Sean Connery as James Bond, a character known to wear Floris No. 89 cologne.

On the Scent

During World War II, spies had a little-suspected weapon: perfume. It was used for everything from building an undercover alias to making covert correspondences seem like love letters

By Elyse Graham

Fictional spies wear scents to stand out. In Ian Fleming’s novels, it’s implied that James Bond wears Floris No. 89—woody, spicy, and quintessentially English. A Bond girl attempting to seduce him wears little more than a smile and Chanel No. 5. The villain Emilio Largo wears Elsa Schiaparelli’s Snuff, a musky, green scent that he dabs debonairly on a handkerchief he tucks into his sharkskin jacket.

While researching Book and Dagger, my history of unconventional spycraft during World War II, I was surprised to learn that, in real life, spies in Britain’s Special Operations Executive wore scents to blend in. When agents went abroad for undercover missions, everything about them—from their clothes and soap to the type of powder they used to brush their teeth—had to match their alias. An unfamiliar smell could be the one incongruous detail that made a local police officer take notice.