Pitti Immagine Fragranze 10 (Press release)

Taking nearly five days off to attend Pitti Fragranze worked wonders for my morale, but wreaked havoc on my workload, so while I knock together some sort of report on the fair, here's the official press release...

À mes lecteurs français : Mes cinq jours à Florence pour Pitti Fragranze m'ont fait un bien fou, mais ont dévasté mon calendrier d'échéances professionnelles... En attendant de pouvoir rédiger un petit billet sur le salon, voici le communiqué de presse, en anglais, désolée (avec un livre de 600 pages à traduire en express, je n'aurai pas le temps de m'attaquer à ce texte-ci!).

A 26% rise in public attendance at Fragranze and over 2,700 visitors.The fair continues to be an international reference pointfor artistic perfumery and contemporary olfactory culture. Big success for all the events and special projects featured at this edition.

The 10^th edition of Fragranze (Florence 14-16 September 2012), the Pitti Immagine fair-event dedicated to the best proposals from the world of artistic perfumery, closed yesterday at the Stazione Leopolda registering significant results in terms of attendance and quality.  A total of 2,730 visitors attended over the three days of the event (+ 26% compared to the 2,170 visitors in September 2011), to see the latest proposals from 213 international sector brands.

The final figures once again confirm the highly international dimension of Fragranze: there was a total of 1,520 buyers, of which almost 300 were from abroad, an increase of almost 30%.  France held the top position (+ 70%), while the figures for the United Kingdom nearly doubled and there were excellent performances from Switzerland, Spain, the Ukraine, Poland and the United States.  Many important buyers also arrived from new markets in the former Soviet Union (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan), the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, as well as the most important South American markets.          

“Fragranze has once again shown that it is becoming an increasingly international platform”, says Agostino Poletto, deputy general manager of Pitti Immagine, “in terms of the brands participating at the Leopolda (almost 70% of which came from abroad) and, above all, the attendance of buyers from all over the world.  We received very positive feedback from all the exhibitors about the quality of the public attending, the stage direction of the initiatives organized and the high profile of the products and special events that focused on olfactory culture.  I should add that the selection of new ideas for the Spring area dedicated to up-and-coming brands and new essence creators worked very well and that this area is becoming one of the fair’s greatest strengths.  We also noticed a high level of interest in this edition of Fragranze amongst the Italian and international press.  And finally, on the day we opened to the public of essence enthusiasts, we had almost 1,000 visitors”.

The packed calendar of events, special projects and presentations that accompanied Fragranze were also very well received by the public and media.  These included a trip around the world with the installation Every Bottle of Perfume contains a world by Chandler Burr, the star of contemporary olfactory culture, who also presented one of his famous Scent Dinners and a lecture on the French “nose” Jean-Claude Ellena. There was also the Observatory on trends and the latest figures for the perfumery market presented by IFF – International Flavors & Fragrances, a leading US company in the production and marketing of components for essences and aromas for the food, cosmetics and fragrance sectors.

“Special events and performances like the one by Chandler Burr”, concludes the CEO Raffaello Napoleone, “or the collaboration of prestigious partners such as IFF, contribute to making Fragranze a unique platform for discussing contemporary olfactory culture and markets, presenting the protagonists-symbols of this world and launching strong ideas and messages.  For this reason we will be increasing our efforts to move in this direction.”

Here are some of the comments we collected from buyers attending this edition of Fragranze:

Mar Jordan – Santa Eulalia – Barcelona (Spain)

“This is my first visit to Pitti Fragranze and I couldn’t wait to come!  There are so many things to see, so many new ideas and up-to-date products.  Here I found brands that we display as well as some truly high quality niche brands.  Plus sophisticated fragrances and essences, including some derived from some types of wine and others contained within bottles that are regular works of art.  I felt a truly positive energy: the atmosphere was peaceful and very agreeable so our work also became an opportunity for human exchange”.

Giovanni Padovani – “Al sacro cuore” – Bologna (Italy)

“I am an historic Fragranze buyer and find this fair to be decidedly superior to many others, in terms of the level and quality of the products, even though work never stops on improving product quality and research.  The Stazione Leopolda is an excellent location for the fair: beautiful, historic, with a truly interesting layout and, above all, highly suitable for members of the trade.  I noticed some interesting new trends in the world of artistic perfumery such as fragrances that are characterized by just a few notes, which represent a new artistic path.  These are very particular perfumes that manage to create small “magic spells”.  They are like Expressionist painters amidst a wealth of Renaissance paintings”.

