The home of Hermes has all the time moved to its personal whimsy. Take its newest perfume, Un Jardin a Cythere, that’s a part of the cult Parfums-Jardins assortment. Conceptualised with the theme of “astonishment” in thoughts (it’s the massive concept behind every little thing that the model creates this 12 months), this delightfully wild scent combines notes of recent pistachios, olive bushes and sun-toasted grass to evoke in-house perfumer Christine Nagel’s recollections of the Greek island Kythira.
Inside Hermes’ olfactory universe, the Parfums-Jardins (French for backyard perfumes) collection was conceived to seize the soul of a selected location. This 12 months, it welcomed its seventh version, Un Jardin a Cythere (pictured), which is impressed by Nagel’s recollections of her first journey to the sun-soaked Greek island Kythira, evoking visions of a blonde area wedged by the sky and sea.
Throughout a latest go to to Singapore, the soulful and good-humoured Nagel shares extra on Un Jardin a Cythere’s uncommon beginnings and the surprising methods by which the French maison desires up fragrances.
This scent, Un Jardin a Cythere, may be stated to be a pandemic child. Inform us extra about the way you got here up with it.
“When (Hermes inventive director) Pierre-Alexis Dumas stated it was time to create a brand new perfume for the Parfums-Jardins collection, I retrieved this reminiscence that I had of Greece and needed to recreate by this fragrance a backyard on the island of Kythira. I began to organise a visit there (for analysis), however Covid-19 struck and it turned unimaginable to journey. This left me with two prospects: I may anticipate the pandemic to finish or I may create this Greek backyard from my recollections of Kythira. Like a painter who appears at a panorama after which returns to his studio to color it, the tip consequence won’t be good, however that’s okay. I simply went about creating Un Jardin a Cythere by trusting my nostril and my recollections.”
What did – and do – you bear in mind so fondly of Kythira?
“I really like to go to islands by sea and my first reminiscence of Kythira when engaged on Un Jardin a Cythere was of seeing its panorama from a ship … Upon arriving, I visited certainly one of its gardens and I bear in mind encountering a number of completely different sensations. The primary occurred after I was standing beneath an olive tree: The solar was shining by and there have been crickets buzzing. As I walked, the dry grass – blonde in color – made a crunchy sound. The second sensation got here because the wind blew and stuffed my nostril with the odor of dry herbs. This stunned me, as one often has to bend all the way down to odor the crops in a backyard, however on Kythira, the wind brings the scent to you. This very reminiscence is what I’ve tried to bottle in Un Jardin a Cythere.”
Stroll us by the fragrance’s key notes then.
“Most of the scents that I needed to incorporate on this perfume don’t exist. For instance, there’s the essence of olive bushes, which make for a really fascinating fragrance ingredient. Their trunks look deformed and onerous, however the bushes in actual fact possess a really elegant scent that I recreated utilizing numerous different substances. There’s additionally the essence of dry grass, which, once more, doesn’t exist in perfumery and needed to be simulated. One other reminiscence that performed a key position on this perfume was that of me receiving a bit field of pistachios from Pierre-Alexis. They had been recent and, to my shock, pink in color – not inexperienced or brown, as generally thought … Greece is an important place to Pierre-Alexis (his mom was born there) and after I offered the completed fragrance to him, he stated: ‘Christine, I really feel at dwelling.’”
The maison roped within the Greek artist Elias Kafouros, whose inky, extremely detailed drawings have impressed a number of Hermes scarves, as an instance the field that the Un Jardin a Cythere fragrance is available in. When you’re questioning, the pink pods characterize pistachios – a key accord within the perfume that, opposite to standard perception, are of a rosy hue when recent.
How has the pandemic affected the way in which you’re employed as a nostril?
