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<\/a><\/p>\nI<\/span>f Winston Churchill were still with us, he\u2019d certainly recognize me as a kindred spirit. Not only do we share similar philosophies, but we also both know how to act on them, as well. I\u2019m particularly inspired by his declaration: \u201cI like things to happen. And if they don\u2019t happen, I like to make them happen.\u201d<\/p>\n When I agreed to try to save The Fragrance Foundation back in the late 1950s, it wasn\u2019t for money.<\/p>\n There was none. Nevertheless, as a lifelong fragrance devotee, I was intrigued by the challenge and plunged headlong into a sea brimming with possibilities.<\/p>\n Imagine what life was like in the \u201950s when I was asked to save the then defunct Fragrance Foundation\u2026<\/p>\n The U.S. only had a population of approximately 151.33 million, compared to today\u2019s 327.16 million. The average salary was $5,010, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis reigned, teenagers were treated like children, and the TV remote was invented along with the Hula-Hoop and Legos.<\/p>\n With it all, the late \u201950s was a time of conformity. And that was particularly expressed through fashion and fragrance attitudes. Looking every inch the lady was the mandate of the day. Hourglass figures dominated with cinched waistlines that accentuated the hips and the bust\u2014shades of Christian Dior\u2019s new look.<\/p>\n Most women didn\u2019t work and few wore perfume, except for on special occasions when they dressed up in little black dresses that were adorned with a single strand of pearls.<\/p>\n My career zigzagged through an extraordinary array of social changes that had been waiting in the wings in the 1960s. In reality, the commitment I\u2019d made to the fragrance industry turned out to be a 10-year challenge that few supported.<\/p>\n In fact, most industry members told me to forget it.<\/p>\n Their denials made me even more relentless in my search for success. Little could I have imagined that I was embarking on a 40-year journey that would change the fragrance industry and a host of other related and unrelated worlds forever.<\/p>\n The Fragrance Foundation was about to be shuttered. At the time, it represented a handful of French perfume companies. The U.S. market added up to a little more than $500,000 annually. Today, it\u2019s a $4 billion-plus industry in the U.S.<\/p>\n A group of fragrance executives, ones who knew me, suggested we meet. I was the president and founder of my own public relations agency, Annette Green Associates, which specialized in the beauty and fashion industries. I accepted the invitation and quickly discovered that these potential saviors were asking me to come to the rescue pro bono.<\/p>\n The basic problem was that American women didn\u2019t wear fragrances, except for on special occasions. In fact, it was considered the ultimate luxury for a fragrance to be given to a woman by a man. Women rarely bought it for themselves.<\/p>\n I might also add that most women didn\u2019t work. That would all change in the \u201960s and presented me with a remarkable opportunity to jump into the abyss.<\/p>\n To get started, the first thing I saw as a necessary change was for the industry to move away from the identifying all scents as \u201cperfumes\u201d instead of \u201cfragrances.\u201d It seemed obvious to me that colognes, toilet waters, and bath products offered a more diverse range of pleasures at more reasonable prices. Slowly, the industry began to accept the change.<\/p>\n Next, I introduced the concept of a \u201cwardrobe of fragrance\u201d to allow women, who were beginning to enter the workforce, to select scents that were appropriate for the occasion, the season, and an individual\u2019s mood. It only took me 10 years to convince the market and the consumer that this was the path to the future.<\/p>\n Along the way, I met the most wonderful and creative supporters and co-conspirators who all contributed in their own unique ways to the strategies I\u2019d proposed to build the fragrance industry.<\/p>\n It meant gaining the support and participation of brilliant package designers, highly skilled fragrance creators and marketers, scientists who understood the positive effects of fragrance on our lives, retailers who\u2019d feature the promotions we developed, and even educators to teach the next generation of professionals how to bring new excitement to the growing global marketplace.