Sweet Smell of Succession

From far left: a 1973
advertisement for Chanel No
5. Chanel No 5 Eau Première,
£68 for 50ml EDP. Jean Patou
Collection Héritage Eau de
Patou, £150 for 100ml EDP. A
1976 advertisement for Eau de
Patou. A 1930s advertisement
for Caron. Lady Caron, £105
for 100ml EDP. Guerlain
Mitsouko, £77.50 for 75ml EDP.
A 1935 advertisement for
Guerlain Mitsouko
SWEET SMELL
of SUCCESSION
New interpretations of iconic scents may have a lasting,
shimmering intensity made possible by today’s technology, but
will they become classics themselves, wonders Vicci Bentley
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I
f modern perfumery has a presiding
spirit, it is constant regeneration. More
than 1,200 new scents were launched
last year. Many were “flankers” – spinoffs of well-loved classics, destined to
sink into obscurity after a brief season in
the sun. Others may pass the critical
three-year test to become fixtures in
their label’s portfolio and – who knows?
– the classics of the future.
According to market analysts, a scent’s
enduring popularity is due in part to the
loyalty of women over 40 who, having evolved a certain
style, adopt fragrance as a signature rather than a
disposable trend. Scent flirts are typically younger, hence
the dilemma that faces perfume houses: how to appear
new without losing the faithful along the wayside.
This year, several major designer classics have
undergone rejuvenation, which it is hoped will see them
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safely into their next decade. At the eminent age of 93,
the godmother of all designer perfumes Chanel No 5
(£68 for 50ml EDP, pictured far left) received a youth
boost earlier this year, when its younger, lighter version,
Eau Première (£68 for 50ml EDP, pictured top left),
appeared in the same grown-up, cabochon-stoppered
bottle, like a teenager allowed out in heels for the first
time. Putting the two scents side by side on a design par
is a symbiotic gesture; the doyenne seems cool again,
while the new kid attains classic gravitas.
Amethyst (£53 for 50ml EDP), Lalique’s muskyblackberry juice, also has a new sibling. Seven years on,
Amethyst Éclat (£40 for 30ml EDP, pictured overleaf)
champions the peony, the Chinese bloom of wealth and
beauty that’s only just discernible in the original scent.
According to perfumer Nathalie Lawson, enhancing the
poeny’s dewy rosiness makes the fruity notes fizz and
sparkle. Over at Tom Ford, Velvet Orchid (£72 for 50ml
EDP, pictured overleaf) is a boozy, extravagantly floral
version of darkly vampish Black Orchid (£72 for 50ml
EDP), the designer’s debut scent of 2006. Both share the
intense rose absolute and vanilla signature, but whereas
woods and spices characterised the original, Velvet
Orchid’s sensual petals are glazed with nectar and
rum, contrived to suggest skin on skin.
Having pioneered the trend for haute-couture
fragrances as the antithesis of the identikit smells
of the time, Giorgio Armani has worn the first of
his Privé collection, Bois d’Encens (£155 for 100ml
EDP), for the past 10 years. “Despite seeming intense,
it shows itself to be light,” Armani observes. “I have
always believed that a fragrance should be delicate,
never aggressive – something that can be appreciated
up close while leaving an unforgettable impression.”
This gently smouldering evocation of swinging
thuribles in the cool stone churches of his
childhood now has an unashamedly carnal
counterpart in Encens Satin (£155 for 100ml EDP,
pictured overleaf). Less reassuringly woody, more
luxuriantly spiced and infused with rose and
honeyed immortelle, this new oriental
nevertheless has an intense liveliness, thanks to
two contrasting incense notes extracted at high
pressure by molecular distillation. “Encens Satin
is more voluptuous – a lasting marriage of scent
and flesh,” explains Véronique Gautier, general
manager of Giorgio Armani Fragrances, who
oversaw its creation. “It shares the same minimal
architecture, yet seems to radiate from the skin.”
If there’s a unifying thread running through these very
modern “retro” scents, it’s an almost solar radiance – a
deft marketing term that encompasses light, warmth and
the lasting, shimmering intensity made possible by
today’s technology. “Eau Première is what Chanel No 5
would have been, if it was made with today’s raw
materials,” comments perfumer Roja Dove, in tribute to
Chanel nose Jacques Polge. However, Dove is less
enthusiastic about the covert updating of other perfume
legends. For years, he wore Mitsouko (£77.50 for 75ml
EDP, pictured below), Guerlain’s exquisite liquid silken
chypre from 1919. “Then, around five years ago, it
seemed to have lost its complexity. Something was
missing from that glorious woody, mossy base,” he
recalls. Happily, thanks to Guerlain perfumer Thierry
Wasser’s sensitive rebalancing, Mitsouko has relocated
its mojo. But Dove’s own Roja (£2,500 for 100ml
EDP, pictured overleaf) is the glorious riposte to an
inconstant chypre that was once close to his heart.