“Scent is usually the human sense that we use the least or is usually thought of not as essential because the others. For instance, youngsters are taught to attract, play music or style various things, however hardly ever are they taught to odor. The sense of odor is, nevertheless, the sense of survival and when some folks misplaced it to Covid-19, it was solely then that many realised how sad it’s to not be capable to odor. I feel this has made folks take a look at fragrance very in another way and that’s very constructive for a perfumer … There’s now a rising appreciation for fragrances with a signature – one which smells completely different and has audacity – as clients develop into extra selective and don’t need to odor like everybody else. Which means that the maison should take probabilities and give you various kinds of fragrances.”
How would you say Hermes takes probabilities with perfumery?
“At Hermes, I’m completely free … There are in all probability 500 perfumers on the planet. Which will seem to be loads, however there are in all probability extra astronauts than perfumers, and there are solely six maisons with in-house perfumers: Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Guerlain, Cartier and Hermes. After I arrived right here in 2014, I used to be stunned by how the one instruction that I acquired was after I needed to give you a brand new scent. There have been no constraints and no price range given. Additionally, when a fragrance is accomplished at different manufacturers, it often has to bear a number of market testing and the one which will get chosen is the one which’s appreciated by essentially the most variety of folks.
Which means that something with a extra distinctive character will often not make it. Right here at Hermes, we don’t do market assessments. Solely three folks resolve if a fragrance will get launched: Pierre-Alexis Dumas, Agnes de Villers (president and CEO of Hermes Fragrance and Magnificence) and Veronique Nichanian (the inventive director of Hermes menswear).
I bear in mind Axel Dumas (Hermes’s chief government officer) telling me: ‘Christine, proceed to have audacity. When working, you’ve the correct to make errors.’ He would favor that I make a mistake as a result of I’m audacious than make one as a result of I’m following traits. I’m a really fortunate perfumer.”
Let’s speak about perfume in a digital world. The hashtag #perfumetok, for instance, has greater than three billion views on TikTok. How would you say social media has modified the fragrance business?
“Maybe I’m an previous perfumer, however I’m additionally a really curious individual. I’m fascinated with many issues, comparable to AI (synthetic intelligence), and I’m very open-minded. If you watch a video about fragrance on Instagram or TikTok, your curiosity could be piqued. Social media channels are an essential technique to excite somebody, however what a fragrance is admittedly like can solely be recognized when it’s on an individual’s pores and skin. I feel we are able to study loads about an individual by the fragrance she or he is carrying – by smelling them as a substitute of judging them from the way in which they costume.”
One other essential factor in luxurious in addition to the world of magnificence going ahead is sustainability. How are you and Hermes tackling it by the fragrances you create?
“I feel it’s essential to concentrate on the place and the way substances are sourced. Hermes actually appears deeply into discovering moral companions. For instance, sure substances that I take advantage of are grown by feminine farmers in Madagascar and we make sure that they’re paid pretty …
I additionally make certain to contemplate sources which are extra sustainable. Take the rosewood oil, a uncommon ingredient, that I utilized in H24 (a males’s perfume launched by Hermes in 2021). The export of Brazilian rosewood was banned by the Brazilian authorities many years in the past as a result of it was contributing to the deforestation of the Amazon forest, however we finally got here throughout one other supply for rosewood oil. Some farmers in Peru had been rising the bushes from which it’s derived and reducing them in such a approach that the crops regrow, making the observe extra sustainable.
As well as, all Hermes fragrances are actually refillable and the glass bottles that we use are recyclable … With my background in science (Nagel majored in chemistry), I’m additionally fascinated by biotechnology as a result of it permits us to recreate the identical substances present in nature.
This may be 100 instances dearer, however worth will not be an element throughout the creation course of at Hermes. The maison prefers that I work with high-quality substances which have a safe future and that is very fascinating for me, as I consider that biotechnology is the longer term … Always remember that going pure isn’t all the time the very best – typically, you make the earth poorer by doing so.”
This interview has been edited and condensed for brevity.
A model of this text first appeared within the July 2023 Graphic Design Version of FEMALE
Supply: Her World
