Giorgio Armani mused that a perfume "is more than an abstract -- it is a presence in abstraction ... a mystique."

Christian Dior contended that "a woman's perfume tells more about her than her handwriting."

And the legendary Coco Chanel insisted that "no elegance is possible without perfume. It is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory."

One may disagree with these style icons, but they understood the power of fragrance to create persona and to evoke memories.

"A fragrance is like a cat burglar," Roja Dove, a world-renowned perfume expert, once suggested. "It has the key with which to pick the lock and unleash your memories."

While various subcategories of the fashion and beauty industry struggle to survive, the fragrance sector continues to see steady growth. A flood of new celebrity scents fueled that growth in 2007, while luxury and designer brands reasserted their long-held position in the marketplace with numerous launches.

However, rising fuel prices and credit uncertainty appear to have contributed to slower growth this year. The National Retail Federation predicted a 4 percent increase in retail sales this holiday season, lower than the 10-year average growth of 4.8 percent and the slowest annual increase since 2002.

Personal fragrance is still big business, with the prestige market alone approaching $2.9 billion annually, according to The NPD Group, a 40-year-old, New York-based market research firm.

The key to the fragrance industry's success may be the rapidly expanding number of options for consumers. There's no shortage of scents old or new at retail, with special gift sets at Christmas and other major gift-giving holidays bolstering sales.

Visit any department store and you'll find the rising number of celebrity fragrances eating away at display space. A signature scent, it seems, has become the ultimate vanity product for stars. Beyond keeping a name in the forefront, a namesake fragrance can generate a significant revenue stream that continues to flow long after the luminary's lustre has begun to fade.

Unfortunately, celeb scents veer toward the cliched and redundant, been-there-smelled-that shadows of better scents already on the market. Many of this year's launches are either too raw and grungy -- like men's scents KISS (after the face-painted rock group) and David Beckham's Intimately Beckham -- or overly saccharin, such as Usher She and L, a L.A.M.B. fragrance by Gwen Stefani.

Can Can Paris Hilton, the ubuiquitous heiress' newest offering, is downright cloying in its floral sugary sweetness. Like so many other women's fragrances by celebs, it's not much more than a good starter fragrance for a 12-year-old.

Among the crop of celeb scents introduced in 2007, M Mariah Carey may be the most interesting. The eau de parfum opens with the sweetness of the living Tahitian tiare flower and unfolds into a warm, nuanced scent with whispers of toasted marshmallows and incense.

Where celeb fragrances are lacking, new designer scents more than compensate. They are inventive beyond mere packaging, offering not just pretty boxes and breathtaking flacons but creative blends of common and unconventional ingredients. Among the year's best debuts were Pucci's Vivara, Fendi's Palazzo, Thierry Mugler's Eau de Star, Daisy Marc Jacobs, Jil Sander Stylessence, Hermes' Kelly Caleche, Michael Kors Island Hawaii and The One by Dolce & Gabbana.

There were major developments at the house of Chanel. First, the brand introduced six new eau de toilette scents in its uber-exclusive Les Exclusifs de Chanel collection. Then there was the surprisingly lovely reformulation of the classic No. 5. The original remains on shelves, lest any devotees worry.

"There's nothing wrong with a freshening," said Stacey Norwood, an associate editor who writes about the power of perfume in the debut issue of Birmingham-based Victoria women's magazine. "You don't want to take away what's loved by people, because they will resent you for that. But a freshening is nice."

Including new offerings from specialty stores such as L'Occitane, department stores such as GAP, Victoria's Secret, and Bath & Body Works, and beauty giants such as Estee Lauder and Coty, about 200 new scents debuted this year.

That can make fragrance shopping a bit overwhelming.

Ms. Norwood has a solution. Rather than relying on a signature scent, she advised, own several that you like, and decide which to wear on any given day based on your mood: innocent, longing, indulgent, romantic or mysterious.

"Women are very much creatures of mood," she said. "Scent plays to our emotions more unexpectedly than any of our other senses. Scent is incredibly powerful and can transport you to another place, another time, another mood. So, have several scents on your vanity. It's not just about perfume, but the shape of bottle, how it feels when you hold it, how it looks on your vanity. Name and packaging also play into what you smell."

When you reach for a scent to wear, whether you are a man or woman, know that you probably will be remembered for it.

"Perfume follows you, it chases you and lingers behind you," designer Sonya Rykiel once said. "It's a reference mark."