As part of the preview for the opening of the “De la Rue aux Etoiles” exhibition on April 9 at London’s Barbican Museum, and for the new Jean Paul Gaultier fragrance to be released very soon. Luxsure presents an exclusive interview with the perfume’s creator Francis Kurkdjian and the video of the Fragance Talk with Jean Paul Gaultier.
(Francis Kurkdjian- Photo credit Francis Kurkdjian)
What’s the first smell you remember?
I feel so much of it that I don’t know. And is it really that important?
On the other hand, there are scents that marked my childhood, but to say they were the first, I don’t think so.
The scents of my childhood and adolescence are particularly important and have, I believe, shaped my life and my passion for the perfume profession.
My most important olfactory memory is undoubtedly the smell of my grandparents’ apartment: a tiny two-roomed flat where oriental smells mingled.
There was a room that held many treasures for me. It was both a sewing room for my tailor grandfather and a pantry for my grandmother.
The smells of hot iron and ironing board, white tailor’s pencils for marking fabrics, oil from the treadle sewing machine, fabrics, mixed with the foodstuffs my grandmother also stored in this storeroom: preserved vine leaves, white cabbage pickled and macerated with barley seeds, salt, breadcrumbs and lemon), olives, as well as the various spices (cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, mahaleb, peppers, etc……) and the various food stocks my grandmother used to stock up on for fear of never having enough….
I also can’t forget the scent of my grandmother’s favorite flowers: mimosa flowers.
What’s your favourite scent?
An isolated raw material, taken out of its creative context, is like a word taken out of a sentence: it doesn’t really make sense. For example, if you consider jasmine to be sensual, all you have to do is put it next to an overdose of lemon, and it loses all its sensuality! So you have to look at the architecture of perfumes, that’s what’s important, it’s the whole, the harmony and then the emotions you experience.
What’s the most complex fragrance to create?
All those yet to be created. These are the ones I’m most interested in. The others are already done, and no longer of interest to me. I don’t live to live in the past, but to translate my time.
What makes the olfactory imprint of a successful perfume?
The power of a fragrance like “le male”, for example, is the quality of great creations whose emotions are difficult to replace with any other fragrance. It’s as simple as that, but it’s also very complicated to create.
What was Jean Paul Gaultier’s brief when creating this new Classique fragrance?
In the world of Jean Paul Gaultier, there is no discrimination. These fragrances follow the same rule: they’re not for blondes or brunettes, frail or muscular. These are generous fragrances, with sillage, structure, shape and character.
A new opus of Classique will be presented to the public very soon. I can’t say anything about it at the moment.
My first muse was my teddy bear, Nana. I used to put make-up and powder on him as I would on a doll, so he already had his own perfume!”
Jean Paul Gaultier
Here’s the Fragance Talk video
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