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New way of finding a partner: Smelling them at a pheromone party

Would you pick a potential mate based on how he smells?

In the trendy east London, it's fast becoming a legitimate way to meet someone.

Pheromone parties are now part of an alternative dating trend based on the simple idea that smell plays a key role in the choice of a sexual partner.

And don't worry, you don't have to go up to random men or women and smell them.

Although, it is done in an absurdly clinical way.

First, you have to wear the same cotton T-shirt for three nights in a row. And you can't cheat. So that means no deodorant or perfume.

Bring the T-shirt to the party and it will be placed in transparent plastic bags with numbers on coloured labels - pink for women, blue for men.

And the party attendees will go to a big table where the bags are laid out and start smelling them.

If they like what they smell, they can snap a picture of themselves with the bag. These photos are then projected onto the wall, and the lucky owners of the chosen T-shirts have the chance to meet their "admirers".

Judy Nadel, the party's organiser, admits that it's a weird concept. "But it's a huge ice-breaker because you are smelling a stranger's T-shirt - you can't be cool or pretentious," she says.

Nadel, who launched her pheromone parties in London this year, and follows a concept that was first promoted in the United States in 2010 by artist Judith Prays.

According to Nadel, six couples got together at the first party in London in March although she is unsure as to whether these couples are still dating.

While most are enthusiastically sniffing away, Marta Montserrat is slowly feeling dejected.

She says: "It doesn't matter what I smell, if I don't like what I see."

 

- AFP