Serge Lutens Fourreau Noir (2009) {New Perfume}

Fourreau Noir is the second latest perfume by Serge Lutens to be launched on September 1, 2009. It will be an exclusive to the Salons Shiseido at the Palais Royal in Paris. Perfume lovers in the US unofficially like to dub this both maddening and highly desirable preserve the "bell-jar perfumes" in reference to the shape of the flacons and with a tone of longing for it is less than easy to procure them outside of the European Union. Like each year, a limited-edition number of decorated bell jars (pictured above) will be available for collectors. 

Like Fille en Aiguilles, Fourreau Noir appears rich with allusions to a world of sartorial symbolism. And like it too, it presents a double-entendre whereby Fourreau Noir can mean both a black sheath-dress and the scabbard for a dagger in repose. In either cases and thus tying in with the thematic of Fille en Aiguilles, female archetypal seductiveness is hinted at like never before while revealing an ongoing more recent interest in developing a perfume imagery inspired by the creator's own past in the milieu of Parisian fashion. The in-house trend started with Serge Noire and, one might argue, continued with that other material, cellophane, in Nuit de Cellophane. Now we have a girl in stilettos and a woman in a black-sheath dress. The color black is also honored anew and can be seen as a resonating point with Lutens's debut scent, Nombre Noir but also more recently, Five O'Clock au Gingembre and of course Serge Noire...

"Two white hands emerge against the light, moving so slowly that they
re-define the shadows, making them look darker.The contours of the body, illuminated by a gleam of light seeping through an open door, offer contrast.
She moves forward, trampling the stars beneath her feet, her smile broadens.
With all the virtue of vice, this tight black dress had such a fluid shape that I could revel in its language... "


"Le contre-jour laissait émerger deux mains blanches aux caresses si
lentes, qu'elles reformèrent l'ombre qui en devint plus sombre.
Le corps se biseauta dans la lueur contraste de la porte entrouverte.
Elle avança d'un pas, piétinant les étoiles, aiguisant son sourire.
Par la vertu d'un vice, c'était un fourreau noir d'une coupe si fluide
que j'ai bu son langage ! "

Serge Lutens

You can read our review of Serge Lutens Fourreau Noir