Joanna Missala “Quality” – Warsaw (Poland)“We have four boutiques in Poland, we are distributors as well as retailers and for us Fragranze is an excellent place to interact with other members of the trade.  The layout of the fair is very exclusive, it is well suited to the high level of the brands showcased and also favors a more functional presentation of the products.  The brands – niche and exclusive – are very interesting.  Particularly useful were the lectures and conferences held in parallel with the fair.  The “Every Bottle of Perfume Contains a World” installation by Chandler Burr was particularly beautiful and unique”.

Antonio Alessandria – Boudoir 36 – Catania (Italy)

“For us, Pitti Fragranze is a useful way for meeting distributors and producers rather than for viewing products.  This is very important, especially in the artistic perfumery sector which is a very small world where it helps to be able to grasp the thoughts and concepts hidden behind a certain product.  Fragranze makes contemporary olfactory culture spectacular in the positive sense of the word.  There are conferences, international special guests and beautiful installations.  And the Stazione Leopolda is a unique location in Florence, which is so rich in art.  I found the “Spring” section very interesting: there were excellent new ideas that had been very well selected.  I identified two very strong trends.  Fragrances characterized by simple, clean notes, suitable for a wider audience, and perfumes with great character for the more limited niche group of true connoisseurs”.

Yuri Antipov – Director Solig – Moscow (Russia)

“We have attended Fragranze for ten years and really like this fair.  It gets better every year in terms of exhibition quality and brand scouting.  It is really the best fair, an excellent showcase for niche and up-and-coming brands.  We are distributors and are always looking for new products.  So Fragranze is an important occasion for meeting our partners and discussing strategies and new ideas.  The trends?  It is difficult to talk about specific trends but I identified some very unusual products that I don’t think will go unnoticed”.

Nino Nodia – PR Manager, Style Distribution – Tbilisi (Georgia)

“This is the first time I have come to Fragranze.  I have taken part in many events dedicated to the world of artistic perfumery in Cannes, Dusseldorf, Milan… but this is something truly special.  It is a very small, well-organized ambient, with just a few exhibitors and niche brands of the highest quality.  The fragrances are not commercial, they have their own history, concepts and ideas.  Fragranze means specialties, the luxury of detail, for sophisticated “noses”!

I found some very interesting products, special perfumes that are completely different from any others, as well as a vast range of home and body-care products, plus interesting accessories linked to the world of perfumery.  The fair organization and buyer relations were excellent.  The city is marvelous, the fair is very welcoming and has a truly unique layout”.

  

Florence, 18 September 2012

Les Rives de la Beauté, c'est mercredi à Paris

 

À peine a-t-on rangé les flacons à Florence qu’on les déballe à Paris pour la 4ème éditiondes Rives de la Beauté, série d’événements multidisciplinaires croisant le parfum, la beauté et la création artistique… Parmi les événements à ne pas manquer :

L’exposition « Du Sacré à la Volupté » de Marc-Antoine Corticchiato, créateur de Parfum d’Empire, et de son complice de longue date, le photographe Fabrice Leseigneur, pour découvrir en avant-première la dernière création de Marc-Antoine, Musc Tonkin.

Hôtel Lutétia, du 17 septembre au 7 octobre.

Élisabeth de Feydeau sera chez Jovoy pour dédicacer ses ouvrages et présenter le plus récent, L’herbier de Marie-Antoinette, à paraître en octobre chez Flammarion. Vous pourrez également découvrir ce jour-là les nouveautés de Jovoy en présence des parfumeurs-créateurs.

Jovoy, 4 rue de Castiglione, le 21 septembre

Dégustation des Eaux Bouillantes conçues par le designer Philippe di Meo (créateur de la nouvelle marque Liquides Imaginaires) avec le chef Alain Cirelli et deux parfumeurs de Givaudan, Shyamala Maisondieu et Nathalie Gracia-Cetto.

Le Purgatoire - 54 Paradis, 54 rue du Paradis, 75010, du 19 au 22 septembre

« Le Parfum, tout un art », conférence – table ronde à l’Institut Français de la Mode, accueille Chandler Burr, curateur d’art olfactif au Museum of Art and Design de New York, qui viendra présenter sans trop en dévoiler l’exposition qu’il consacre aux chefs d’œuvre du parfum à New York en novembre. Cette présentation sera suivie d’une table ronde sur le thème, ô combien épineux et débattu, de la nature artistique du parfum. Au moment d’écrire ces lignes, les noms des panelistes ne sont pas encore confirmés, mais en principe, je devrais en faire partie.

IFM, 36 Quai d’Austerlitz, 75013, le 22 septembre de 10h30 à 12h30.

