Separate the work from the artist? Unthinkable, you might say! But do you even know who is behind your favorite perfume bottles? For the second edition of the Paris Perfume Week, we have the immense honor of welcoming the renowned perfumers who shine a light on contemporary perfumery. While some need no introduction, all will share their stories, reflecting on both their journeys and their legendary creations. Among these brilliant headliners, a very special guest: Jean-Claude Ellena.
Jean-Claude Ellena is definitively associated with Hermès perfumes, which he revitalised over twelve years through his storytelling and sheer audacity, steering clear of fashion trends and marketing. His creations never shout to make themselves heard, choosing elegance in the form of stripped-back, simplistic formulas over the cacophony of overloaded authoring.
In your eyes, the second half of your career was launched with Eau parfumée au thé vert for Bulgari. This fragrance’s formula is particularly short, and this simplified palette is still your trademark.
As a young perfumer I wanted to modernise the way we work on and create perfumes. At the time, the perfumer’s palette consisted of two to three thousand notes; I brought it down to a couple of hundred. The aim was not to reduce but to simplify, to allow our work to become more precise. I did not need multiple versions of the same note, I like to avoid redundancy and prioritise quality. For example, if I want a jasmine note for my formula, I refrain from combining several jasmines, the subtleties of which will just be lost in the end product. I need the right jasmine, used wisely. As Edmond Roudnitska said, ‘Be simple in what you do’. In my formulas, each note has its role. If I question myself about the position of a note in the composition, it is a bad sign … and I have to start a new trial, without that note. When there is nothing else to take away or add, the perfume is finished. This method, with a precise, undeviating formula that speaks for itself, is really important to me.
Is simplicity, indeed minimalism, about consenting to begin each project from scratch?
When creating, it is the thought process that is the important part. If, in a new project, I build from an existing foundation, if I refer to a well-known or well-established use of particular note, or if I use a previous creation as a starting point, I am not creating anything. I would simply be reworking an existing form and the result would be just another version of it amongst thousands. That is of no interest to me. At every moment in my work, I try to think differently. Sowing stereotypes is not my métier: perhaps some of my creations have, through their success, given rise to recognised forms. My approach, being more modern and precise, might seem typical of a certain genre of perfumery. But that is simply a consequence, almost a coincidence, as I do not aim to establish any model. Quite the opposite, I constantly make an effort to release myself from existing patterns and only put out prototypes.
In the absence of a recipe, is it necessary that the concept for the perfume is very strong and fully thought through before work to create it can begin?
Yes. If I were a fashion designer, I would cut the whole dress on the mannequin, and if it did not suit the model straightaway, I would start again from the beginning. Work does not begin in the laboratory, far from it. When I have a project, my mind is constantly working away on it. In my day-to-day life, everything helps me find solutions and inspiration. Anything can speak to me: a scent, of course, but also a place, a landscape, an encounter or an expression used in conversation. This is how Jean Giono worked: the writer would do an enormous amount of research, absolutely everything posed an opportunity to gather information. Like him, when I’m turning over an idea for a perfume in my head, I maraud.
How do you move from this collection exercise to the composition of the perfume?
When I arrive in the laboratory, my work, in short, is to find the right expression, in perfume, of the very comprehensive idea I have. All the equipment is already there, I just need to bring together, in the simplest way possible, the information I have gathered from all over. The formula sheet fills up pretty quickly: it must happen instantly; the perfume must be there already. It is this initial groundwork that serves as a reference point for me, as opposed to my previous work or any existing forms. If a perfume requires too many trials, it is because we do not know where we are going with it; the idea is not strong enough to carry it.
In short, do the weight attached to the thought process and the concept mean you can offer a perfume that is easy to grasp?
Yes. Scents are a material to be manipulated and transformed, as a writer does with words. With food, when a dish is good, we don’t get tangled up in trying to guess the ingredients, the seasoning … we taste it and we enjoy it. In perfumery, I despise the way the audience is given a run-down of the perfume’s notes – the so-called pyramid. I need to explain the scent in a way other than dissecting it. I am not simply offering yet another formula, but a perfume which has and tells its own story. Interaction with the audience is therefore an encounter between two living entities, each with their own significance. With the stories in my perfumes I aim to offer new codes, without creating shock waves. It is so easy to shock, you just have to use an excess of this or that note to cause a stir. But ultimately, have you invented anything? If I put forward a prototype, it is a prototype in the truest sense of the term. It is not about novelties or garish things. I don’t create loud perfumes, and I know that this light touch can sometimes be held against my perfumery. But if the story works, if it is beautiful, there is no need for it to shout to make itself heard and move its audience.
Join Jean-Claude Ellena on the Smell Talks stage on March 23 at 6 pm for an exclusive Masterclass, accessible with a Paris Perfume Week ticket.
Click here to book your ticket
This interview was conducted by Cécile Clouet for the book Sentir, ressentir. Parfumeurs, odeurs et émotions published by Nez in 2019.
Photo: Baptiste Lignel
