Asian souvenirs translate into French perfume
Asian souvenirs translate into French perfume
PARIS (JP): Although the French perfume industry is by nature
dominated by French-born creators, in professional jargon known
as "noses", The Jakarta Post interviewed an Asian fashion
designer and perfumer who has been a French citizen all his life.
When he was 20-year old, Tan Giudicelli was apprenticed to
Christian Dior. He then worked for Jean-Louis Scherrer, Yves
Saint Laurent, Nina Ricci, Jacques Heim and Chloe, before
becoming the owner of his own fashion line in Paris for 20 years.
Of Vietnamese origin, he has been designing the woman's wear line
under Claude Brouet of the famous luxury goods House of Hermes
for seven years.
Tan, as most people call him, created his first fragrance 20
years ago based on the scent of green and smoked tea found in his
native Vietnam, but that fragrance is not produced any longer. A
perfectionist, Tan attended the 18-month perfume course of the
renowned essence company, Firminich, in Paris to compose the
"tea" perfume correctly.
An excellent sense of smell is not the only requisite too
composing the complex recipe for a "juice" or basic essence of a
perfume. Tan talked to the Post about the creative side of
discovering a new fragrance.
JP: How did your country of origin and childhood influence
your future profession?
TG: I spent all my childhood and my adolescence in Vietnam and
still have vivid souvenirs of the landscape, the materials, the
colors, the scents, on which all my creations are based. It was
at an early age that I became interested in fashion. I lived with
my grandmother who had a silk shop in Hanoi, so I grew up
surrounded by fabrics and colors. I do not only create fashion,
but I also color fashion.
JP: Fashion and perfume are two related, yet different,
processes of creation. What inspired you to create your own
perfume?
TG: After practicing haute couture, perfumes came naturally.
In actual fact, perfume and color are very, very close. It is a
question of sensitivity, of desire, of fleeting moments, of
passing feelings. All my perfumes carry names that evoke colors.
They all tell stories like my latest one which is called Poupre
-- or, I think, scarlet in English.
JP: Why did you name it Poupre, which does mean scarlet in
English?
TG: Poupre is an evening perfume, a perfume for grand outings,
for gala performances, dressing up. Rather theatrical, but at the
same time, very secretive. The color evokes a very feminine,
theatrical woman on stage. I like to call my latest perfume a
veritable opera of the senses because it is composed of ginger,
bergamote, orange flower, musk, and then vanilla, patchouli,
ylang-ylang and many varieties of roses; it is a perfume which
seduces and is destined for a "velvety" woman, a Goddess of love.
JP: Aren't your perfumes all rather nostalgic affairs?
TG: You might call them nostalgic affairs because it is true
that they are aimed at recreating an atmosphere that I
experienced in the past. For example Gardenia is a name that I
adore, a magnificent flower with a velvety substance, wonderfully
white. It is also the souvenir of Billy Holliday whose favorite
flower it was. Yes, it is in fact a very nostalgic affair, and
not only because I am a very young 60-year-old. It contains
Chinese gardenia and Vietnamese jasmine mixed with green notes
from the garden. It is a personal souvenir of a very young girl
clothed in a white robe in the garden; a desire for purity and at
the same time the desire not to trouble that purity and to
protect it. I also created a series of amber perfumes, pure Ambre
and then Ambre Vanille and Ambre et Mure (amber and raspberry).
Again vanilla, which reminds me of childhood, and raspberry which
is a wild fruit signaling my wish to return to nature.
JP: Coming back to the very important business aspect of
selling the perfumes, why is it that you offer these five last
perfumes, apart from the very first Green Tea one which is
discontinued, through a mail-order catalog?
TG: Well, I am convinced that mail-order catalogs are the
business venues of the future. This specific catalog is a joint
venture between the cosmetics firm L'Oreal and Les 3 Suisses
which is an established mail-order firm. L'Oreal is the producer
of my five perfumes, a fact which guarantees an excellent
distribution world-wide, after the French network has been
established. I always believe in others marketing my products and
am solely preoccupied with the creative side of things. I am very
straight-forward and work extremely hard, in a disciplined
manner, with no wish to step into the limelight. In fact, that
you could interview me is a big exception. I should be working on
the next collection for Hermes, but as the interview will be
published in Asia, I went ahead.
***
Before a new perfume is born, a complex process is set in
motion with a basic budget and concept being part of the
essential preliminary action. The Post interviewed Christian
Astuguevieille, guest Art Director for the new Comme des Garcons
perfume, and talked to Adrian Joffe who is the Commercial
Director of the Comme des Garcons international company under
designer Rei Kawabuko based opposite the Ritz Hotel at the
prestigious Place Vendome in Paris.
The development budget for the perfume was relatively modest.
It totaled US$1 million and the whole project took 18 months to
complete before the launching of the eau de parfume which are
exclusively distributed in Comme des Garcons boutiques world-
wide.