That sinking feeling that your long-loved fragrance
isn’t quite as true can no longer be brushed off as a trick
of memory, or a faltering sense of smell. Even fragrance
houses – once so careful to conceal shifts in their
formulas – are beginning to concede that things are
different. Since its inception in 1973, the International
Fragrance Association (IFRA), the industry’s selfregulating body, has regularly restricted and banned
traditional perfume ingredients that cause, research
suggests, contact dermatitis in an estimated one to three
per cent of the population. Now in its 47th amendment,
the IFRA list (as perfumers call its Standards) bans 77
ingredients, limits the use of 100 and imposes strict
purity requirements on a further nine, the majority of
which are natural. By April next year, this “risk
management” could be more extreme, as the European
Commission will also seek to push through its own bans,
including atranol and chloroatranol – both components
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16/02/2015 17:18
of oak- and tree-moss that give chypre-style scents depth
and longevity – as well as HICC (Lyral), a synthetic
molecule that evokes lily of the valley.
It could have been worse. Alongside these proposed
bans, a list drawn up two years ago by the EU’s Scientific
Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) originally
recommended that nine other “pillar” ingredients –
including eugenol, the clove note in rose oil, and citral,
the scent of fresh lemons – should be severely restricted
to trace levels of 0.01 per cent. However, although the
EU still wants to limit the levels, it is now considering
less stringent restrictions. Stephen Weller, IFRA’s
director of communications, considers this to be
“extremely reasonable”. To protect those with
existing allergies, dermatologists on the SCCS
wanted such strict limitations so the ingredients
would be barely detectable, he reports. “Now
the level will be set to allow the
approximately 98 per cent of the
population who aren’t already allergic to
enjoy perfume with less risk.”
Nevertheless, the outrage among
perfumers is palpable and conspiracy theories
abound as to why an allergic fraction of the
population should benefit from the majority’s
loss of choice. Inconsistencies are questioned:
why are anaphylaxis-inducing peanuts and the
proven carcinogen tobacco smoke not banned?
“If I peel an orange I’ll get more citral on my
hands than I’d use in a perfume,” Jean Patou’s
Thomas Fontaine protests.
With shrewd foresight, major perfume houses have
been quietly adjusting their classics since the
From top: Frédéric Malle Eau de
Magnolia by Carlos Benaïm, £105
for 50ml EDP. Armani Privé Encens
Satin, £155 for 100ml EDP. Tom
Ford Velvet Orchid, £72 for 50ml
EDP. My Burberry, £90 for 90ml
EDP. Maison Francis Kurkdjian
Féminin Pluriel, £120 for 70ml EDP.
Roja Parfums Roja, £2,500 for
100ml extrait de parfum. Lalique
Amethyst Eclat, £40 for 30ml EDP
restrictions were first mooted in 2012. But whereas they
can absorb the time and cost of mass reformulation, it’s a
tougher prospect for niche labels. Frédéric Malle, who has
just added Eau de Magnolia (£105 for 50ml EDP, pictured
top right) – a fresh, lemony chypre by perfumer Carlos
Benaïm – to his esoteric scent library, speaks bluntly.
“Depending on the scent, it can take months to
reformulate a fragrance – precious time that can’t be
spent on creating new perfumes.”
At Jean Patou, Fontaine sees the loss of freedom to use
distinctive, natural ingredients as a threat to perfumery’s
integrity. While reviving classics such as Eau de Patou
(£150 for 100ml EDP, pictured on previous pages) for the
house’s Collection Héritage, he strove to preserve the
free-spirit of 1976 expressed by its citrus-rush, but has
toned down its oakmoss base. “Regulations are changing
all the time. If you only expect your scent to last a year, it’s
not such a problem,” he says. “But can you expect your
creation to be the same in two years’ time? This is a
question of survival. If we have to use only synthetic
ingredients in the future, French perfumery will die.”
Not all perfumers are dissenters, however. Embracing
the future is Richard Fraysse, third-generation nose at
the historic house of Caron, who has just edited Lady
Caron (£105 for 100ml EDP, pictured on previous pages),
the fruity floral chypre he composed for the millennium.
The original ingredients remain, but orchestrated at new
concentrations to sublime effect. According to fragrance
critic Michael Donovan, “bringing the jasmine and
tuberose to the fore and laying the fruit discreetly in the
centre has given it a more grown-up, classic relevance”.
In perfume, as in life, fast-paced technology polarises
the old and new orders. When presenting My Burberry
(£90 for 90ml EDP, pictured above) to the press, the
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house’s new perfumer Francis Kurkdjian compared his
use of new molecules to the spirit of Burberry’s Covent
Garden beauty boutique, an emporium filled with digital
innovations. “Today’s chemistry can recreate nature in a
way you wouldn’t believe,” he says. Thus, My Burberry’s
rain-drenched freesia, rose and golden quince bloom in
fruity hyper-reality. “You have to capture l’air du temps and
say something now,” Kurkdjian believes.
