Louve by Serge Lutens Elected Scent of the Year 2007 by the Committee on Russian Perfumery {Fragrance News}
The Committee on Russian Perfumery has awarded Louve by Serge Lutens the distinction of being Scent of the Year 2007 in the category best niche perfume of 2007,
From the press release in French, with the names of members of the committee,
"Le Comité de la Parfumerie Russe
vient de décerner en Décembre 2007
ses " Scents of the Year 2007" au Kremlin, à Moscou.
Le parfum : Louve de Serge Lutens,
a reçu
le Prix du meilleur parfum de niche...........
Le jury était composé de parfumeurs comme :
Maurice Roucel, Jean-Charles Niel,
Philippe Bousseton, Thierry de Bachmakoff….
Un élégant hommage de la profession à cet auteur de parfums
qui a favorisé l'essor des parfums de niche."
Our congratulations to a true artist and visionary who has been an instrumental figure and perhaps "the" instrumental figure in changing the landscape and culture of contemporary perfumery bringing it, with the intimate collaboration of perfumer Christopher Sheldrake, a few steps closer to its dream of becoming an art form and transforming people's lives through beauty and creativity.
Do you know what other fragrances were considered? Louve is one of the weakest Lutens in recent memory !
No, I don't. But I really can't agree with you here. Louve offers a very unusual, even strange white snowy spicy impression, like cold snow falling quietly and silently on warm spices then it develops further subtle and rich nuances. It is both cold and warm. It is beautiful and poetic. Need to review it then you'll have my thoughts about it.
I'd be interested to know why you consider it to be one of the weakest Lutens?
To me Louve smells like a watered down Rahat Lakhoum, with the same almond cherry heliotrope note running through it with a lot of powdery excess except that thankfully it ends on a fairly pleasant musk base. Its not as sweet and strong as Rahat (thank god!) so I guess thats a positive. But its no Ambre Sultan, Cuir Mauresque or Encens et Lavande in its impact. I guess if you like powdery almonds, then Louve might be a good fit .. its Rahat for the masses.
To me it's a complex perfume and the powder is very glacé and there for a reason, to recreate the impression of cold and snow and other things (I decided to review it and it's up, you can check it if you want).
I personally don't go by liking X or Y note as it really depends on the way that note is sculptured and treated in a composition.
It's a more narrative perfume than Rahat which is more inspired by a material, an object.
Also repetition of an artistic theme is not condemnable as such, even if it were blatantly the case. It would be like saying that one should disregard all the women with a hat painted by Picasso because they all look alike and just keep the first one ever painted and ask him to be a bit more "original" if he could or something like that. He is original, he painted it.
Funny you mention falling snow here in the comments... I've likened Louve to Lorenzo Villoresi Tient de Neige all the time, which also resembles snow in my mind.
Yes, that's an apt comparison for that effect in particular but I think that Louve pushes the cold-warm antinomy much more characteristically and is more complex, as far as I can recall Teint de Neige. I like Teint de Neige for its fineness and elegance but it does not create a complex atmosphere like Louve does.
Oh that is definately true! What almost makes up the whole TdN is only a small part of Louve, which definately is the more complex and interesting one here. It is just that snow detail which links them both together.