mardi 31 juillet 2012

London launch of Séville à l'aube at L'Artisan Parfumeur: Mission accomplished!


Going to London with Bertrand Duchaufour for the launch of Séville à l’aube at L’Artisan Parfumeur’s Covent Garden Market boutique felt like the final mile of a marathon I'd been running for two years and a half.  There will be other presentations, other launches (The Perfume Lover is coming out next March in the US, Canada and France), but now that the fragrance is out, well… oof!

Though Bertrand obviously reread the manuscript in progress to make sure there were no inaccuracies, we’d never actually debriefed our collaboration. Aboard the Eurostar taking us to London, we decided that we wouldn’t script or rehearse our presentation. So that we made up our narrative in front of a live audience. Given the unusual circumstances of the birth of Séville à l’aube, our presentation strayed from the classic pitch given at perfume launches and took on the form of a two-voiced tale: Once upon a time, a Perfumer met a Writer and they embarked on an epic creative journey where the relationship between raw materials and the story of a night in Seville during Holy Week, of raw materials between themselves and of the two creative partners was rife with obstacles, conflicts, surprises, moments of discouragement and epiphanies...
I'd given the story. Bertrand had the idea to make it into a perfume. But for once, he was travelling to a place where he’d never actually been: it was up to me to take him to Seville during Holy Week purely through my words and my reactions. To make sure he stayed faithful to the story, in other words to his own initial, gut-level intuition, despite the difficulties.

During this London presentation, I actually discovered a number of things he’d never told me. For instance, while I’d been disappointed by his first submissions, I had no previous experience of a fragrance development and was very prudent in my reactions: for all I knew, that’s how things were done, and all formulas started out as ugly ducklings. He revealed he thought those first submissions were awful. Orange blossom and incense have common mineral notes, which he thought would make them go together well, he explained: but they overlapped so much they were gobbling each other up. He spent weeks and months trying to perfect the accord, until he asked me a fateful question: “Do you know what you want?”
Up to then I had considered that my role was giving him my story then chronicling the development of the fragrance for the book. I was almost angry when he asked me to weigh in, since I was neither his client, nor an evaluator or project manager. In London he finally admitted he’d asked me because he was lost – at the time, he’d said “I know perfectly well where I’m going”! That’s what’s in the book, and I have a recording to back it up… It took me several weeks to answer. That’s when I went back into my story to retrieve Habanita, the fragrance I was wearing in the scene that had captured his imagination: I'd mentioned it before but he wasn't ready to listen. The balsamic tobacco oriental accord he derived from it was what was needed to get the orange blossom and incense to play nice. I also brought back a submission we’d rejected very early on because it had both better green top notes and a sensuality that was missing from his current mods.That was the day I went from scribe/human blotter to creative partner.
During the presentation, Bertrand stressed that he was trying to mirror my emotions as much as my original story. And when he found the ingredient that tied together all the notes, those emotions came through. That was Luisieri lavender, a type of lavender with balsamic, tobacco, cistus and incense aspects which had just been introduced to the market as a fine fragrance ingredient. It was presented to him at the very moment he was struggling to find a note that would act as a “catalyst”, a vertical axis, unifying all the accord: the citrus/green top notes, the orange blossom and beeswax heart, the resinous balsamic tobacco base. He says chance; I say serendipity! After all, the Luisieri is also called Seville lavender, so that our story called (for) it… And that’s when I could let go of evaluating: when true emotion came through in the form of a spontaneous “Yes!”

As someone in the audience pointed out, it’s almost as though Séville à l’aube used me, Bertrand and L’Artisan Parfumeur to come into existence. That’s what works of art do: they impose their own criteria, their own necessity. Séville à l’aube was never made for me. It happened with me and through me… Now that it’s out, I’ve had a few chats with L’Artisan Parfumeur sales assistants in Paris and have been told they’re getting a lot of impulse purchases. People who’ve never heard of me, my book or even Bertrand are falling in love with it.

Mission accomplished.



