"Collect J'Adore with a banana for me - and now skiing": Perfumer Frederick Malle about work

In early March, Frederick Mal brought a new fragrance to Moscow - an exceptionally unusual Music for a While - and made another explosion of expectations and discussions among those who are not indifferent. Our faithful perfume critic Ksenia Golovanova was able to personally talk to Male about creating perfume, working with beginners and the unobvious laws of the world of smells.

Let's talk about your new fragrance. The baroque aria of Music for a While was written by the composer Henry Purcell in the 17th century, and this is generally not the most well-known musical work of the general public. What is the connection between English Baroque and Frédéric Malle?

In fact, there is no special connection between Purcell's aria and this fragrance: I was driving around Los Angeles, listening to music and seeing the name of the track on the display, which seemed to me to be absolutely brilliant - so modern and abstract. But if my Music for a While really would have been music, it would be more like Philip Glass than Henry Purcell.

Although the music written by Henry Purcell for the funeral of Queen Maria II, the one that was adapted for synthesizers and used by Stanley Kubrick in "A Clockwork Orange" is similar to what we do at Frédéric Malle. We take the perfume classics and sort of rewrite it, making it sound relevant. Take at least Musc Ravageur - this is your own version of the classic Coty Emeraude (the first oriental fragrance in the world. - Approx. Ed.), Dominique Ropion’s Fleur de Cassie was inspired in part by Gerlenovsky Apres L'Ondée, in part by Nina Ricci L'Air du Temps.

Well, well, but imagine: people will start to google the aria of Music For a While, listen to it, read the text of the libretto. And there are all the horrors of ancient Greek myths: the Gorgon, the goddess of vengeance, and more.

I love to come to Russia. Do you know why? You are curious and well-educated people looking for, reading, making inquiries. But in 99% of cases, people are not very interested in who Purcell is. We had a similar situation with Portrait of a Lady. I really liked the name of the novel by Henry James, but the flavor of the book itself, contrary to what many Russian customers think, has nothing to do. And it has - to the most famous photo of Richard Avedon, “Dovim with Elephants”: such a picture lived in my head when I was working on “Portrait”.

In general, let me tell you how it all works. My job is to gradually cut off the excess, so that the composition does not turn into a salad of sandalwood, roses and many other beautiful things, which is why we have such precise, concise formulas. And one of the techniques that help me in this is to constantly keep in my head some kind of convex image and compare work with him. Sometimes this is a picture, sometimes a familiar person, sometimes a few.

For example?

Vétiver Extraordinaire is my father's friend. Carnal Flower - all these special Parisians who use spirits with tuberose. All the time I ask myself: "Will such a thing go to my hero? But is this?" When I was working on Portrait of a Lady, I thought about Dovim, the famous model of the 1950s, about the photos of Avedon that he was doing in Paris at that time. It shows how young an American photographer was shocked by French elegance. My uncle was a director (Louis Mal. - Ed.), and some scenes from his "Wandering Light" - this sad film, by the way, is a true portrait of my father ... So, there is a party scene where people from Paris, very similar to those I grew up, gathered - and I recalled these people working on Portrait of a Lady.

As far as I understand, this is one of your top bestsellers.

Portrait - completely "my" flavor in terms of ideas about beauty and sexuality. The only thing that worried me at first was that it was not too complicated for perception? Is it too deadly handsome? You see, a person must be part of the life around him. If you do not keep up with the times, it will not be easy for you.

Today, people do not dress like they were dressed in the 1940s: buying a vintage dress of those times, you realize that the fabric will feel differently, will form other folds, and so on. Today, few women gather for dinner for three hours ... Somehow you have to be modern. And with the "Portrait" for me it was not so obvious. But I knew that I would let him out anyway - to spit, I will do everything.

But with the Superstitious, you did not go too far? It seems to me that he is too deadly, as you just put it, perfect for our time. Having Superstitious, you also need to have your own box in the box and generally walk without touching the ground. Living with a mortgage and a couple of other loans in such a picture of the world does not fit.

Yes, you are right, this is a couture dress. Couture dress by Albert Elbaz. Maybe we have gone too far: the border is always so thin, almost invisible. We try to create modern classics - things as beautiful as possible. Personally, I think Superstitious is great, but maybe you are right.

You mainly work with perfumers that have already been professionally held - Dominique Ropion, Maurice Ruselle and so on ...

Not. I met Dominic thirty years ago, and since then we have grown together: I was a newcomer, he is a beginner perfumer, and we came to success at the same time. But, really, I wanted to work with the superstars of perfumery, I simply knew that they were stars, but the world did not exist yet. We worked in one company producing fragrances: I was an assistant to the president, and they worked in the laboratory and at the same time taught me about my future craft. And when I decided to create my own brand, they supported me - firstly, they knew that I was not eating my bread for nothing, and secondly, I gave them full creative freedom.

It sounds too perfect.

