind of perfumes is also simpler abroad. Here there is still a small percentage of clients prepared for another type of service when buying a perfume. The majority is used to come into a perfumery, take from the shelf a tester, spray it, smell it, buy it or not. Here perfumes are purchased impulsively. In specialized perfumeries as also ours, it is not working like that, this type of perfumeries has trained personnel that provides a wider service to the client. Niche perfumery is another world, world of pictures, emotions, dreams, stories. It is best to let the professional to speak, and listen to him, it is an adventure, a trip to another world, an other reality.

  1907  Košice                                                                                        1907  Bratislava

9. Why did you decide that you will be the one to change it?

It was natural and also with the sentence: don’t say that it is impossible, because somebody who does not know that it is impossible will do it. Everybody was telling me that making your way out of Slovakia with perfumes made in Slovakia is not real, and it is only money thrown away. 1907 made it and stands on shelfs in perfumeries abroad, and is sold the same way as other brands made abroad..

10. From where the ideas for your perfumes are coming?

The first line was the fascination with an ingredient, and memories, the surfacing of a memory. One of these memories is Almond. Those are grandmothers candy, although the perfume itself has no sweet fragrance, but contains almond butter.

11. If you had to evaluate the past year, what was it about?

For sure it was fast, at some moments wild. It started in January 2015, when we went to China and presented niche perfumes from Europe, we had lectures, prepared our new perfumery in Bratislava that we grandly opened on the 3d of September in Carlton Hotels passage. Two days at home, and departure to world exposition PITTI FRAGRANCE in Florence, in the mean time working on the second line of our perfumes, and now preparing for Christmas, and Christmas presentations.

12. A normal day, how does it looks for you?

Waking up, drinking the morning coffee, and feigning that I still don’t exists. Sometimes I don’t know if it is weekend, or a normal working day. If I am going to manufacturing shop, I am leaving after the morning coffee, and coming home sometimes in the evening, even in the night. If it is a day that I am going to the perfumery, than it is about administrative work, creative work, presentations….there is always something to do.

13. In what your perfumes are different?

The philosophy of the first line was to connect to the family tradition, and make perfumes that thematically are about one ingredient, soliflors as it was in the past, by example violet, lily of the valley. Our perfumes have no colorants, and Vanilla has no allergens, if you are not allergic to alcohol. The allergens where extracted during the manufacturing of the fragrance base. Nevertheless, the perfume contains Bourbon Vanilla essence, that is considered the best in the world. We are not the only brand that have soliflors, quite a few niche brands have their lines build on soliflors. Their beauty is their explicitness and easy readability. The client has nothing to riddle. Soliflors are build around one main exceptional ingredient, and all other ingredients of the composition are supporting and completing its beauty.

14. Jasmin of 1907 was declared as one of the best perfumes of 2014 on one of the most visited perfume blog abroad. Evidently it captured interest. Why?

Our Jasmin has a very natural smell, it is not sweet as most of jasmines, it is unintrusive, but catching. For sure it is not a decorated bouquet of white flowers. It is not a sweet Barbie it is a measured dame. Even tough with Jasmin it is complicated, you either love it, or hate it.

15. And what about men?

Mr. "Pepper" opened the sales in Paris. It was the first of our perfumes sold in Paris. Pepper was for me love at first smell. You defined him right, for me Pepper is a gent. A bit aromatic, a bit dark, serious, playful, elegant, different from Pine that for me has two bearings. One position for me is forest after a summer rain. The other is an unbound man without constraints. Cedar on the other hand reminds me of a well-dressed man, showered, shaved, cosmopolitan man.

16. What will be the trends in the coming 10 years, and where do you see yourself?

I don’t know what the trends will be. Typical niche brands should not follow trends. I can tell you I would like. It would be the return of honest elaborate special quality chypre fragrances, complex, unambiguous immutable perfumes, that have their own personality, and you cannot confound them with anything else. At the moment there are a lot of oud fragrances on the market, and sweet dried fruits.

So where you see yourself?

On one hand 10 years is a long time, on the other hand it is very short. I would be most content with selling 1907 brand in more countries in the world, and still keeping its independence in the creation of perfumes.

17. What perfumes you have on your shelf?

There are several pieces there, something for the winter, something for the summer and something based on the mood. For sure Galbanum is there, Verbena, Rose Powder that is not for sale, I made it only for myself. Initially I had Galbanum only for myself, but my friends liked it so much, that I released it on the market.

18. Rose Powder, so you have your personal perfume?

If you look at it like this, then yes. Rose Powder is something very light, something I made for my own pleasure.

19. Do you make personal perfumes for others as well?

Yes. But. Personal perfumes are advisable for mature personalities, that are in sync with their personalities, are clear about who they are, they don’t have to need to please others, or gratify everyone, it is for those that disregard if the perfume is to the liking of their surroundings, they firstly care if they like the perfume. Personal perfume maximally represents the personality of the wearer, it is original, it is a real work of art that no copies are made from. The price of personal perfume is the thousands, as there is only one item made, and as I mentioned, it is an original. Personal perfume is made by a Master Perfumer.

20. Favorite perfume ingredient?

At the moment iris, but natural one. All the summer I used iris, now for the winter, I need something more warm. Probably it will be some kind of chocolate patchouli, or quality umbra. I have more favorite ingredients, I pick them based on my mood.

21. One of the important, if not the most important feeling for us is security and assurance. How assurance and security smells for you?

Safety and security we have on our own ground, our stereotypes.  For me safety smells like someone who loves me, someone who belongs on my home ground. Someone with whom I can speak openly. Also my two hairy friends for me are smelling like security. They can be unbelievably happy when I come home, and be unbelievably sad when I go away for longer. Each of us has some combination of smells, rituals, that evokes his feeling of security. It is very individual. A beef soup may smell as security sometimes, morning coffee, or a perfume that takes you back to childhood, when you were protected. It is really very individual.

22. I posed this question to the others interviewed, I am asking you as well. If you would have to create a perfume named “morning after a “white night” how would it smell?

And after such a night I would go to sleep, or a normal day was waiting for me?

Ok then, lets divide it into two, a normal day, and going to sleep as well.

Early morning. I go to sleep. Soap, aldehydes. Something soft, warm. Amber. Something sweet for nice dreams. Liquor. For feeling secure – patchouli. I think that being bathed, in a soft bed with sweet and secure dreams is quite nice after a sleepless night.

A normal day is waiting me. Coffee, chocolate to pick me up and renewal of energy, replenishing of vitamins citrus fruits, for maintaining the energy some spices, for oxygen replenishment of the brain, ozone tones, and for the headache, basil.

Thank you for the interview.

It’s a blessing when work is also a hobby. Then its visible. As it is visible on Evka. Evka Skovranova. A woman that did not give up on her dreams. She put Slovakia in the perfume map of the world, and brings to the people enjoyment from fragrances full of stories.