Pour en savoir plus, vous pouvez télécharger le programme complet des Rives de la Beauté en cliquant ici.

Off to Pitti!

By the time you read this, I’ll be off to Florence to attend Pitti Fragranze for the duration, joining forces with my friend and colleague Victoria of Bois de Jasmin (I know – sometimes life is just too awful, isn’t it?).

Friday Sept. 14th at 11 A.M., Séville à l'aube will be presented to journalists and retailers:

Bertrand Duchaufour and I will be reprising our London double act in a talk is entitled, dauntingly, “When fragrance meets literature”. 

Saturday Sept. 15th from 3 to 6 P.M., Bertrand Duchaufour will be signing bottles for the public at the L'Artisan Parfumeur booth. I'll be lurking around, but not selling or signing books, unless you bring your own!
 

I also have an appointment with Chandler Burr, the guest of honor of this 10^th edition, for a face-to-face interview. For the full programme of festivities, including Chandler’s conference on Jean-Claude Ellena, his installation “Every bottle contains a world” produced by IFF and his scented dinner, click here.

Apart from that, I’m looking forward to crossing paths with Vero Kern, Carlos Huber of Arquiste, Geza Schoen, the Humiecki & Graef designer duo, none of whom live in Paris. And I’ll definitely be seeking out a few brands that intrigue me, like A Lab on Fire and Blood Concept with a new scent by Antoine Lie of Sécrétions Magnifiques fame.

And, of course, I’ll be meeting up with lots of fellow bloggers, both from Italy – Ermano La Gardenia nell’occhiello, Antonio Boudoir 36, Marika Bergamotto & Benzoino – and the rest of the world.

It’s pretty costly to use a smartphone abroad, but I’ll try to tweet, so be sure to follow me @theperfumelover.

Mind you, I might be playing hooky from the sniffing quite a lot – it’s Florence, for heaven’s sake. If I go awol, you’ll find me by the Arno with a full-blown case of Stendhal’s syndrome (or click here).

Illustration: detail from Ghirlandaio's fresco "The Birth of John the Baptist" in the Tornabuoni chapel of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.

Partie pour Pitti !

Quand vous lirez ceci, je serai en route pour Florence afin d’assister à Pitti Fragranze, le grand salon de la parfumerie d'exception, avec ma consœur et amie Victoria de Bois de Jasmin (je sais, je sais… la vie est parfois trop horrible).

Vendredi 14 septembre à 11 heures, présentation de Séville à l'aube pour les professionnels: Bertrand Duchaufour et moi reprendrons le numéro de duettistes rodé à Londres dans une conférence intitulée par les organisateurs « Quand le parfum rencontre la littérature ».

Samedi 15 septembre de 15 à 18 heures, événement consommateur L'Artisan Parfumeur: Bertrand Duchaufour dédicacera des flacons sur le stand de L'Artisan Parfumeur. Je serai également présente mais les seuls livres que je dédicacerai seront ceux apportés par mes lecteurs car il n'y aura pas de vente du livre.

J'ai  également rendez-vous avec l’invité d’honneur de cette 10^ème édition, Chandler Burr, pour l’interviewer (nous nous recroiserons d’ailleurs le 22 septembre lors de la conférence de Chandler à l’Institut Français de la Mode, dans le cadre des Rives de la Beauté). Pour le programme complet des événements organisés à Pitti par le curateur d’art olfactif du Museum of Art and Design de New York, cliquez ici.

J’aurai bien évidemment le plaisir de croiser amis et connaissances qui n’habitent pas Paris, comme Vero Kern, Carlos Huber d’Arquiste, Geza Schoen, le duo de Humiecki & Graef. Et j’irai mettre le nez du côté de marques que je ne connais pas bien encore, comme A Lab on Fire et Blood Concept, qui présente un nouveau parfum signé Antoine Lie (logique : il a composé Sécrétions Magnifiques). Et bien entendu, j’aurai le plaisir de revoir mes amis blogueurs d’Italie (Ermano de LaGardenia nell’occhiello, Antonio de Boudoir 36, Marika de Bergamotto &Benzoino) ou d’ailleurs.

Comme l’usage du smartphone à l’étranger est affreusement onéreux, je twitterai au compte-goutte, mais quand même : vous pouvez me suivre (en anglais) @theperfumelover.

Et comme c’est Florence, quand même, il n’est pas impossible que j’aille promener mon nez ailleurs qu’au salon. Si je suis portée disparue, vous me trouverez sans doute au bord de l’Arno, en proie au syndrome de Stendhal…

Illustration: Portrait de Ludovica Tornabuoni par Ghirlandaio, detail des fresques de la chapelle Tornabuoni dans l'église du couvent de Santa Maria Novella.