With many thanks to the wonderful team at L'Artisan Parfumeur!

The Perfume Lover: A Personal History of Scent is published in the UK by HarperCollins. To order a copy, click here.
The U.S. and Canada editions will be out in March 2013. Séville à l'aube is already available in France and in London, and will be launched internationally in September in a limited edition, due to the specific qualities of certain raw materials.

31 commentaires:

  1. Actually, I think the Luisieri lavender story is a little more strange than you know. I'd visited BD in his lab the first week of July, 2010, and wanted to bring him a funny present. I knew he had "mixed feelings" about lavender, haha! So I brought a lavender that was very obscure, from Spain, that was beginning to be used in aromatherapy circles. He said he'd never tried it before, and wanted to know where to get some, because it was rich, complex and totally "un-lavender like"- the small bottle was from Eden Botanicals, but he said he was going to hunt it down in France and find a supplier. And so he did! That it's known as "Seville Lavender" is wonderfully serendipitous, it's like it was waiting for its moment, and the timing was perfect.

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  2. Marla, in fact, I did know the story. It was indeed a serendipitous find -- the fact that it was introduced by a larger supplier clinched it.

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  3. I knew you are beautiful woman. But did not suspect that you are THAT beautiful :)
    Great launch, wish I was there!
    Any more chapters of that fragrant story planned in the future (in terms of next scents, of course)?

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  4. Pete, that is very sweet of you to say. Just as I was writing a friend that some pictures made me want to don a burka!
    As for new chapters, Bertrand and I are indeed working on a new project, but it won't be linked to a book (there are things you can only do once). Can't say more for the moment!

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  5. The only burka you can wear is the SoOud's one :-)
    Ohh, I can not wait then!

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  6. Pete, it'll be a while yet (for the scent of course, not the burka), thanks for the vote of confidence!

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  7. It's incredibly exciting to hear about this project. The book is en route, and I hope to somehow get the fragrance before its launch next year.

    Congradulations to you, and thank you so much for the joy you have given us over the years.

    Yours truly,
    Carole

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  8. Oh, Denyse, this is what we have all been waiting to hear! The presentation with the orange fans is beautiful. I am eagerly awaiting my sample. And I hope that you will both be in New York in March for the launch here. Congratulations, Ariane

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  9. Carole, the fragrance will be available worldwide in September so you certainly won't have to wait too long to discover it. And thank *you* for such kind words.

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  10. Ariane, I'll certainly be in New York for my book launch if I have to swim there! Since the perfume will be out by then, I very much doubt Bertrand will be there though. One of the samples I shipped has already made to Australia so I imagine yours should reach you soon.

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  11. congrats to you, and to the fragrance for "using" you to manifest! can't wait to try it!

    off-topic, but wanted to tell you that i LOVE your hair! i'm letting mine go silver, and i love seeing it on other women. you look fantastic! hope more women see how wonderful it looks and take inspiration from it!

    cheers,
    minette

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  12. Ce commentaire a été supprimé par un administrateur du blog.

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  13. Denyse, thanks for this post. I was just thinking about this today and hoping for a bit more of Bertrand's side of the story, so this is perfect. Amazing indeed about the Seville lavender - this perfume was meant to be!

    By the way, it's now up for preorder on LuckyScent and my order is IN - can't wait to spritz with abandon! ~~nozknoz

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  14. I love it that you're still learning about Seville a l'aube and its mysterious artistic genesis. I can't wait until it arrives in the states so I can have my own bottle. I'm a solid fan of the fragrance--and your book.

    Where the heck are you in the photos? It looks like an underground bunker.

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  15. Minette, the silver/grey hair thing has been trending in Paris these past few years. My moment of glory came when Serge Lutens himself complimented me on it. March of the Perfume Posse wrote a long post on this a while back and it seems you and I are not alone! I had it up on the pictures, but it goes beyond my collarbone: I decided to add insult to injury and grow it long. The key is lots of shine, and some colour on the lips.

