I realize that entire industries are based on finding just the right combination of floral/musk/earthy/delicate scents to entice a new mate into your life, cover up potential body odours, and a myriad of other reasons.

But here’s the thing.

When I am doing a fitting, I am right there, up close and personal. And I am allergic to perfumes.  I have been since childhood, though I don’t think my parents realized why I was so off the wall moody at times.

Besides a well known fact amongst my friends – a Fed Tracey is a Happy Tracey, another fact becoming known in my circles of both friends and now clients, be Scent-free to keep Tracey fully functioning.

Speaking of functioning, I appreciate a functioning deodorant for those folks with extreme body odour. But unless you have that problem, you probably don’t smell bad. Really, you don’t.

You probably wash yourself often enough, otherwise you wouldn’t be in a position to have clothes made/altered.

So I ask you, perfume…Really?

And it’s not just me.  Check out this article on Carfleurbon -Perfume: The New Second Hand Smoke…

 

Are we hyper-sensitive ? Yeah, probably.

But that’s the backlash of having our senses lambasted with so much stimulation for so many years – be it wheat, smoke, dairy, peanuts, shellfish or any one of the other hundreds of allergens out there, we over do things, and then our bodies rebel.

I was never into perfume, nor smoking. But I was exposed to it during my childhood from every possible source – it was the 70’s and 80’s after all.  And a few years back I had to start vocalizing my discomfort around people who did not realize that their habits were making me ill.  A lot of people have been fighting this battle with much more vehemence than me and kudos to those squeaky wheels.

I try to be nice about it, and remove myself when I can, but really, at some point, the “users” are the ones who need to be the “better person” and stop smoking around me, stop wearing heavy perfumes { natural or synthetic, makes no difference for my nausea meter – DING DING!}.

THANK YOU to all of my very good friends and total strangers who do this!  You folks are considerate,  appreciated and an example to everyone else!

But “everyone else” can be really unaware.  Unfortunately we then have to rely on legislation to protect us from the unsafe as well as the merely inconsiderate.  Every step the government takes to limit my exposure to these toxic for me substances, I applaud.

But when you come to my home studio, you may not realize the extent I suffer after being exposed to perfumes. Now I have had to include a note to every client, before they come to me for their fittings that says:

PS: due to allergies resulting in respiratory reactions:No perfumes/scented items. No fabrics or clothing with smoke residue. No fabric softeners or freshly dry cleaned items.Thanks, My lungs appreciate it.

 

There are some lovely signs out there that I might look into getting for my workspace.

And all of this was exacerbated in March due to off-gassing from synthetic interfacing I would never have purchased but it was brought to me by clients in a hurry – so thanks to my buddy Cat who gave me a couple of gas masks:

 

 

Oh, yeah. One more thing to think about when taking your clothes to be altered…Your clothes will be hung on a rack with likely a lot of  other peoples clothes. Even if they are in garment bags, all of the clothing smells like it’s owner. That is until they all frolic together on the rack and spread their scentiness to each other.

Nothing like a pile of clothing that smells like it’s been at a pub crawl in la belle province { oh wait, are they non smoking in clubs too now..?}