The first prototype bottles, shaped like large free-form
pebbles which cannot stand up, were produced in a series of
40,000. The bottles are delivered in clear-plastic bio-degradable
and ecological wrapping which can only be opened once. This is
meant to guarantee a genuine perfume ensuring that the buyer has
not bought a fake by mistake. It is packaged in a deceptively
plain white box.
Rei Kawabuko, the Japanese designer behind Comme des Garcons,
had a very definite idea of what her perfume should be. The
company ordered "juice" from four different perfume creator firms
without mentioning their name in order to obtain the essence
closest to her concept, and not what the perfume "noses" thought
she might like, i.e. a starkly modern and strong fragrance.
Kawabuko stipulated a perfume which is not meant to seduce but to
make the wearer herself or himself feel good -- an
aromatherapeutic essence composition. The perfume contains at
least four essences from Indonesia, sandalwood, cinnamon, cloves
and nutmeg.
Young British "nose", Mark Buxton, composed the essence
closest to that of the client's concept. Throughout, Christian
Astuguvieille guided the concept, development and the
presentation of the finished product.
JP: If I remember correctly, a while ago you prepared an
exhibition and a room scent to perfume the show space. It was
then that you used some vetiver from Java, didn't you?
CA: Yes, the scent was based on a bean from Tonga and vetiver
from Java which I find very exciting, but not too dominant in a
composition. In fact I have been a constant visitor to Indonesia,
especially Jimbaran in Bali for years. This is before the
construction of those beautiful, yet too modern hotels for my
taste. I associate the odors of Indonesia with nature, and
unspoilt nature at that.
JP: Beginning with your experience advising the long
established perfume firm of Molinari on their presentation and
packaging, you have learnt about composing perfumes, what are
your personal tastes in perfume?
CA: I was certainly privileged to learn at first hand about
perfumes and help create about 60 simple ones also in the form of
creams, but from the start I have been attracted to simple, light
and natural scents and fragrances, never complicated, over-
powering and too sensual ones.
JP: What was your role in advising the birth of the new Comme
des Garcons perfume that contains at least four ingredients from
Indonesia?
CA: As the guest art director, my role is restricted to giving
advice and not making the final decisions. I would, by the way,
advise any young Indonesian who is seriously studying perfume to
read the magnificent little introductory book by that
extraordinary French "nose", Edmond Roudnitska, called "Perfume".
Basically the process is the following whatever the perfume
being created: the client decides about the concept of the
perfume, the precise description of what it should evoke and whom
it destined for, which means whether it is for a man or a woman,
or both and of what age group and social class, perhaps for a 20
to 25-year-old very sporty women, and so on.
JP: What about the actual product development?
CA: The portrait of the unborn perfume and its user is drawn
up and images are visualized surrounding the user. Then the
budget and range of products are also decided. The concept is
given to several "noses" of the firms which produce the above-
mentioned "juices" and they begin to work composing the scents
and the client tests their results and chose one of the firms
with the appropriate "juice" to continue the composition.
The whole process takes at least one year, and generally two
to three years, including the research of the perfume itself,
followed by the packaging which includes the form of the bottle,
the color of the writing and the advertising campaign. The price
of the research is not yet mentioned until the "juice" is
developed and a marketing firm tests the results on the
appropriate group of consumers together with possible names. The
most appropriate and appealing name is supremely important. It is
only then that the firm of the "nose" chosen are given the
detailed instructions as to the price-range of the ingredients
and so on. The budget for Commes des Garcons was relatively
modest. Through working with Rei and Adrian, I myself learnt a
lot; one extraordinary fact being that Japanese normally buy
perfumes strictly according to the shape of bottle and packaging,
and not the scent itself.
JP: Has the approach changed because the market has truly
become international?
CA: Yes, the name for example should be pronounceable by the
most varied nationalities possible, besides being catchy and
appropriate for the group aimed at. French names, for example,
are still acceptable as long as they can be pronounced correctly,
shorter names are therefore better. The visuals and advertising
campaigns also, together with the text accompanying the launching
and the decor boxes used to contain the perfumes in the
distribution points; yes, even up to the video spots for
television and coordination of the launching and marketing on a
global scale which entails even more widely spread market
research than before.
The choice of the name Comme des Garcons simplified matters
because the image was already there, it was only a matter of
defining the perfume during the presentation. The advertising
campaign itself was very discrete and esthetic as you can judge
by the press kit prepared by Joffe with its poems and beautiful
photography of the ingredients or symbols in huge dimensions of
approximately one meter by half a meter.
JP: Where is the scent available in Asia?
CA: As Adrian Joffe just told us, it is only distributed in
Comme des Garcons boutiques, so the nearest buying point would be
Singapore for Indonesia, though Joffe did also mention a boutique
in Bali that carries the range of Comme des Garcons shirts and
blouses. Hong Kong and Tokyo are of course also full of boutiques
like Joyce's in Hong Kong where one can buy the eau de parfum.
The New York launching of the smaller bottles is taking place
soon. I am satisfied that the perfume is on its way to being a
huge success and that many people, men included, are going to
enjoy it and not only for its bottle as often is the case in
Japan.
-- Kunang Helmi-Picard