The latest fragrances under his Maison Francis
Kurkdjian label hint at a brave new world to come. He
calls the chemical petals that head Féminin Pluriel (£120
for 70ml EDP, pictured above) “flou” – crushed blossom
on a base of vetiver and patchouli but free of contentious
oakmoss. The result is reassuringly familiar yet hard to
pin down – and utterly suits the scent’s curious name. Yet
Kurkdjian acknowledges that to be “understandable”,
something about a scent has to be recognisable. “The
flower is the perfect feminine cliché,” he says.
Kurkdjian’s ultimate aim was to create a postmodernist perfume, but with a timeless elegance that
could make it a classic. He may well have succeeded. “A
classic perfume is an adventure, not necessarily in terms
of how it develops on skin, but where it takes you
emotionally,” says Jill Hill, whose luxury company
Aspects has, over the past 25 years, brought brands
including Ferragamo, Versace and niche label Mark
Buxton to the UK. “It starts with a single, distinctive,
CLASSICS REMIX
Burberry, 3A The Market Building, Covent Garden, London WC2
(020-3618 3982; www.uk.burberry.com) and see Harvey Nichols and
other stockists. Caron, www.parfumscaron.com and see Harrods
and other stockist. Chanel, 167-170 Sloane St, London SW1 (0207235 6631; www.chanel.com) and see Harvey Nichols and other
stockists. Frédéric Malle, www.fredericmalle.com and see Liberty.
Giorgio Armani, 37 Sloane St, London SW1 (020-7235 6232; www.
armanibeauty.co.uk) and see Harrods and Selfridges. Guerlain,
www.guerlain.com and see Selfridges and other stockists. Harrods,
87-135 Brompton Rd, London SW1 (020-7730 1234; www.harrods.
com). Harvey Nichols, 109-125 Knightsbridge, London SW1 (0207235 5000; www.harveynichols.com). Jean Patou, www.jeanpatou.
com and see Harrods. Lalique, www.lalique.com and see Harrods
and Liberty. La Maison Guerlain, 68 Avenue des Champs-Elysées,
75008 Paris (+331-4562 5257). Les Senteurs, 71 Elizabeth St,
London SW1 (020-7730 2322; www.lessenteurs.com) and branch.
Liberty, Regent St, London W1 (020-7734 1234; www.liberty.co.uk).
L’Osmothèque, 36 Rue du Parc de Clagny, 78100 Versailles (+3313955 4699; www.osmotheque.fr). Maison Francis Kurkdjian,
www.franciskurkdjian.com and see Liberty and Harvey Nichols.
Roja Dove, www.rojadove.com and see Harrods. Selfridges, 400
Oxford St, London W1 (0800-123 400; www.selfridges.com).
Tom Ford, 201-206 Sloane St, London SW1 (020-3141 7800; www.
tomford.com) and see Selfridges and other stockists.
THE ADVERTISING ARCHIVES. RICHARD AVEDON © THE RICHARD AVEDON FOUNDATION/CHANEL.
“Today’s chemistry can
recreate nature in a way you
wouldn’t believe. You have
to capture l’air du temps and
say something now”
often polarising note that captures the imagination,
such as cassis in Poison, chocolate in Angel or the
ozonic accord in Eternity,” she adds.
“A future classic should have something new to say –
an innovation that sets new standards in perfumery,”
confirms James Craven, fragrance archivist at Les
Senteurs, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this
year. “It is confident and characterful, like vanillin-rich
Shalimar or Fracas’s outrageous tuberose.” For Gautier,
the shock of the new must be tempered with
reassurance. “If they are to tell a story that transverses
decades, retro and modernity are both key to the new
classics,” she says. “Perfume enhances personal identity,
creating an aura against a tough world. It represents
continuity against change.”
Meanwhile, Wasser’s response to change has been
inspired. He has recreated 25 of Guerlain’s archive
perfumes – some dating back to the late 19th century
– in their original, handwritten formulas so that
the modern versions can be compared. To sell
these gems would now be illegal, but visitors to
L’Osmothèque, the perfume conservatory in
Versailles, can sniff them on blotters. A set also
resides at La Maison Guerlain, the house’s
emporium on the Champs-Elysées.
In the course of researching this article,
I ripped the cellophane off box-loads of
familiar names, saturating myself in drifts of
nostalgia and frustration in equal measure,
like glimpsing a ghost as it evaporates
through a wall. As Dove puts it, “When you
adulterate a perfume, you meddle with
memories.” Yet I wonder what pleasure it
would be to smell these still-exquisite
scents for the first time without the
baggage of association, as a new generation surely
will. And which of today’s avant-garde will become
tomorrow’s nostalgia? As Gautier shrewdly
says, “Without the past, there can be no future.”
In Europe, not least, times are changing for perfume.
In the meantime, come the referendum…
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04/11/2014 14:34