The model, singer, and actor Grace Jones, in her signature gravelly voice, is describing the smell of Jamaica post-thunderstorm to me: “Maybe it hasn’t rained in a couple of days, and then a big shower just comes down, and everything mixes with that smell. It could be the food that’s being cooked around you, or it could be the flowers or the plants. And when it hits the Earth, it all kind of rises up into an amazing smell that you just go, oh.”
The fashion icon’s voice is filled with whimsy and awe as she speaks of her birthplace and current residence. The specific memory—no, feeling—of the island is so palpable and infectious, you want to package it up and sell it. Thankfully, that’s exactly what Jones has done.
Jones—who defined gender-bending fashion throughout the ’70s and ’80s in looks by Issey Miyake, Thierry Mugler, and countless other designers—has created a genderless limited-edition candle with the fragrance house Boy Smells. The one-of-a-kind candle, simply titled “Grace,” promises to transport users to the star’s slice of rain-soaked Jamaica. There’s a poetic journey to the burn: top notes of black pepper and bergamot, which give off a zesty and spicy smell, middle notes of freesia, waterlily, and Turkish rose (all inspired by the flora of Jamaica), and dry notes of salted musks and wet stones accord, which reference rain drying on stones. “Grace” is less of a scent than a lush encapsulation of time and place.
Jones employed an intuitive approach to the R&D process of landing on the exact scent she wanted for her first candle. “We did about a dozen different ones,” she tells me on a call. She placed the test candles in rooms all around her house, lit them for a few hours, and closed the door. The faint after-smells—much like the lingering presence of a downpour—were important to her. “I would go back into the rooms, put the candles out, wait a little while, and walk back into the room. The one that grabbed me is the one we went with.”
The team over at Boy Smells drew from varied references and scent inspirations while working with Jones, like her ’90s leather Azzedine Alaïa looks and an out-of-production Norman Norell fragrance the star used to wear a lot. “Musk was really at the heart of all the vintage fragrances that she loved,” Matthew Herman, cofounder of Boy Smells, tells Vogue. Hence the subtle notes of salted musk and hard-edged graphite to the candle.
The collaboration was one of time, care, and patience: “Grace” was originally slated to be released in February, during NYFW, but Omicron threw a wrench in everyone’s plans. Today, however, Herman finds himself slightly thankful for the unexpected delay.
“Grace is more and more in the zeitgeist right now,” Herman says, alluding to how the star has connected with a younger set of fans who appreciate her ahead-of-the-times experimentations with gender. “There is something about her relentless sense of self that feels really ripe for right now and really resonates with culture and identity right now. Of course we would have loved to launch it when we were meant to, but it feels even more right right now by happenstance.”
Collaboration has been in the air for Jones as of late. She recently appeared on Beyoncé’s highly acclaimed album Renaissance—which masterfully harkens back to the disco-tinged, opulent club-kid era of the ’70s and ’80s that Jones was a fixture of. “I remember saying, ‘Beyoncé, you know I don’t usually do these kinds of things,’” Jones recalls of how her appearance on the album’s standout track “Move” came about. “I’m a born-alone, die-alone, sing-alone kind of girl.” But Jones eventually gave in to Queen Bey’s requests. “She was very, very sweet, so I said okay. I’ve met her a few times actually—through my brother’s church in Los Angeles. So we had that church connection outside of being singers as well.”
The singular and exacting vision Jones brings to projects shines as she talks of the collaboration. She had one major request: no auto-tune. “Basically I would listen and say, ‘as long as I sound like me, I’m happy.’” She laughs warm and deeply. “I remember when I first heard it, and we were communicating right then and there with the person that was mixing [the song]. I’d say, ‘Okay, that part doesn’t sound like me,’ and ‘This part sounds like me.’ I’d say, ‘don’t do anything much, don’t tweak my vocals.’”
Grace credits her fierce sense of self and artistry, in part, to the revered Japanese designer Issey Miyake, who passed away last month. She fondly recalls how Miyake took her under his wing as a young artist and brought her along for his then controversial and provocative touring show, “12 Black Women.”
“My first record, “I Need A Man,” had just come out,” Grace says, “and Issey said, ‘I think you should sing [the song] in my wedding dress.’ And that was the first show I did for Issey. It was so inspiring, not that I did just one show—we toured for a whole month in Japan, and all of that is in his book, East Meets West, I believe.” Grace says Miyake taught her invaluable lessons. “He was an amazing springboard, and he took me to the moon. A lot of how I performed, my movements, the stillness, I learned from that tour. You know, Tina Turner tells me, I don’t really work hard. And she laughs, ‘Oh, girlfriend, Grace, you don’t really work at all. You just kind of pose!’” And that’s because of Miyake.
And more collaborations are on the way for Jones. She alludes to meeting with Kim Jones, creative director of Dior, on something big and important to come. Ditto, Anthony Vaccarello. The 74-year-old is experiencing an entirely new and exciting chapter of her career.
As the conversation wraps, I ask the eternally stylish star what modern designers she’s interested in right now. The more-is-more landscape must feel like a playground for someone who once wore a silver-plated bodysuit on the red carpet—the same person who regularly had an army of jockstrap-clad male dancers at club performances. Jones thinks for a beat and says, “Well, I’m looking for a good bathing suit.”
The Grace Jones x Boy Smells ‘Grace’ candle is available for purchase starting September 8 here.