Thierry Mugler Angel blows 20 candles, and it's still one of the best stories in the industry

A great perfume is great all the way down the line. Not only the fragrance itself, but the story, name, bottle, visuals and expression of brand identity. The connection with the wearer never exists outside of that context. And finding enough people to wear a scent faithfully over the years, so that this scent not only survives, but imprints its era, is one of the things that make it a classic, along with its originality and fertility – the fact a lineage can spring from it.

Angel is, of course, a textbook example of a perfectly conceived product that went on to become a classic, and one of the rare fragrances that went on to become a blockbuster on both sides of the Atlantic. This year, Thierry Mugler is celebrating its 20^th anniversary with a special edition “Collection Cuir” eau de parfum that comes with a star-adorned bracelet, an “Angel Precious Star” limited edition bottle (depicted below) as well as “The Fragrances of leather”, this year’s limited edition: the scent matured in vats containing pieces of leather (Alien and Womanity also received this treatment: I’ll get back to that).

To celebrate the event, Clarins, which has owned the Thierry Mugler license since its creation, gathered perfume and beauty bloggers at the headquarters of Clarins France to blow Angel’s twenty candles and gorge on blue cotton candy, cake with blue icing, blueberry cupcakes and various azure-tinted candies.

Two utterly charming and knowledgeable ladies were there to tell us the story: Sandrine Groslier, the Managing Director of Clarins France, and Elisabeth de Feydeau, the renowned perfume historian. As I listened to their lively double act, what struck me most was that Angel might have been the first mainstream perfume to explicitly claim a couturier’s personal history as a storyline (which Elisabeth confirmed during the informal Q/A session). His fond memories of funfair sweets, his obsession with the star motif and the world of science-fiction, his fascination with the Strasburg cathedral he saw from his window as a child, and with his mother’s sensual oriental perfume… And last but not least, his past as a dancer: it is only in the Opéra de Paris that prima ballerinas are called étoiles.

All these elements are now the stuff of legend, as is the epic development helmed by Vera Strubi who sought out what was the very core of Thierry Mugler’s identity, fought to carry out his vision, imposed a bottle design that seemed impossible, that ended up being so expensive she re-invented the refillable bottle… The outrageous cotton candy accord that the industry sneered at, and which ended up spawning the gourmand family… The Angel road show that brought the scent directly to consumers, rather than a lavish advertising campaign… The cards in each box that enabled women to write back with their impressions. (To read my write-up of Ms. Strubi’s conference, click here).

Angel didn’t only spawn the entire gourmand family: it spawned stories. Not only the couturier’s, but also the development’s and further down the line, the stories of every woman who ever appropriated Angel as a signature scent and wrote back to the brand – starting with Sandrine Groslier herself, who discovered Angel as a teenager.

Elisabeth de Feydeau’s presentation set these within the wider context of perfume history. She pulled one of Angel’s scented strands by telling us the history of patchouli, a material that took on different meanings throughout the ages. First, the scent of imported cashmere shawls in the mid-19^th century. Then, the sensuous sillage of courtesans – the French expression “ça sent le patchouli” (it smells of patchouli) being synonymous with “ça cocotte” (cocotte meaning “loose woman”, but also “it stinks”) to express the strong, cheap scent worn by harlots. 

Patchouli went on to become an essential ingredient of the chypre family, before transmogrifying into an exotic headshop waft in the hippie era (Aromatics Elixir, which featured it prominently, played the Flower Child card when it was launched).

Elisabeth believes that today, since we’ve since been submerged by gourmand scents, patchouli is the angle that can draw new consumers into Angel: the strong olfactory structure that balances out the sweet cotton candy note, and expresses both the sensuality of Thierry Mugler’s mother’s oriental perfume, and the couturier’s über-structured, corseted and shouldered tailoring.

She went on to explain that originally, Angel’s press kit didn’t give out the names of materials, unlike most perfume brand communication in the 80s. It focused on the facets inasmuch as they pointed towards the story. Again, this struck me: If a perfume has a strong enough story, it doesn’t need to go into a song and dance about this or that raw material. In many cases, that type of PR routine seems like a default option – unless of course the scent is literally structured around a specific note in which case the material can legitimately become the story.

Angel’s strength is not just what Angel smells of: it is its story, and its capacity to generate stories because it springs from a genuine, personal story, supported by stellar teamwork and a visionary brand. No wonder Angel still gives wet dreams to every perfume marketer on the planet… But which cosmetics behemoth would have the balls to trust their team’s instincts that much today?