But ideally, of course, did not work. At the very beginning I made two mistakes. For some reason, I decided that all the clients of French perfume houses, who have not released anything decent for a long time, will come to me - because we are doing great. In addition, I did not take into account that I would encounter a truly lost generation. You see, all of the then emerging perfumers (today they are about forty-five, they are professionally active) were taught to collect fragrances for the indiscriminate public. How are such scents made? You take the bestseller, you pass it through the chromatograph(chromatography - conditional slang for complex instrumental research, including the identification of ingredients. - Approx. Ed.), you understand what it is made of, and then you tell your perfumer: "Now collect J'Adore for me, only with a banana. And now with raspberries. And then J'Adore on skis. And then J'Adore on the beach."

As a result, you get fifty "jadors" collected by young perfumers for nothing, and they are happy - they made the fragrance in the style of Dior! This vicious scheme has generated a whole generation of perfumers who are not capable of anything - they can’t work from scratch, just hang trinkets on ready-made forms. I would love to work with a lot of good noses, but not so many.

What about younger perfumers?

So, the good news is that the perfumers, who today, say, twenty-eight, were ten, when I launched my brand. And even less when Serge Lutans founded his own. These young people grew up smelling great classics and aromas of Frédéric Malle; they are not interested in squalid luxury crafts. They grew up dreaming about us, they want to learn from Dominic Ropion and Michel Almerak, from good perfumers. This generation - from twenty-four to twenty-eight - is very promising. The difficulty is that they look at me like Mick Jagger.

But you are in a sense, it is, only in the world of perfumery.

Well, no, I don't think so about myself. They look at me like a professor. Dominic is like my own, Pierre Bourdon and the others I work with are like brothers to me. And with new relations are different.

Are you ready to take a very, very new and trust him with your project?

Yes, one such project is right now living on my hand - these are the spirits of Fanny Bol (student Dominic Ropion and author of the fragrance Sale Gosse. - Approx. ed.).

And how do you feel about the fact that perfumery has become popular, even a fashionable hobby, and many have become engaged in it at home?

Don't even start. Listen, this whole business has appeared thanks to a brilliant amateur - Francois Coty. He invented almost all perfume templates, before him only natural substances were used in fragrances, and he added synthetics - and this is how modern perfumery appeared. Perhaps tomorrow there will be a new genius amateur and again will break everything that we have built. But my personal experience suggests that perfumery is an exercise for methodical, patient, modest people. To learn it, you have to make countless attempts, working with a good mentor, this is a very long process.

I am not too kind with amateur perfumers, because no one has ever shown me something truly original - they are constantly copying. There is a second reason: my friend Dominic Ropion has been doing his job for thirty years from nine in the morning to eight in the evening, he lives and literally breathes them. And some lovers think that perfume is how to make a salad: he added this, put it in a third and done it. This is simply disrespectful to professionals. Seriously, you can’t imagine how difficult, time consuming and tedious it is. Recently, a very famous perfumer, whom I will not name here, one of the real kings in our business, wrote to me: "Frederick, I have withdrawn from the race. Everything is too complicated."

As you understand, that everything, aroma turned out?

There are purely technical parameters, the way perfumes behave in business: how durable they are, what cable they have, how they develop over time, and so on. And then there is the story that you invented about the fragrance from the very beginning. When he, perfectly balanced and fitted, becomes this story, he is ready.

That is, for some six hundred times, you and the perfumer suddenly realize at the same time that everything is fine?

Yes. Some so-called niche brands sell sketches, unfinished things. We do not do this. Having made several hundred versions, in the end we get a flavor similar to the first test sample - with the only exception that this time it will be really good. Not just a talented wild child, but a brilliant, well-educated young man.

The iconic aromas of Frédéric Malle

Musc ravageur

The modern answer to Gerlenov's Shalimar: the sweet and the confectionery merges with the physical, even the dirty, producing perverted but perfect harmony. To wear Musc - vanilla with musk and sweaty cedar is a little embarrassing and at the same time exceptionally nice, like wiping your hands on a tablecloth in an expensive restaurant.

Carnal flower

The most educated tuberose of all known. In contrast to the historical standard, the fat Fracas of the Piguet brand, this composition is modern and fresh, office friends: the icy green of an eucalyptus keeps all the Pazolinia debauchery white flowers in check.

Portrait of a lady

Gorgeous oriental rose with fruit and camphor shades, smoldering on charcoal. Decay into spicy ash and incense smoke.

Dries van Noten by Frederic Malle

Frederick Mal's first collaboration with a famous designer (the second, Superstitious Alber Elbaz, followed last year): an oriental fragrance gathered around a milky sandalwood chord, radiating nourishing, golden Flemish warmth.

Music for a While

The last addition in the Frederic Malle family is sexy lavender, mixed but not enslaved by sweet pineapple and smoked, dirty vanilla. Malle does not hide the kinship of Music with the great Gerlen's glass wine glass, Jicky, that the house of Guerlain in its current state should do honor.

Photo: Frederic Malle, Biodiversity Heritage Library - Flickr (1, 2)