smell
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What scents or places or experiences provide your own triggers?
I’m
inspired by odors that touch me, that shock me, that make me nostalgic,
that remind me of other people, other places. Inspiration is
everywhere—the smells of childhood, of life. A blinding white shirt in
full sun, an Indian dance, steaming rice, bewitching incense drifting
through a Malaysian temple. Ten years later, that incense inspired
L’Ether de IUNX. To me, incense evokes uplifting prayer; it’s pure,
profound, intoxicating. I like everything that burns: wood, resins,
dried leaves, hot ashes, barbeques, the smell of earth and sun-warmed
herbs.Like a vocabulary of emotions, perfume becomes a living language for
me. Educating one’s sense of smell means becoming more aware, looking at
things differently, pausing where others hurry past. I write down my
impressions and keep everything I come across in my travels. In Mali, I
broke the bark of a yellow wood that tasted of quince, collected cooked
seeds, burned rope; in Japan, I found soft rubber that smelled of
Christmas and a neon pink ribbon that smelled like dolls; in Mexico,
driftwood, fresh cactus and black corn. Large cities are kaleidoscopes
of odors. Istanbul smells of roses and dust, New York of laundry fumes
and cinnamon. Paris is electric heaters, fresh bread and wet sidewalks.
Katmandu is dry woods and cucumber. Tokyo is grilled food, metal and
plastic.
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“For people could close their eyes to greatness, to horrors, to beauty, and their ears to melodies or deceiving words. But they couldn’t escape scent. For scent was a brother of breath. Together with breath it entered human beings, who couldn’t defend themselves against it, not if they wanted to live. And scent entered into their very core, went directly to their hearts, and decided for good and all between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate. He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.” — Patrick Süskind
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“Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.” — Patrick Süskind
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diptyque questionnaire: Olivia Giacobetti
3. Your favorite dish?
Apricot Tagine
4. Your favorite scent?
Just
one? Wood smells because there are thousands of them! White, black,
dry, milky, burnt or wet – I can hardly think of a perfume without wood
which for me is just like how the base or background is for a painter.
5. Your Proust madeleine?
I
have plenty – the solfège of a perfumer is a series of memories, of
emotions remembered. The most intimate of them is probably the smell of
my teddy-bear when I was a child. Just thinking of him brings back nap
times and his familiar smell, a mixture of straw and boiled wool.
7. In your opinion, which animal creates the most empathy?
A donkey.
8. Synesthesia: do you have sensorial associations with shape, colour, scent, and sound?
My
work is based on the association game, the illusion of perception where
senses blend together, melt into each other and for me, smell brings
out all the senses.
9. What fault do you have?
Curiosity.
10. And which characteristic do you gain most from?
My curiosity.
14. The book that opened your eyes to the world?
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, I was 16 years old then.
16. Three important films?
The movie Le Sauvage from my childhood, directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, because it inspired me to become a perfumer.
Time of the Gypsies, by Emir Kusturica
The Piano, by Jane Campion
18. If you were to have a museum, which sculptor and sculpture would you choose for it?
The sheer folly of artist Olafur Eliasson – the Weather Project, or Your Sun Machine.
20. Which people, real or fictional, inspire you most?
It’s
more than just a character as it’s often a detail that catches my
attention, an appeal, the unusual off-the-wall thing, a sensation which
brings something else and creates a new craving, a new idea.
I also
rather like works by some artists like Anish Kapoor or Yoshioka Tokujin
where I find magic, an extraordinary poetry, which inspire me a great
deal.
22. If you could offer a bouquet of flowers to a bird, what would it be?
A bouquet of mint and chocolate cosmos flowers, chocolate scented!
For what bird?
A northern cardinal.
24. Where do you escape to?
Where there is water – as far as your eyes can see.
26. Do you have a motto that you use as guidance and illumination?
I
really like this from Andrée Putman who I was lucky to meet, “Not to
dare is already losing. Let us rejoice on any ambitious project, even
utopian, because things will never change unless we dream.”
27. Does the act of creating govern your life?
It
becomes something essential that I look for, a feeling of the unknown,
of mystery, just like a need to go towards what’s still strange to me.
Picasso once said “What do I do when I’ve no inspiration? I work!”
28. As a gift what would you like to give that would make something?
Time.
29. If you were to talk about your job to young talented people, what would you say as encouragement?
I
would only give one piece of advice – by imitating others too much, one
tends to forget our own world, it kills both our instinct and
imagination.
30 & 31. According to you,
what is craftwork in modern times and setting economic or social issues
aside, how can rare productions of noble quality be beneficial today?
France
is a real gold-mine but the savoir-faire has gotten lost in
standardization ruled by marketing and the desire to please the largest
audience. Today everyone gets dressed and perfumed almost in a uniformed
way, it’s terrible! Craftsmanship, rare creations, the “little hands”
seem to be the only future of luxury versus an exhausted market by
standardised and globalized brands. We’re already seeing an urge for
more truthfulness.
33. And what would your favourite diptyque scent (perfume or candles) be?
L’eau Trois.
34. For you, diptyque in a nutshell?
Creation of their own world standing apart from the fashion trends.
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1974 Chanel No 5 Perfume Advertisement
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you smell nice.
love letters to nature. june 2013 by Emily Blincoe
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What does space smell like?
It’s strange to think that the near-vacuum of space
could have a smell, and stranger still that humans — atmospheric
creatures — can actually experience it. Astronauts have consistently
reported the same strange odour after lengthy space walks, bringing it
back in on their suits, helmets, gloves and tools. Its bitter, smoky,
metallic smell — like seared steak, hot metal and arc welding smoke all
rolled into one. NASA have asked a chemist, Steve Pearce, to reproduce
the smell to use during acclimatization training, mapping out the likely
chemistry using natural materials to mimic the odor for accuracy. It’s
believed that the smell is caused by high-energy vibrations in particles
that mix with the air when brought inside. In the future, we might even
recreate the smell of the moon, Mars, Mercury or any place in the
universe, provided we have the right chemical information. In fact, we
can even recreate the smell of the heart of the galaxy — astronomers
searching for animo acids in Sagittarius B2, a vast dust cloud in the
middle of the Milky Way, have reported that due to a substance called
ethyl formate, it smells and tastes of raspberries and rum — much more
pleasant than seared steak and metal.