Yet he recognizes that perfume is not what it used to be.
“The general idea of luxury fragrance – which is a dream, a self-indulgence – is gone.
“A lot of people use fragrance as a pin, on a jacket, as decoration,” he said. “It’s an accessory, (a piece) of a designer.”
— Guerlain’s house perfumer, Thierry Wasser, quoted in Perfume Encounter at the Montreal Gazette.
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Maybe he observed the wrong people–for me perfume is not a pin on a jacket or a piece of a designer (I couldn’t care less about fashion names). It’s a shawl of mystic smoke, the lure of the hidden bloom, the crystallization of lost memory.
Not all is lost, M. Wasser!
What I found interesting was this “blame the customer” attitude, as though the mass outpouring of dreck from the fragrance industry had nothing to do with it. Ha.
Well, Robin, it is a bit of a chicken and egg question. Understandable he has that perspective. With all due respect, I’m tempted to agree with him.
It is true, one can hardly expect him to bemoan the # of new releases — I know!
After reading his comments, I certainly wouldn’t want to go around and wear a piece of him on my person. Ugh!
What’s wrong with perfume being an accessory? An accessory can be defined as an article that completes an outfit. That’s exactly what perfume is to me!
He doesn’t come off as the nicest person in that article but the writer does say he’s jetlagged which can make the nicest person grumpy.
He does sound grumpy. I’m guessing he means women don’t have one signature fragrance to which they have a strong emotional attachment, as many women used to.
Ooh, I am a bit of a contrarian this morning, aren’t I? My take on his comment is that he means a pin, decoration, as opposed to an exquisite piece of art, a piece of real jewelry, and is drawing that same parallel between fragrance as a decoration — costume jewelry, if you will — as opposed to something genuine, of lasting quality and design, with a price to match.
Perhaps the practical result of that is that women would buy fewer fragrances of better quality, or even find a single “gem” to wear with everything.
“Every fragrance has been designed by a perfumer with love and faith.” He has to know that’s not true. Many a modern perfume has been designed in a hurry, to an impossible budget, cobbled together from existing ideas and with limited/ zero scope for creativity. The hope that it will turn out to be a Shalimar is pretty much a pipe-dream. He also seemed a bit confused about the concept of ‘celebrity fragrances’. The historical successes he mentioned were surely created FOR the famous person, and were therefore bespoke and carefully designed; the royal involved wasn’t endorsing some anonymous juice in order to make money. (Can you tell I don’t like Idylle?)
Yeah, I’d like to know how much love and faith went into Armani Diamonds.
Yeah, M Wasser–or Kylie Minogue Darling. I think Robin’s distinction (costume vs. real jewelry) may well be what M Wasser had in mind, but come on, Thierry, women can’t wear the full parure every day. You can’t wear Joy every day, either (ducking). And many women can only afford an inexpensive celebuscent, anyway. What matters is that they’re making the effort.
LOL — yes, I can tell you don’t like Idylle!
But isn’t this how they want the customer to be? A mindless sheep bleating in extasy at every release no matter how much boring, chemical and drugstore cheap it seems? And celebrity fragrance – what is that if not living for the moment, or rather scenting for the moment? All houses have celebrity fragrances nowadays – they employ famous actors to represent them don’t they? Sienna Miller for Hugo Boss, Natalia Voldyanova for Guerlain, etc etc? What is Thierry talking about?
Anyway he got it wrong, for me and for many others as I can see from this thread. Fragrance is no longer an indulgence nor will it ever be, because there’s too much of it to really maintain an exclusive image.
A dream? Perhaps. But what fragrance is for me really – fragrance is a scentual representation of ME. It’s what I would be if I were a fragrance right now. I’d be … Dolce Vita. At least today
I’d be Iris Silver Mist today!
Ooh, this would be fun for a Thursday poll.
These comments seem so shockingly disrespectful of a notably respectable perfumer. I am dismayed. And grumpy, even.
I was going to let him off the hook because I just figured he was upset about that picture they used.
LOL! I *know* you did not come here expecting respectful comments.
True!!
Ok, I’ll admit I am definitely cranky as heck this morning, but this article is incredibly annoying. I have no problem with perfume being like a “pin” or an accessory. More elitist bull crap, as far as I’m concerned. It’s as if a “dream” or a “self-indulgence” aren’t things that we can (and do!) enjoy every day.
And Robin R, I sure don’t hear Wasser being “respectful” of the perfume consumer in that interview — he sounds downright contemptuous of the very people who allow him to practice his craft and earn what one assumes is a very nice living. But that’s all I’ll say about this.
Hmm. I didn’t get that impression myself, Joe. I didn’t feel disrespected at all. My impression was that he was talking about a specific kind of consumer — a different sort of consumer than I identify with. Perhaps I need to re-read the article and I’ll have a different view of it!
Somebody’s sarcasm-meter is broken today. Probably because he’s so grumpy.
I don’t think he spends much time listening to anything but himself. Smell is memory-Hmm. Don’t think he paid enough attention in science class.
What would he do if he had amnesia?
Oh, but the smell is memory is the only part I liked! I do think it’s true to some extent. Science class can’t explain the lure of perfume
Yeah, Thierry, don’t you just hate it when the lumpenproletariat get hold of something and start throwing their grubby money at it? xoxo
Imagine if that did stop. He’d be forced to buy those shoes at Walmart!
Poor Thierry!
Exactly.
Not to chime in with the chorus or anything but I sure feel “the dream” and “the indulgence” when I investigate and purchase from certain niche houses. I think Lutens etc have captured whatever magic it was that perhaps Guerlain used to command. Mssr Wasser needs to step it up! That gold Hershey’s kiss with the girl singing the creepy song is apparently not cutting it.
PS: My favorite part of the interview was when they brought up Ellena’s voyage to the Nile as an inspiration for Sur le Nil, and when they asked him if something similar happened in the creation of Idylle he’s all, “It was an interior journey” — like, what??? That’s the sort of b.s. we say in design critiques when you don’t have any actual ideas behind your work.
Exactly. The magic is still out there, even if Guerlain doesn’t have it.
Hmmm…. I think I’m past the point of mystery in perfume, having tested so many and living in and around it. That’s not to say there’s not any suprise in it, but when you’ve got lists of notes and bottles in front of you… I’m probably his least fave consumer.
And yes, I wear perfume as an ornament, a pin, an accessory. My bad, I guess.
This is where I’m confused–what else are we supposed to be wearing it as? Underwear? “Accessory” isn’t a dirty word. Maybe I haven’t taken enough “interior journeys” to fully appreciate his perspective.
Well, if perfume is an accessory, it’s certainly a essential accessory for many of us! You know, like underwear. Come to think of it, I’d rank it higher than underwear.
Hard to pick, LOL…
I’m not sure of why perfume as an “…idea of luxury fragrance – which is a dream, a self-indulgence…” would be something he, and by extension, Guerlain, would miss. Isn’t that attitude why vintage bottles of Chanel 5 are found in estate sales? Because they were so “self-indulgent” that their original owners would only wear them on special occasions?
Accessories are wonderful. MUCH more necessary than underwear. More like glasses. Designer frames or Lenscrafter $50 specials. Serge Lutens, or celebrity fragrance of the month. And really, comparing the Empress Eugénie or Josephine Baker to the current poptarts… Oh dear.
It is so true…if the original idea of perfume as a real luxury still held, the perfume industry would be an 1/8 of its current size.