Two Aotearoa icons collide to create the scent of 1979
If draping yourself in raven hues and sculptural adornments doesn’t quite cut it, your ticket to full-body Zambesi immersion exists in the form of the brand’s newest creation: a perfume.
Named after the year Zambesi was born, 1979 is a sensory exploration of the brand’s attitude to dressing. This means curiously complex, yet highly-wearable genderless layers.
Top notes of bitter almond and bergamot see to this (all while sounding like something delish that you’d find at The Lebanese Grocer) alongside heart-notes of vanilla and patchouli, grounded by vetiver and leather.
A singular scent that brings together two masters of their craft, Zambesi 1979 was created in collaboration with Brooke Lean of New Plymouth-based fragrance house, The Virtue. Lean’s niche fragrance knowledge gave way to a 100% cruelty-free and blend of essential oils and botanical extracts, ethically-sourced from French fragrance capital, Grasse.
Zambesi founder Elisabeth Findlay describes 1979 as “not just a fragrance, but another textural layer to the Zambesi story”.
“I hope Zambesi 1979 will become part of its wearer’s story,” she adds. “I love how emotionally connected we can be to a scent: the memories it conjures, the moments it sparks in our minds, its ability to translate how we feel, how we see, how we think.”
Rounding off a phenomenal year for the brand, whose NZFW: Kahuria 2023 show (reviewed by FashioNZ in haiku-form) received unanimous praise in post-show write-ups, 1979 is available from December 7 in Zambesi boutiques, select retailers and online at zambesistore.com