Bob Mackie

on developing his new women's fragrance Masquerade

interview by Douglas Eby

Speaking of creating an addition to his well established line of fragrances, Bob Mackie says, "We wanted something that was consistent with the original Mackie, and yet not the same. Maybe the same customer for the original would like a change, and also we'd like to bring in some new women along the way."

He calls the new scent "very feminine, sensuous and glamorous" and admits, "I know those are all words that are hard to pin down to a certain fragrance, but I think we've got the right ingredients to do that. This is very close to what we decided to do in the very beginning."

Currently being launched through Nordstrom stores, the fragrance has been in development about two years, according to Byron Donics, president of the distributor, Riviera Concepts of America.

"There's an entire creative team that supports Bob and what he does," Donics notes. "The process of developing a new fragrance is very intricate and takes months and months. We evaluate samples, then ask for modifications, based on where we think the market is going. We test market to consumers, and sometimes go back and make adjustments. But, as Mr. Mackie says, the company that develops these fragrances has the world's greatest noses, and they are dedicated."

Calling Masquerade a "quintessential Mackie fragrance," Donics thinks it fits in well with the designer's renowned style. "Mackie fashion, as I see it, is about glamor and great taste, and about expressing femininity," he says. "This is a very feminine fragrance, what we call a semi oriental, floriental fragrance. There's nothing too shy about it. It's feminine in a very luxurious way, without being overpowering.

"And I think that's a lot of what his fashion does." Mackie adds, "A woman who puts on a uniform every day can wear Masquerade and feel really good about herself. Or a woman working in an office. It's a chance for people that ordinarily wouldn't wear the clothes that I design, or have that lifestyle. And not everybody does. You can have the clothes, the hair, the makeup, the whatever, but the fragrance finishes everything."

One of the "top note" ingredients in the new scent is mimosa, with additional "melody" being added by currant, sandalwood and other ingredients. The original Mackie fragrance had a base of cedarwood, sandalwood and oakmoss. But, Mackie feels, "It's really the end product that counts, more than the ingredients. It's like any good recipe: too much of one thing and not enough of another can make a big difference."

Donics notes his company has been the licensee for Mackie for approximately fifteen years, launching his only fragrances. The original Mackie of 1991 has had annual sales of about $10 million. Donics says their sales goal for Masquerade with Nordstrom is $2.5 million in the year 2000. "And I think we'll surpass our objective," he adds.

Mackie says this has not come about from simply putting his name and cachet on a choice fragrance, but rather has been a careful selection to fit his style. "Designing a fragrance is so ephemeral," he notes.

"It's almost impossible to pin down. We do, eventually. But it's not like the usual way I work, which is to sit down at my drafting table and work out something visually. You can't do that here. It's a whole other thing. It's very kind of mysterious. One day it arrives. You have to say Yes, this is the one, or No, this isn't quite right, can we work on it? There are ways of adjusting it before you really bring it out onto the market."

The name, of course, is a central element in product design and marketing. "I thought, wouldn't it be wonderful to call it Masquerade, but I was sure that name was already taken, because everything is registered now," Mackie says. "And for some reason, it was available. I can't believe nobody had taken it. They're naming fragrances after, you know, lint," he adds, laughing.

Other key elements are the package design and logo. "We liked the idea of a butterfly for the logo, and I ended up drawing it, Mackie explains. "When the name Masquerade was available, I thought of making the butterfly like a mask, so it's kind of a combination of being mysterious and free at the same time." He agrees the design has a masked ball or commedia del'arte feel to it. "We were just in New Orleans, and they thought we'd done it just for them." Mackie jokes.

The marketing and distribution organization for Masquerade, Riviera Concepts, is based in Ontario, Canada, and is a division of The Insignia Group, along with Schwartzkopf Ltd., one of the largest hair care companies in the world. Riviera is a member of the Canadian Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association public service initiative Look Good Feel Better, which provides workshops and information on skin care, make up, hair loss and nail care for Canadian women living with cancer. In addition to Mackie, Riviera holds fragrance licenses for Nicole Miller, Alfred Sung and Adrienne Vittadini.

Donics emphasizes his company "very consciously" went after Nordstrom for the launch of Masquerade. "In a lot of America today, they have become one of the arbiters of good taste," he says. "Nordstrom is one of the great merchants. They have a better understanding of who their customers are than any merchant in America. I think a lot of other retailers have unfortunately become, not merchants, but accountants.

"When you walk into a Nordstrom, you know you are. It's not because the piano is there, but they are about understanding customers and offering them products, and even more importantly, understanding their products and being able to communicate to their end customers."

Donics adds that Mackie "is based on the west coast. He's an international design star, and I wanted the premier retailer to introduce Masquerade on the west coast. They also have it in sixty two stores across the United States. We're launching simultaneously in Chicago and the midwest, Atlanta, southern Virginia, and elsewhere. But the major part of Nordstrom's focus in business is still the west coast." Masquerade will also become available in other stores beside Nordstrom, and in the fall will be launched internationally, in the Caribbean and Europe, on cruise ships and in duty-free shops.

It is clear from his comments that Donics appreciates Mackie's many creative talents, and is gratified that Riviera will continue to have a successful partnership with the designer. The "Unmistakably Mackie" retrospective last year at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, to showcase Mackie's fashion and costume designs, was in part sponsored by Riviera. It was a major event that "had more people attending than anything they had ever done," Donics points out. "Ignorantly, I had not understood the depth of his creativity and his genius. I knew his gowns for Cher, and all the great celebrities. That's what everybody knows. But I didn't know about all his design work, from a young age, his drawings and etchings and other work. He has an incredible amount of creativity."

Mackie has been designing for Broadway, music, television and film productions for some three decades. Stars he has dressed include Cher, Carol Burnett, Mitzi Gaynor, Diahann Carroll, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Madonna, Carol Channing, Elton John, Bernadette Peters, Liza Minnelli and many others, as well as special edition Barbies.

He has earned seven Emmys and three Oscar nominations. At a recent launch party for Nordstrom, Donics introduced Mackie, saying, "Whether it's personal life or business life, if you don't have passion, you won't be successful. When you have it, success is guaranteed. It may come in a form that we didn't anticipate, it may be later than we wished for, but it will come. But if you have that passion and really don't apply it in product development, and how you approach the customer, how you do everything, all that passion will go for naught. I think Bob's success has come from his great passion for what he's done, and his attention to detail."

Mackie has long been concerned with personal response to his work. "Glamor is a state of mind, a feeling of self confidence," he wrote in his 1979 book Dressing for Glamor. At the launch party for Masquerade, he comments, "I think there are designers who don't pay attention, that are just doing it to make something that looks fabulous. Or maybe they have a hundred pound, six foot model they want to dress," he adds. "But I'm interested in the average woman; she has to like it."

Likewise, what matters most for a fragrance is how others react, Mackie notes. "The response is everything," he says. "I mean, we don't want people to applaud when you walk into a room because you smell so good, but you want to get noticed."

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[originally published in Profit magazine, September, 2000]

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