Judy Garland’s 100th birthday: How her children commissioned a new fragrance in her honor

Perfumer Vince Spinnato says that when actress and singer Lorna Luft invited him to make a fragrance inspired by her mother Judy Garland there was never any doubt he’d do it.

But getting it done for the centennial of Garland’s birth on Friday, June 10, 2022? Well, that was another question altogether.

“That was only 18 months ago, and it was really a race against time,” says Spinnato, an Orange County-based cosmetic chemist and perfumer for more than 20 years. “Because it really takes about two or three years to do a fragrance normally.

“And of course, we couldn’t change when Judy’s 100th birthday was,” he says. “I’ve been saying the phrase ‘June 10, 2022’ since like 2020.

“So now, it’s days away. I’m ready to have a stroke, but that’s where it started.”

A scent for all

Judy – A Garland Fragrance will be released on the iconic star’s birthday on Friday in a limited-edition collector’s bottle. A wide release of the unisex fragrance is slated for the fall.

Spinnato grew up with Garland’s music in his home. “The Wizard of Oz” was his first Garland movie as it has been for so many. And he says he always felt a connection with her work and life.

“I just resonated with her personally,” Spinnato says. “And then just being a gay male myself, as I grew up and started learning more about her and her struggle.”

That’s one reason why he told the Garland children – in addition to Luft, her brother Joey Luft, and their half-sister Liza Minelli – that the fragrance needed to be unisex, something a woman or man might wear.

“Judy has a massive gay male following,” Spinnato says. “And also, of course, straight men and straight women as well, and gay women for that matter.

“So I knew from day one, I told the children, ‘This has to be unisex because we would be excluding half of Judy’s fanbase,’” he says.

Fragrant memories

Luft discovered Spinnato after picking up his book, “My Pursuit Of Beauty” about a year and a half ago. She called him up for advice on skincare – he has his own Caviar & Diamonds line of products – and he visited her several times at home in Palm Springs.

He got the offer to create the Judy fragrance in part because of his track record creating products for celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Victoria Beckham and Michael Jordan.

“When we do a fragrance for a celebrity, the first thing, of course, is we do a deep dive and say, ‘What do you like? What don’t you like?’” Spinnato says. “When we have a deceased icon like this, you want to make sure you get it extra right because she’s not around to give her opinion.”

So Spinnato asked Garland’s children what kinds of fragrances she liked. Her favorite, they told him, was the French perfume Ma Griffe, which was introduced by the Parisian designer Carven in 1946.

“It’s a very beautiful fragrance but it’s very female forward,” he says. “And kind of antiquated type of smelling.”

The Judy Garland rose, a yellow, orange and scarlet hybrid created in England in 1977, also provided a fragrant inspiration. “That was a no-brainer that had to be incorporated,” Spinnato says.

So was public opinion, a first for Spinnato.

“I, for the very first time, actually had America vote on a fragrance,” he says. Readers of Modern Luxury’s line of 21 regional magazines, which include Angeleno and Riviera Orange County, were invited to sample scent strips placed in issues last fall and vote for the one they liked best.

The final step was to incorporate more of the flowers and food that Garland liked, as recalled by her children.

“For example, she was addicted to chocolate so we have tonka bean and vanilla and different kinds of chocolate notes,” Spinnato says. “She’d loved orchids, so we have dark orchid in there.

“It’s very, very dialed in to Judy’s life and her likes through her children,” he says. “All three children have smelled it. They said we’ve actually nailed it. They love it.

“Liza even said on our ‘Entertainment Tonight’ segment that ‘it smells like mama.’”

A fluid design

The fragrance bottle won’t be revealed until the launch party Spinnato is hosting in Los Angeles on Garland’s birthday on Friday, though he agreed to share its inspiration in advance.

“We took her most iconic number, which is ‘Get Happy’ from ‘Summer Stock’ with Gene Kelly,” he says of the iconic 1950 movie performance that featured Garland singing and dancing in a black tuxedo jacket, stockings, and a fedora.

“My creative team analyzed the entire number from beginning to end and actually created the bottle around her body movement,” Spinnato says. “When you see this bottle by itself, you wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, that’s a Judy Garland bottle.’

“But when you see it side by side with her ‘Get Happy’ image, you see right away it has her tilted hat, the fedora, her body shape.”