Unbottling France's Legendary Scents
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L4 27-29 September 2019 Life&Leisure The Australian Financial Review | www.afr.com AFR GROOMING PERFUME Unbottling France’s legendary scents Perfumery’s ‘museum in a book’ has been updated to reveal eight new legends, writes Stephen Clark. For his 1996 book Perfume Legends, ‘‘Tabu violinist, New York’’ were known to Michael Edwards interviewed some reach the company. 160 perfumers, bottle designers, couturiers and executives. That book has become a FEMME (1944) collector’s item. Now Edwards has released Perfume Created by Edmond Roudnitska for Rochas | Legends II, which tells the stories of Femme was born in December 1944, three 52 fragrances. There is Coco Chanel in 1921, months after the liberation of Paris. Alcohol making the propitious choice of the fifth and glassware were still severely rationed fragrance shown to her by Russian-born and the house of Rochas was allocated only perfumer Ernest Beaux (it became enough to produce a few hundred bottles. Chanel No. 5). And Madame Gre`s, the The scent was presented in a numbered extraordinary couturier whose talent was crystal flacon designed by Marc Lalique, matched only by her stubborn lack of self- and dressed in Chantilly lace. promotion: her 1959 perfume Cabochard is ‘‘White lace inside, close to the body; a lost jewel. There is also Paloma Picasso’s black lace, the face to the world,’’ explained ‘‘olfactory self-portrait’’ from 1984. He´le`ne Rochas, widow of fashion pioneer In this edited extract, Edwards reveals the Marcel Rochas (who introduced the bustier Jicky and Mitsouko glamour, teamwork and sheer serendipity and put pockets into skirts). ‘‘The black lace from the Guerlain behind some of our favourite scents and the signature came from when my husband family, above left; ways that French fashion houses came to met Mae West. She always had black lace The Tabu violinist, embrace fragrance. on things.’’ above, became Marcel Rochas with Mae West in her synonymous with trademark black lace, above; the advent of the perfume brand; JICKY (1889) FIDJI (1966) accessible travel inspired Fidji, below. Issey, right, was Created by Aime´Guerlain | Jicky is often Created by Josephine Catapano | designed to smell called the first synthetic perfume. The name Robert Salmon became marketing director like fresh water. was a diminutive of Jacques, Aime´ of Lancoˆme when it was acquired by Guerlain’s young nephew, and was L’Oreal in 1964. ‘‘Later that year I was in intended for both men and women – at that Morocco at the Club Med. People had time, fragrances were interchangeable. become richer and were hungry to escape When Truman Capote met French the winter to a place in the sun. People from novelist Colette in the late 1940s he wrote: the States were flying to the Caribbean. We ‘‘The room smelled of her perfume. At some realised [travel] was a worldwide point, I asked what it was, and Colette said: megatrend.’’ Fidji linked the cachet of ‘Jicky. The Empress Eugenie always wore it. French fashion designer Guy Laroche to the I like it because it’s witty without being happy island dream. No French perfume of coarse – like the better conversationalists. repute had used such American-style Proust wore it, too’.’’ marketing techniques before and it changed how prestige perfumes were sold. ‘‘We associate vanilla with something MITSOUKO (1919) very agreeable, because, as children, we LOULOU (1987) were spoiled by cakes and ice cream. More Created by Jacques Guerlain | Mitsouko is a than that, it’s a scent that men find sexy.’’ chypre, a family of fragrances with the scent Created by Jean Guichard for Cacharel | By of autumn forests and mossy woods named TABU (1932) the mid-eighties, competition in the French L’EAU D’ISSEY (1992) for the island of Cyprus (birthplace of fragrance market had become brutal. In just Aphrodite, goddess of love). The name Created by Jean Carles for Dana | Tabu’s one year, more fragrances were launched Created by Jacques Cavallier for Issey Mitsouko came from a character in a patchouli/carnation accord ‘‘is a scorching than in the entire 1960s. Loulou, a sequel Miyake | The scent of the sea became one romance novel set during the 1905 Russo- whiff from an era when liqueurs cured ills, to 1978’s Anaı¨sAnaı¨s, was inspired by of the fragrance signatures of the Japanese War, the young wife of a Japanese and jewellery looked like candied fruit’’, silent film star Louise Brooks. ‘‘In 1990s. The aroma material used to admiral who falls for a British naval attache´. wrote perfume critic Luca Turin. The Tabu France, people say that a young girl’s replicate the scent of sea air was Jacques Guerlain, Aime´ Guerlain’s violinist, originally painted in 1898 by skin smells of caramel. That is the smell Calone. First synthesised in 1966, nephew and Mitsouko’s creator, said: ‘‘The French artist Rene´ Prinet was first used to of toffee,’’ says Guichard. ‘‘So we started Calone was used primarily to give laundry Japanese didn’t just defeat, they crushed the advertise Tabu in 1941. Everyone assumes working around the vanilla-toffee notes.’’ products the scent of fresh linen. Russian fleet. Most of my compatriots saw that the lady is wearing Tabu, a brew so In Tahiti he came across the beautiful Issey Miyake had to be persuaded to launch Japan as the new Great Britain, whose king potent it causes the man to forget both tiare´ flower, which had a freshness he a fragrance by Chantal Roos, who had and traditions had long fascinated them.’’ music and decorum. Letters addressed to needed to balance the ‘‘gourmand’’ flavours. steered Opium to market. When asked what sort of fragrance he liked, Miyake replied ‘‘Water, something that doesn’t smell at all.’’ OPIUM (1977) proceed, we would hold Saint Laurent With a month to go before the launch accountable for any losses we sustained.’’ date, the perfumer Cavallier worked day Created by Jean-Louis Sieuzac, Raymond Saint Laurent was uncertain about the and night to come up with something new. Chaillan and Franc¸oise Marin | After plastic. ‘‘Unfortunately, we already owned ‘‘The fresh ozone notes in L’Eau d’Issey are designing bottles for Y, Rive Gauche and some $US2 million worth of plastic From top: not the kind you find in other ozonic Pour Homme, designer Pierre Dinand was material, so I told him we couldn’t do Cacaharel’s Loulou; fragrances,’’ he says. ‘‘We wanted them to be asked to create the bottle for a new Oriental anything about that.’’ Fre´de´ric Malle’s purer and very natural, with the scent of perfume, at that time named Ichi (Japanese Saint Laurent accepted the situation. Portrait of a Lady. fresh water rather than sea water.’’ for No. 1). ‘‘The perfume bottle was finished with a He showed Yves Saint Laurent a design, cord, knotted through a wooden ball,’’ Miller PORTRAIT OF A LADY (2010) originally intended for Kenzo, based on inro¯ recalls. ‘‘‘It looks wrong,’ said Yves. He – small decorative boxes that Japanese men walked out of the room, and returned a few Created by Dominique Ropion for used to hang on their belts. minutes later with a box of black tassels. Fre´de´ric Malle | Fre´de´ric Malle of Editions In Marrakech, Yves was enthusiastic. “One by one, he took them out of the box de Parfums regards himself as a fragrance ‘‘That’s where the samurai kept their and placed them against the bottle. Finally, ●i publisher or curator, and the perfumers as medicine and their opium pellets,’’ he he found the tassel he liked. Next, he told me authors or artists. ‘‘He told us that we could exclaimed. ‘‘Opium ... Opium? Oh, that to change the lettering of the logo. The O was Need to know do whatever we wanted,’’ says perfumer would be a fantastic name.’’ Yves Saint Laurent loved the ‘Opium’ name. too slim for his taste. Then he looked at the Where to buy Dominique Ropion. ‘‘With no price or time The name scared Squibb Corporation, cap of the perfume bottle. ‘It’s too small,’ he Perfume Legends II limit, no panel tests, and no marketing which co-owned Parfums Yves Saint Robert Miller, president of Charles of the said. He replaced the cap of the 1/2 oz bottle is available at influences.’’ Perfumers told Malle, ‘‘You Laurent with Charles of the Ritz. Progress Ritz, flew to Paris months later with the first with the cap designed for the 1 oz bottle.’’ fragrancesofthewor- have put the church back in the middle stalled until 1976 when marketing executive production samples. ‘‘Yves was so upset, ‘‘We could not change the ‘O’ for the first ld.com for $215. Also of the village.’’ Chantal Roos came on board. ‘‘The wood he didn’t want to go ahead with the project,’’ production run but we managed the beads available is the latest The Editions de Parfums boutique in gave it too rustic an appearance,’’ she said. says Miller. and tassel,’’ says Roos. ‘‘We bought them edition of Fragrances of the World, Paris resembles a gentleman’s library but ‘‘Monsieur Saint Laurent agreed. ‘Why not ‘‘We made it clear that we would never from a shop in the centre of Paris. Imagine Michael Edwards’ with three floor-to-ceiling space-age glass lacquer it?’ he suggested. Lacquer would have developed a perfume named Opium the time it took the staff in the factory to annual reference tubes (‘‘smelling capsules’’) and a large have cost a fortune so we replicated it with a on our own ... that we had invested thread each bead by hand. Imagine the guide to more than refrigerator filled with squat black beautiful nylon plastic.’’ substantially ..