Scented Quote of the Day, From Serge Lutens & {Fragrant Readings} Interviews of Serge Lutens, Mathilde Laurent, & Dennis Papithis
Yaffa Assouline asks: What is perfume to you?
Serge Lutens: One doesn't make perfume uniquely from raw materials. A perfume is a composition of the mind, it's a personal experience, unexpected. It's not created in accord with society - it should be something that expresses a different view......
How do you feel about the modern corporate industry and the perfumes it produces?
From start to finish they're consumer products, with a consumption price, in a consumption environment, with consumption marketing. It has nothing to do with perfume, with culture, taste, the senses. It's a socio-cultural product, constructed from A to Z, and completely artificial. This product is created at round-table meetings by a group of highly-paid marketing professionals who want to hold onto their jobs. So straightaway, the perfume is created in an environment of fear, of doubt.
Read the rest of the interview on Luxury Culture. There are also, as always, superbly illustrated interviews of Mathilde Laurent and Aesop founder, Dennis Papithis.
Photo is from Luxury Culture
I 100% agree! Thank you for this post, indeed.
It's good to read Serge Lutens to go back to some purity of purpose where perfumes are concerned.
I was also struck by his definition of luxury as being necessarily associated with fear, in that case maybe, a fear that is somewhat close to the sentiment of the sacred.