Today I watched part 2 of the BBC documentary 'Perfume' I am currently working my way through (see previous blog entry for post based on part 1 of this documentary). This episode 'Bottling the Memory' investigates the idea of fragrance and memories, looking into how scent has the strength to take us back to places, times in our lives and therefore make us feel a certain way. I'm sure this is something we can all relate to. I know for me the smell of a Sunday roast evokes feelings of comfort and relaxation, the smell of sea salt triggers memories of Norfolk family holidays, and the perfume 'Lola Rose' by Marc Jacobs takes me back to secondary school when I was taking my GCSE's as this was the perfume I wore at this time.
 |
| A collection of fragrances by Christopher Brosius |
This episode introduced us to Christopher Brosius, your not so average perfumer who states 'Perfume is too often an ethereal corset trapping everyone in the same unnatural shape'. Brosius does not create fragrances that have a sense of cleanliness or freshness, qualities we would usually expect, but instead captures the scents of 'real things' within his fragrances. 'In the Library' and 'Here Piggy' are a couple of fragrances amongst Brosius' collection, we can only begin to image how they smell. Within the documentary viewers are taken to his gallery 'CB I Hate Perfume' where Brosius meets with clients to discuss what they want from their fragrances. During this episode we have an insight into just how Brosiuis goes about producing his weird but wonderful creations, an American client asked to have a fragrance produced which smells of 'England'. Ingredients Brosius considered using within this particular fragrance included scents such as tobacco, gin and cadbury chocolate. I don't think I'll be trading in my Jimmy Choo or Marc Jacobs perfumes for one of Brosius' creations any time soon, thats for sure.
 |
| Jean-Claude Ellena |
Within the documentary viewers are introduced to Jean- Claude Ellena, a French perfumer who creates fragrance inspired by 'fantasy'. As pointed out within this episode fragrance is often a subject difficult to discuss or talk about, so it was interesting to see how Ellena uses texture and colour to talk about and describe fragrance. It was fascinating to have an insight into how the perfumer works, he explains that he doesn't like to be told what to create he would much prefer to work freely. According to this episode Ellena, the nose behind french lifestyle house Hérmes is given this freedom by the company and allegedly is not required to create a fragrance for the brand until he feels inspired. For me, one of the highlights within this episode was Jean-Claude Ellena's visit to the small garden on top of the Hérmes' Paris boutique. I loved seeing how Elena took inspiration from the scents found within this garden to produce the fragrance 'Un Jardin Sur Le Toit' (Garden On The Roof) for Hérmes.
 |
| Givaudan perfumery school |
Within this viewers were given an insight into to a perfumery school located just outside of Paris, which is run by the biggest chemical company in the fragrance world, Givaudan. It was fascinating to see just what goes on within this desirable perfumery school. The school is particularly hard to get in to, some years not a single applicant makes the cut. When describing the ideal perfumer the principle of Givaudan perfumery school, master perfumer, Jean Guichard states 'the perfumer should be a mixture between a scientist and a poet'. It was made clear within the film that those who graduate from this school proceed to be very successful perfumers, some have gone on to create many top brand fragrances including 'Poison' for Christian Dior, 'Obsession' for Calvin Klein and 'One Million' for Paco Rabanne. However graduating from this school is no easy process, during the entire three year course at this school, students do not get the chance to actually produce fragrances. Instead a lot of time is spent sitting exams which require students to to undertake challenging tasks such as identifying individual ingredients in solution and being able to state their relative concentrations, which sounds like a painful amount of chemistry to me!
I will be watching part 3 of this documentary over the next couple of days and will make a post regarding the episode ASAP, so keep checking up on my blog!
Love, Isabella x
Photo Credits: Google images
No comments
Post a Comment