<\/p>\n Along with my co-conspirators, we launched the prestigious FiFi Awards, which would become known as the \u201cOscars of the fragrance universe;\u201d the bachelor\u2019s degree program in fragrance and beauty marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology<\/a> (FIT) in New York City; and the Annette Green Perfume Gallery<\/a> at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) Museum<\/a> in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n I conceived an extraordinary exhibition, Scents of Time\u2014which opened to rave reviews from the New York media, including the New York Times\u2014at the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) before it toured the country.<\/p>\n In the \u201980s, I committed my energies to advancing and supporting studies in leading universities and hospitals around the world to expand the understanding of the science behind the sense of smell and the many, important roles of scent to improve behavior and self-confidence.<\/p>\n We\u2019d needed to use every ounce of imagination possible to turn the fragrance industry around.<\/p>\n As I began to assemble years of documentation\u2014which included letters, photographs, tributes, books, videos, and articles written by me and others for my new book, Spritzing to Success with the Woman Who Brought an Industry to its Senses\u2014I realized the untold story of my years of dedication at the helm of The Fragrance Foundation should be shared with a new generation of fragrance devotees.<\/p>\n It became my hope that my love for the industry and its potential would become contagious. And it has.<\/p>\n Interest in fragrance by the public, media, celebrities, academia, collectors, and a burgeoning marketplace set a dynamic new base for growth. Books and articles were written. TV coverage grew. Awards were given, exhibitions mounted, and symposiums and star-studded galas became sensory sensations. The role of the sense of smell took on international importance and gave new meaning to fragrance as a mood modifier and positive influence in people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n Although my 40-year journey was in the fragrance universe, I believe that there are more similarities than differences for those who yearn to make their marks in the world. Spritzing to Success doesn\u2019t soft-pedal the realities of making the climb and the choices that had to be made.<\/p>\n As the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson sagely observed: \u201cFor everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the gains, I was globally honored for my accomplishments in the fragrance universe, traveled to faraway places, drove a 1966 Mustang silver and black convertible for 40 years, kept as physically fit as possible, ate a Mediterranean diet before it was considered necessary, devoted myself to the arts, became a global news junkie and public speaker, and learned to become tech savvy.<\/p>\n Most importantly, I dedicated myself to the art of dealing daily with the push and pull of life.<\/p>\n For me, it was a love affair that filled my life not only with becoming a full-blown careerist and contributor to the growth of an industry but also for carving an extraordinary and strategic path for others to follow.<\/p>\n It made every twist and turn along the way rewarding in spades. I\u2019m proof positive that unimagined pleasures and also personal and professional rewards wait around the bend for those stalwarts dedicated to the pursuit of excellence.<\/p>\n I wrote Spritzing to Success with the Woman Who Brought an Industry to its Sense<\/a>s<\/em> in the hope that it would serve as an inspiration to readers, whatever their goals and aspirations. All net proceeds from the sale of Spritzing to Success<\/em> go to supporting scholarship funds for fragrance and beauty marketing in the bachelor\u2019s degree program at FIT and to the Annette Green Perfume Gallery at the FIDM Museum.<\/p>\n Profile of Annette Green, \u201cHigh Priestess\u201d of the fragrance industry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2018","category-fall-2018-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7985"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8415,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7985\/revisions\/8415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>The Challenge Begins With Life in the \u201950s<\/h4>\nZigzagging Through the \u201960s of Social Change<\/h4>\n
Meeting the Problem Head-On<\/h4>\n
<\/a>Smell of Success<\/h4>\n<\/a>Genesis of a Memoir<\/h4>\nAnnette Green, the author of Spritzing to Success with the Woman Who Brought an Industry to its Senses<\/em>, shares her insights on what it takes to do the impossible. She\u2019s 94, works out three days a week at the gym, lectures, still drives, is on several boards, and still practices what she preaches. She\u2019s considered by many to be the \u201cHigh Priestess\u201d of the fragrance industry.<\/h5>\n
Spritzing to Success with the Woman Who Brought an Industry to its Senses<\/em><\/a> by Annette Green \u00a9 2018. Published by Dog Ear Publishing. Paperback.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"