Posted by Cheryl
on
24 June 2011
L’odeur est un mot, le parfum est la littérature / Odor is a word, perfume is literature (7). In brief entries dating October 29, 2009 to October 13, 2010, Journal d’un Parfumeur reveals a year in the life (or, rather, the mind) of perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, and celebrates the connections between language, contemplation and perfumery. Ellena offers a selective self-portrait via bright anecdotes, thoughtful vignettes and philosophical musings, blended with a hearty dose of opinion and a splash of high-brow name-dropping. Places and dates anchor the journal entries, along with brief titles, many of which would would make terrific perfume monikers: Plaisir; Nébuleux; Juxtaposition Toujours la menthe; Classique; Clin de nez; Bill Evans; Bricolage; Moleskine; and Shazam (yes, as in the iPhone app, and yes, related to identifying smells on the streets of Paris).
It turns out that language plays a vital role in Ellena’s creative process as well. Le nom est un son qui doit accrocher tous vos sens, il est le premier contact avec le parfum / The name is a sound that must capture all the senses; it is the first contact with the perfume (40). Describing works in progress — perfume formulae that may never be produced — Ellena explains that names help him to organize and track his creations. Féminin H, Vétiver de Calèche, Cuir de Bel Ami, and Fleur de Porcelaine could have been assigned numerical codes, but only words hold keys to each perfume’s histoire (which fittingly means both history and story in French). My favorite of these draft names, Eau de mandarine bleue, evokes Surrealist writer Paul Eluard’s poem, “The earth is blue like an orange…”
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Posted by Robin
on
7 April 2011
Un Jardin Sur Le Toit, the latest in the garden series from Hermès, spurns the exotic inspirations of its predecessors (Un Jardin en Méditerranée, Un Jardin Sur Le Nil and Un Jardin Après La Mousson); instead perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena celebrates the rooftop garden at the Hermès building at 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris (although for some of us, a rooftop garden on the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré is hardly the stuff of everyday life).
And what, pray tell, do we get from the Hermès rooftop garden? Apples and pears, apples and pears. Apples and pears, though hardly new to perfume, seem to be the notes du jour, and as I’ve already mentioned they’re not exactly my favorites.
Jardin Sur Le Toit starts out grapefruity-citrusy and sharp…
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Posted by Robin
on
23 March 2011
After we launched the first Garden perfume, other companies came up with the same approach. We wanted the fourth perfume to be a surprise. Also, no one could come up with a perfume like Un Jardin sur le Toit because we drew inspiration from our very own garden. This reflects why we don't really need to find another world when happiness can be very close to us.
— Perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, quoted in Familiar scents close to home at the Bangkok Post.
Posted by Robin
on
12 February 2011
Hermès will launch Un Jardin Sur Le Toit (garden on the roof) in April. The inspiration: the garden on the roof of the Hermès building at 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. The new unisex fragrance is the fourth in the garden series that already includes Un Jardin en Méditerranée (2003), Un Jardin Sur Le Nil (2005) and Un Jardin Après La Mousson (2008)…
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Posted by Robin
on
7 December 2010
Regular readers know I look forward to anything new from perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena at Hermès. I have called myself a fan girl in the past, but now feel compelled to point out that I just really like his perfumes; I don’t think he’s a rock star and I do not have a poster with his face on my wall. Ok? But in all truth, a rather large portion of my fragrance spending ends up in the (surely already brimming) coffers at Hermès. Many of us like to think that brand doesn’t really matter — it’s the juice that counts — but it’s hard to completely ignore brand influence even if you try. In this case, it helps that I like Hermès despite the fact that nearly nothing on earth interests me less than spendy handbags and silk scarves. I like Hermès because they consistently put out a respectable, well-made product. The fragrances are interesting and wearable, the packaging is generally worthy and sometimes it’s spectacular (Voyage d’Hermès), and their advertising doesn’t make me cringe. They don’t alternate high-end vanity projects with cynical, focus-grouped garbage designed to capture the lucrative ‘tween-to-teen market. To my mind, Hermès is the last great hope in the mainstream prestige fragrance market: let’s just hope Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy stays far, far away.
That is not to say I like everything Jean-Claude Ellena cooks up over there. Of the Hermessences, the exclusive (and expensive) perfume range at Hermès, I own five out of the nine, and thanks to the fact that it’s possible to find them in comparatively affordable 15 ml bottles, I own all of them that I want to own.1 The latest of the nine, Iris Ukiyoé, is not going to join my collection….
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