Wendy & Jim Go Skull Frontal

With their label Wendy & Jim, designers Helga Schania and Hermann Fankhauser have been pioneering Austrian fashion for 14 years. In 1999, they were the first from their nation to participate in Festival de la Mode in Hyères; in 2003, they became the only Austrians ever accepted into the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode. Now they’re taking on the world of perfumes with their first scent, DROP Nº01, which debuted this week in Vienna.

“First we wanted to use the skull of a wolf, but then we decided to use a fox skull as a synonym for being smart,” the designers explain. Sticking to their Austrian heritage, the skull-shaped flacon is produced by Vienna-based Augarten Porzellan, Europe’s second-oldest porcelain manufacturer. “We liked the idea of porcelain as the color is very similar to bones,” the designers say, noting that the act of filling and refilling the flacon, which is bought separately from the scent itself, dovetails perfectly with its shape. One version is pure white, another is hand-painted with a classic Wiener Rose motif.

Promoted as the first “natural” designer perfume on the market, DROP Nº01 boasts a 95% organic chemical profile. The three notes are a mix of citrus, blossom, and wood, fusing feminine and masculine with a dominant heart of Indian Jasmine and a base of Amyris. Exclusively mixed by perfumer Wolfgang Lederhaas to evoke an “orgiastic night,” the perfume can be worn by both men and women and would be loaded with sexual subtext even if its container didn’t remind us so much of a Georgia O’Keeffe.