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  16. Justsoyouknow, on the odd chance you're a real person: comments with commercial links are not allowed, so I suppressed yours. Sorry.

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  17. Nozknoz, lots of people interviewed us, including Lila Das Gupta of Basenotes and Katie Puckrik who filmed us for Katie Puckrik smells, so you'll be getting more direct quotes from Bertrand (which for obviously reasons I couldn't note). It's great that Luckyscent is already taking pre-orders (I've heard from Franco there are tons coming in).

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  18. Angela, isn't it? Still learning, and still falling in love with it over and over... The venue was the L'Artisan Parfumeur boutique in Covent Garden Market, which has a cellar -- it did seem like we were taking cover from the Blitz! The downside was that it was tiny: it couldn't handle large groups, so we had to greet sucessive "waves" of clients and do our little show several times over. The plus was this afforded more intimacy with the public. Also: it was nice and cool, whereas the heat upstairs was fierce!

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  19. Congrats.
    This summer for me it is all about your book. :) Hopefully, I will try scent soon. :)

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  20. Ankica, I don't know where you live, but as I said above, Séville à l'aube will be available worldwide in September. Many people who've read the book said they'd expected a darker fragrance, so be warned: there's a huge, exhilarating burst of sunshine in the top notes!

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  21. Hello Denyse,

    You look stunning!!
    I'm a bit biased cause were style-wins ;)

    I briefly smelled the Seville in France but not thorough enough to comment , I did like it tough!

    Your book is on it's way to me (better late than..)

    I read over at Katie P. that she filmed the whole event; any chance of seeing it soon? Could you get her to hurry? Also read she compared the 2 of you to a grumbling old couple. I have a hard time imagining that.
    Do keep us posted about ANOTHER?? scent.


    PS : Still feel bad about the ridiculous sample I sent, will make up for that soon!

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  22. denyse - i remember the 'silver' post on the posse - i chimed in!

    i agree - shine and some color in the face are critical (emmylou harris does it beautifully). my hair has been short and spiky (a modern cut is also critical, if you keep it short), but i recently saw a woman with a long, tangled silver ponytail who looked incredible, and i thought - i want that! so i am growing mine back out! maybe by the time it's long again it will have more silver in it! as it is, i get lots of compliments on my hair color - everyone thinks i have highlights.

    you look great! keep it up!

    cheers,
    minette

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  23. It must have been such an interesting gathering - I would have had many questions to ask!
    I'm chiming in, however, because I finally got the chance to smell the fragrance. And I am so moved that I had to write it somewhere!
    It is really a wonderful rendition of Orange Blossom - and is much more than that, actually.
    It smells diffrent from what I expected from your book. But that is not a criticism.
    I'm in love!

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  24. Illdone, Katie Puckrik did indeed film an interview, and it was a pleasure -- she's such a professional and fun to boot! She was kind of joking when she compared us to an old bickering married couple -- we've got a relaxed, joshing and teasing kind of rapport, and, yes, we do argue now and then! As for the next episode, that won't be for quite a while yet...

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  25. Minette, I started short and spiky, and now my hair is longer than at anytime since I was thirteen (which was, even by my mother's admission, my most felicitous period). Why the hell not, right?

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  26. Zazie, so happy you love it! You might get a chance yet to ask those questions if you attend Pitti Fragranze.

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  27. Congratulations, Denyse. Séville à l'aube is breathtakingly beautiful, and I'm glad the launch was a success.

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  28. Jarvis, thank you so much! Hope to see you in New York when my book launches in the US...

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  29. I'll move heaven and earth to be there.

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  30. I haven't tried Seville a l'Aube yet (no retailer anywhere near damnit) so I can't offer any true comment about it but I trust your taste completely, to the point I am considering an unsniffed purchase from l'Artisan's site. The arangement in the shop window is amazing btw!

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  31. Kostas, it's lovely isn't it? I've just received pictures from the Tokyo launch and it was so lovely too...

    As for retailers, anyway I think you'd have to wait until September outside France and London... But thanks for the vote of confidence!

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