French fashion brand A.P.C. has launched Sustain, a new limited edition unisex fragrance developed by creative director Jean Touitou in collaboration with California-based perfumer Haley Alexander Van Oosten:
The mere idea of making a perfume turns me off. I find this vulgar and gross. One of the reasons is that there are quite a few good ones around already. If push came to shove, I would have thought about some Cologne reminiscent of industry, in a tin bottle; and that would mean something like… ‘This is it, no kidding’. I haven’t got a clue to what “it” stands for, by the way. So, no perfume in sight.
Then one day in Los Angeles I meet a girl who blends essential oils and displays them in little wooden boxes containing glass bottles containing the oil. I find this a bit too feminine, this idea of essential oil, the way you apply it and the tiny quantities involved, the price, the size of the bottle.
Definitely girls stuff. I nevertheless sample some, and it quickly becomes first pleasant then necessary, before this new obsession turns into an addiction.
I then decide to ask Haley Alexander Van Oosten who has become a friend to sell me one of her blends in one of her wooden bottles so that APC may have some in it shops, she turns this offer down, and asks to speak to me.
A whole afternoon is spent talking together, she does say a lot of things to me, including about the world of smells. She then suggests making a specific APC blend, based on what she knew about me. As I had really appreciated her idea of a little glass bottle inside a wood container, I speak about it to M/M: we decide to stick to the same idea, definitely, but without copying Ms Alexander Van Oosten. I can’t recall whether it was M or M who actually said: there are two ways of drawing a great shape, either we all take drugs and draw, and then choose which is the best, or we take an abstract idea as a starting point, and this will lead to something equally beautiful too as it is telling a story without being too explicit.
From the start this quest for smells had been linked to music, as one of the ideas I had expressed to Haley was the perception of the smell of a guitar case —lined in bright velvet— in which rose petals would have been scattered.
Thus taking music as a starting point, we decide to look at the outcome of the opening chord of Ray Davies’s song “Waterloo sunset” played on a 12 string guitar (there are 12 essential oils in Sustain) on a computer screen. We can see a wave, we print it, we draw it again, and with this drawing we leave for Jura, to meet craftsmen specialised in box wood turning. The bottle containing the bottle was born there, in a folk art garage.
The name Sustain comes also from music… it’s the name of a pedal which enables sound to continue. When you push on this pedal, sound lasts longer: the evanescent has more time to be around.
Sustain, Sustained, Sustainable: words I fully trust, which have a lot to say on duration and being persistent. This blend of essential oils has the same effect on me. The smell stays on the skin during the required time, this persistence is reassuring.
— Jean Touitou
A.P.C. Sustain is available now in 8 ml Perfume Oil. It can be purchased at Colette in France (180€) or at the A.P.C. boutique on 131 Mercer Street in New York City ($265 or $195 for a glass refill). (via colette.fr)
27 Comments
Read more about commenting at Now Smell This.
My first thought when I saw this was, “Ooh, a new version of Jenga!”
I didn’t have the patience to read the whole article, so maybe I shouldn’t be commenting on anything. They lost me at “Waterloo Sunset.” (Although now I’ll have that stuck in my head all day. Good song.)
Jenga! Lol I didn’t see the connection, until miss kitty pointed out and now i cannot look at that bottle without laughing What a long press release! And no clue about the notes. For that price, without notes ans just only 8ml?Thanks, I pass. It didn’t sustain my attention
LOL! I like the bottle though. The price, for a little oil blend, not so very much.
The bottle also reminded me of those wood spicy grater: http://img.shoptime.com.br/produtos/01/01/item/329/1/329171_1GG.jpg
What i didn’t like in oils is that you have to dab it with your hands your body, not pratical at all. I prefer sprays or roll-ons. And I love to douse myself in my favorite fragrances, so using oils reduces a lot the fun
So you didn’t notice it’s $265? Not sure I can sustain that…
Hilarious from someone complaining about “the tiny quantities involved, the price…”. I guess he doesn’t mind it so much when it’s his own. The whole thing is just obnoxious.
What’s even more obnoxious is the opening sentences. “The mere idea of making a perfume turns me off. I find this vulgar and gross.” I can’t help but think that the next line, though unexpressed, is, “And then I realized I could make a whole lot of money, so my ethics and my aesthetics went completely out the window.”
Agree, it’s really hard not to come to that conclusion.
HA! that is EXACTLY what I was thinking while reading it…. Mr. TuTu (yes, I know it’s misspelled, I’m being disrespectful) apparently is in dire need of speech writer! He wants to sell stuff, right?? sheesh.
Yeah, I can see your point. On the other hand, this is the most honest-sounding explanation of a perfume I’ve read in many a moon.
Yes, I’m so glad he was able to overcome his objections to vulgarity and grossness to enrich his bottom line. I’m also glad he met Ms. Alexander van Oosten, or we would have been stuck with “some Cologne reminiscent of industry.” Of course, that may well be what we’re stuck with.
I thought the wooden bottle-holder kind of looked like a chess piece.
Who knows, maybe it’s fabulous. I do like the bottle, it’s fun.
it’s like the love child of a chess piece and a pepper grinder.
very cool….the price: not cool.
Hee hee! Seems appropriate, then, that I would have to “pawn” something to buy a bottle.
Good one! And for all the whining some of us (me first and foremost) do about the unoriginality of the bottles these days, at least it’s packaged in something genuinely different–unique, even. I’ll certainly give Me. Touitou credit for that.
Complete fail for everything else, though. Even if the scent is good, it’s crazily overpriced, and his attitude is the biggest fail of all.
Wonderful bottle! The concept is so involved that there hardly seems room for the execution but maybe I’m just turned off by the guitar case accord. Still, gorgeous bottle!
I like it too, it’s fun. Not sure it’s fab enough for the price though.
I think the term “vulgar” is going to be used so much more often in the coming months and years, what with the Coco movie coming out and all.
I absolutely love everything from A.P.C., and I can tell you that their stuff is quality. I am extremely excited to smell this– it fills me with giddy excitement! Do you know if they will carry it at their store in Hollywood? I hope so!!! :/
Good, glad to see a fan! I can only assume they’ll have it…they have it in NYC already, so why not?
The ad copy was amusing as usual, the price even more hilarious. That’s wandering into Amouage territory, and between the two, I’d be more inclined to try the Amouage.
I’d be more inclined to go with Amouage myself…
Like Robin said above, as full of pretense and whatever else this press release, and person, seem to be- it does seem to be a more straightforward explanation of how this came to be, and I enjoyed it for that.
For what it’s worth, APC does not seem to aspire to be likeable, polished or commercial in most of their marketing and clothing. This press release is very much in line with everything else I’ve seen about them. i’m not defending or anything…just my two cents.
Thanks! I appreciated the detailed, straightforward explanation too.
I was thinking that bottle looked like one of those roller foot massager thingys! it’s fun, perhaps but not at all to my taste!
LOL…yeah, that too.