Six months ago, the world elite applauded at once two important events in the field of modern culture and fashion. The significance of these events and their participants is evidenced by the fact that they were able to overshadow even the Parisian Fashion Week, which was in full swing at that moment. And one of them was quite expected: a year after leaving the post of creative director of the fashion house LanvinAlber Elbaz, an absolute and well-deserved favorite of the industry, was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of the Legion of Honor - one of the most honorable awards for military and civil services in the world. At the same time, at the solemn presentation of the award, Elbaz announced the second event - the creation of a fragrance together with the perfume publisher Frederic Malle. And no one expected such a turn of affairs. However, after carefully asking the heroes of this event about how they worked on the project, there are hardly any doubts that this cooperation was simply destined to happen - so it seems, the stars decided.
Frederic Mull
Speaking of Frederic Malle, we do not mean just the creator of a successful and respected perfume brand (which, however, is true). He played and continues to play a much more important role in the history of perfumery and can rightfully be called a revolutionary in this field. He stands at the origins of the so-called "niche" perfumery - although he himself does not like to call it that. In fact, together with another legend, Serge Luthans, Malle came up with this direction, finally tired of the omnipotence of commercial aromas, which could hardly claim to be related to the high art of perfumery. Malle knows about the latter firsthand, because he grew up in the midst of the most important perfumery events of the last century. His grandfather Serge Eftler-Luis, in collaboration with Christian Dior, founded the house Parfums Christian Diorand developed the famous Miss Dior fragrance. In addition, childhood and adolescence surrounded by the Parisian creative intelligentsia, which included Frederic's uncle - the world-renowned film director Louis Malle - and the perfume industry guru of the 70s and 80s Jean Amique, who, according to Malle himself, taught him “the strict procedure of professional tasting of smells”, could not but leave their mark. It is not surprising that it was Frederic Malle who came up with the idea to publish fragrances as books, in which perfumers would act as authors and he himself as a publisher.
Having opened his own perfume publishing house - and this is how the name of the brand Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle is translated - he took the very revolutionary step that no one had dared to take before. He brought out of the behind-the-scenes perfumers themselves, whose names were known only to professionals and especially enthusiastic admirers, returning them the right to be artists, and not just talented artisans, working almost anonymously for eminent customers.
© les editions de parfums frederiс malles
Frederic Malle not only allowed perfumers to bring their own ideas and compositions to life, but also provided the opportunity to feel free to choose ingredients, which is almost never the case in commercial projects. And then, securing the authorship and loudly informing the world about it, Malle placed the names of their creators on the bottles, like an artist's signature on a work.
The first boutique of the brand was opened on June 6, 2000 in Paris on rue Grenelle. Since then, the red and black boxes with bottles of aromas have become synonymous with new high perfumery - the very “niche” - and the world has finally learned the names of the great “noses” that were previously only behind the scenes of the perfumery world.
The idea to invite Albert Elbaz to work on the creation of the scent also came to Frederick, and this is hardly surprising: “I admired Albert's work for many years, ever since he started working for Saint Laurent. My wife Marie used to buy YSL at Barneys and I watched and admired - these dresses made her even more beautiful. At some point, I just called our mutual friend with Albert, asked for his phone number and invited him to dinner."
Alber Elbaz
The name of Alber Elbaz, an absolute favorite of both the professional and just about fashionable amateur public, has not left the lips and pages of the world press for the last two years - after 15 years of successful work in the Lanvin fashion house, he unexpectedly left the post of creative director and went nowhere. This event plunged those who were not indifferent to fashion into an alarming shock - someone who, and Albert was more than in his place. Having come to this position a decade and a half ago, Albert received an old French fashion house with long-standing traditions and possible bankruptcy at his disposal. Elbaz, on the other hand, turned it into a commercially successful critically acclaimed brand, in which the special character of Lanvincombined with current novelty. Even during his work for Yves Saint Laurent, Elbaz proved that he, like no one else, understood and felt what a modern woman really lacks, who she is, what she lives, what she dreams of and what she would like to be. And I could do it in one dress. The following decades have become a confirmation of this. Unsurprisingly, his sudden departure left fans literally moaning about what would happen next. And then their fateful meeting with Frederic Malle took place, which gave Elbaz a new creative charge and gave him the opportunity to do what he loved again, not stirring up the past.
