The new exhibition at Casa do Design in Matosinhos (city in northern Portugal) is now open to the public!
The exhibition “Fragrance and Form: Design and Perfume Culture” opened on 31 May at Casa do Design in Matosinhos (city in northern Portugal). Andrew Howard, the exhibition’s curator, draws on Afonso Oliveira’s private collection, which highlights notable pieces of European perfume bottle and packaging art.
“Perfume appeals to our olfactory sense, but its materialization is designed to appeal to the aesthetic sense. That’s why the objects designed to contain perfume, the richly produced bottles, and their packaging, are the centerpiece of this exhibition,” explains the curator.
“Fragrance and Form: Design and Perfume Culture” invites you to discover the world of perfume through design — iconic bottles, stunning packaging and a close look at the aesthetics that surround the world of fragrances. This exhibition explores more than a century of history, art and the perfume industry, with a special focus on Portuguese production.
🕰 Hours:
Tue to Fri – 10am to 1pm | 3pm to 6pm
Sat, Sun and Holidays – 3pm to 6pm
Come and discover how design shapes the invisible. The exhibition will be open through September 30th, 2025.
The exhibition occupies a space of 1,200 square meters divided into several sections. The visit begins with the history of Portuguese glass factories, followed by a timeline that covers all perfume companies, with a focus on the Portuguese ones.
The third section covers all the ephemera of the collection …
With emphasis on catalogs and original documents.
We pass by a display of vaporizers of various shapes and colors …
Then enter two tunnels that take the visitor through a display of 260 bottles of Portuguese perfumes, followed by another tunnel with 240 bottles of international perfumes …
Ending with a collection of Lalique perfumes.
This is followed by a display of 230 boxes of rice powder and soap packaging.
The last room takes the visitor to a sensory experience where they can smell the raw materials that go into the composition of the perfumes.
This entire project was designed by the ESAD-IDEA design school and the Matosinhos City Council. The exhibition curator is Andrew Howard and the collection curator is Afonso Oliveira.
