Angela Flanders

Angela Flanders founded her perfumery in 1985 on Columbia Road in East London, restoring a Victorian shop in the heart of the Columbia Road Flower Market as her first boutique. After an earlier career in television costume design, she began by making her own pot pourri when a supplier declined to create a seasonal blend, which led customers to request personal fragrances. Her interest in historical perfumery and natural materials deepened, and in 1995 she published the book "Aromatics," reflecting her research into the craft.

From the late 1980s she developed a growing line of artisan fragrances, moving from pot pourri to fine perfume, candles, and home fragrance. The brand now offers over 40 perfumes across several collections, with early favorites such as Mandarin & Mint and later darker compositions like Figue Noire and Ambre Noire. The Collection Noire line, which includes Ambre Noire (2008), Oudh Noire, Cashmere Noire, Parisienne and Oudh de Soleil, showcases her fascination with rich, deep and smoky styles.

The house has received repeated recognition from the Fragrance Foundation UK. Precious One won the FiFi/Fragrance Foundation Award for Best New Independent Fragrance in 2012, and later Leather Rosa won the same category in 2023, following a 2019 finalist nomination for Taffeta. Leadership of the brand has passed to Angela's daughter, Kate Evans, who now runs the company and has introduced the Atelier Collection (launched in 2018 with Lawn) underlining the continuity of a small, independent artisan operation based in London.