© les editions de parfums frederiс malles
As it turned out, he also followed Mull's activities with equal interest, but did not expect that call at all, especially in light of the difficult events of his professional life: “When I was at Barneyswhere Frederic first started selling his perfume collection, I always visited the brand's corner and never left without a purchase - as a rule, these were fragrances as a gift to someone. When he called me personally, I was extremely surprised. "Why me?!" I kept asking myself. And you know, I decided for myself this way - I worked like a madman for many years, and came to the most terrible moment when you realize that you have fallen out of love with what you have loved most of all your life. And now is the time to take a vacation to find that love again through something else. At some point, Frederick and I realized that we like the same people, the same smells, the same places, the same food. And it’s so easy when you don’t have to constantly argue - on the contrary, you have a partner with the same level of taste, with the same interest in the business.”
© les editions de parfums frederiс malles
Dominic Ropion
One of the most talented and outstanding "noses" of our time, Dominique Ropion, stands behind so many scents that are well known to almost any person who is even the slightest bit indifferent to perfumery, that one can only be amazed why all glossy and other magazines of the last decades are not full of his name. From the classic Amarige, Givenchy and Soir de Lune, Sisley to the simply endless list of fragrances for Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent - it's no exaggeration to say that almost half of the perfume shelves in the cosmetic departments of department stores can be signed with the name Ropiona. Even for a relatively small collection Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle Dominique "wrote" as many as eight, including the absolute masterpieces Portrait of a Lady and Carnal Flower. The work on the scent, which later became Superstitious, began long before the idea of a joint project with Elbaz. But it turned out that all three heroes of this story at some point came together at a single point. “Dominique is a very generous and sincere person - says Frederic Mull - And Albert is such a person with whom you want to share, he wants to give gifts in response to his incredible delicacy and sensitivity. Therefore, when I invited him to continue our already begun work on the new fragrance together with Albert, accepting his idea with the dress, Dominic agreed without hesitation or objection."
© les editions de parfums frederiс malles
Bottle
One of the unexpected and once surprising characteristic features of niche perfumery are the same bottles for all fragrances. Simple in shape, glass flasks with a heavy round lid and black-red-white labels were almost the antithesis of numerous perfume bottles, each of which seemed to be trying to surpass the complexity of a neighbor, and, of course, became instantly recognizable. The main meaning of this decision was the intention to show that the main thing is the aroma, what is contained in the bottle, and not its packaging. Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle bottle designwas invented by Frederic Malle himself back in 2000 and since then they have not changed. The only difference from them was the one in which the fragrance Dries van Noten par Frederic Malle was enclosed. And now Superstitious. Leaving their usual form, Elbaz and Mall changed the color of the bottle - black frosted glass - and the label on which the golden eye flaunts. “It took us very little time to work on the packaging. I came up with the bottle itself very quickly, recalls Mull. - I just saw how he should be sitting in the office and drew it. Then he drew an eye. Albert liked the idea, but the eyes didn't. Then, during the next lunch, I drew three more eyes, he chose the middle one and that's it - once or twice and the package was ready."
Frederic Malle and Albert Elbaz © les editions de parfums frederiс malles
Scent
The result of painstaking work is a fragrance that surprisingly combines the classic classic - floral aldehyde in the best traditions of Chanel No. 5 - with a uniquely witty and only intuitively perceptible note of almost running ahead of modernity.
“This particular scent was very difficult for us,” says Frederic Mull. - Flower aldehyde, a very structured pyramid, in our language, is the most classic, like Chanel No. five. This is a structure that has not been used for a long time, primarily because it requires impressive financial capabilities. These scents come to life only when you use exceptional quality ingredients - very good jasmine, very good sandalwood, and so on. It's like a legend from the past. And it seemed to us that it would be extremely interesting to rethink this structure. To begin with, it was extremely difficult to get away from the retro feeling, to make the scent modern. It was very difficult to blur these boundaries. Without going into complicated technical details, I can say that we have created hundreds of intermediate test cases,before we finally have what we need - a classic with a modern twist without commercial compromise."
“There was an important moment in our work, when everything fell into place, everything became clear,” Elbaz recalls. - It was the moment when we both decided that we wanted to return one important thing to our business - intuition! In the world of luxury, we practically have no opportunity to even stutter about it - when it comes to marketing strategies, there is no place for intuition. And our joint work with Frederick and Dominik was pure intuition! And I am very proud of our work - it is woven of fine fabrics. ">