Sarah Rotheram

It’s hard to fathom the shifting scales of thinking that go into conjuring up a fragrance and the whole story around it, putting it into the market at a global scale and orchestrating how it shows up in retail. For Sarah Rotheram – previously CEO at Creed, previously the boss at Miller Harris and Penhaligon’s – it seems to start with the minutia and details that ‘get the fingers tingling’, finding the grit in the mix to build the tension and working out the right rules to break. And, of course, there’s the whole multi-million business bits to juggle. Giddy stuff.

We met in a pub around the corner, had to wake the barman who was slumped asleep on the bar, and we chatted about what she’s got around the corner: everything else felt like a prequel the main story. I like to think that the show will serve as a decent bit of a research to her future biographer.

The show is full of tales from the top with a fizzy fragrance of fun. Sarah’s list accidentally leans towards specifically late 80’s on account of some crossed wires – including a banger from Chaka Khan and showers of love from Sade – along with quirky new soulful oddities and theatrics from Tyler, The Creator.