When did you first create your own perfume?
From an early age, I was taught to respect the way of the elders. This meant following their rules and style of perfume creation. Still, after years of working together, I realised I needed to create perfumes that suited that particular moment in time. But I only created a perfume that was fully my own when I took over the shop, in the early 1990s.
Where do you get ideas for new perfumes?
There are three ways to get ideas. The first is prompted by popular demand, the second by trends of the moment. And the third is recreation – this is when we strive to recreate a scent based on a perfume sample a customer brings. This is a professional challenge for us and we tend to succeed, get close or make something new and spectacular by accident.
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Can you tell us something interesting about perfume history?
Before the First World War, perfumes had only one component from nature – rose, lavender, jasmine or similar. After the war – and Coco Chanel – everything changed. Perfumers in France started creating imagined scents and they called them “Fantaisie”. Today, all perfumes are Fantaisie, so we don’t use that term anymore. It’s a given.
What do you enjoy most in your profession?
Imagine, a person enters my shop trying to bring pleasure to either themselves or to someone they care about. I feel it’s my duty to exceed their hopes and expectations. Because perfume is not essential, it’s a luxury and a pleasure. And for me, it’s all about ensuring their pleasure.