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10/28/2021
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Detour VII
§1 Woodways, xth, edition
The perfume - from the last 30 years - that keeps appearing in the 'oh, I would have liked to have designed that too' category by other perfumers, like brands, is Shiseido's Féminité du Bois.So the Humiecki's, supposedly Mr Mallé too - I like to think, was Pierre Bourdon, who occupies a sort of mentor role in Malle's cosmology, involved in the fragrance. Féminité du Bois, the stepping stone to Luten's universe in the 90's, and the official re-entry of wood in the title. True, there had been dozens of 'bois' perfumes for more than half a century before that, including an early one from Shiseido, but after Féminité du Bois, the 'bois' or 'du bois' wood glut was unstoppable.
There are many stories surrounding the origins of fragrance; why Bourdon was quickly replaced by Sheldrake; there is quantified balancing what percentage of which aroma chemical is the crux of the pudding, and so on. Féminité du Bois was a solitaire. So first of all, nothing smelled with comparable international distribution. The bottle and packaging were of exquisite beauty, a textured cardboard box, the colour palette matched to the bottle in every detail, this in turn in various, 'organic' shapes and concentrations. It had been a long time since a bottle had felt so good in the hand, and a long time since anything had smelled so fragile, delicate, distinctive and clear. In addition to the Shiseido fragrance, Lutens released a whole series of other closely related 'Bois' fragrances under his Palais Royal HQ in Paris: Bois de violette, Bois oriental, Bois et fruits. More than 10 years later, more 'Bois'. The wood perceived in these is said to be indebted to the cedar of Moroccan interiors. But cedar is also a note that exceeds even the stately number of 'bois' titled perfumes listed here many times over.
§2 Chêne
There's a small workshop in my street, more of a 'hole in the wall' at first impression - possibly a former warehouse, set right into the wall, where day in and day out, two gentlemen restore heavy wooden furniture. The workshop is tiny, there are no windows, one can probably only work with the door open, pieces of furniture that need to dry are pragmatically placed in a driveway on the opposite side of the street. There is no planing or carpentry in this workshop, the focus is on glazing, varnishing, painting, touching up. And that brings us to Chêne.
Aside from a few hits in the 90s, Lutens had a good drive in the early to mid 2000s. The subject matter shifted to French, or to repercussions of 'exotic' ingredients in French climes (so Bornéo 1834). Chêne, Oak, one of the releases from these years is perhaps one of the most impressive woody fragrances of the last 20 years. Chêne is very much about oak. Oak wood when it is cut up in a furniture maker's workshop, oak wood when it receives a fresh cell treatment in just such a workshop after decades or more. Chêne is also a good example of the wood polish chord I appreciate. Poliboy et. al, by a good dose of Lutens' beeswax. Chêne is also, however, and hence this detour, another Lutens with immortelle focus, not listed, but helichrysium or a fragrance with clearest immortelle descriptor could pull the strings here. But the framing always remains the oak, perhaps through an oak CO2 extract that may also have dried fruit, rum, and whiskey characteristics - much of which also plays a role in Chêne.
Chêne's shelf life is impressive; that it was only sold in 75ml and 50ml makes sense. The esteemed Gold mentions a 2018 book in her review of Bourreau des Fleurs in which Chêne is credited with a lengthy creation period of about 12 years. Be that as it may, the scent also makes me think of matured oak barrels and their contents, and in the multitude of sometimes worse sometimes better Lutens, for me the special reserve. The spirit of Chêne appeared together with a residual dose of Chypre Rouge last again in Participe Passé, but so dry, woody and Immortelle intertwined, smells only Chêne.
The perfume - from the last 30 years - that keeps appearing in the 'oh, I would have liked to have designed that too' category by other perfumers, like brands, is Shiseido's Féminité du Bois.So the Humiecki's, supposedly Mr Mallé too - I like to think, was Pierre Bourdon, who occupies a sort of mentor role in Malle's cosmology, involved in the fragrance. Féminité du Bois, the stepping stone to Luten's universe in the 90's, and the official re-entry of wood in the title. True, there had been dozens of 'bois' perfumes for more than half a century before that, including an early one from Shiseido, but after Féminité du Bois, the 'bois' or 'du bois' wood glut was unstoppable.
There are many stories surrounding the origins of fragrance; why Bourdon was quickly replaced by Sheldrake; there is quantified balancing what percentage of which aroma chemical is the crux of the pudding, and so on. Féminité du Bois was a solitaire. So first of all, nothing smelled with comparable international distribution. The bottle and packaging were of exquisite beauty, a textured cardboard box, the colour palette matched to the bottle in every detail, this in turn in various, 'organic' shapes and concentrations. It had been a long time since a bottle had felt so good in the hand, and a long time since anything had smelled so fragile, delicate, distinctive and clear. In addition to the Shiseido fragrance, Lutens released a whole series of other closely related 'Bois' fragrances under his Palais Royal HQ in Paris: Bois de violette, Bois oriental, Bois et fruits. More than 10 years later, more 'Bois'. The wood perceived in these is said to be indebted to the cedar of Moroccan interiors. But cedar is also a note that exceeds even the stately number of 'bois' titled perfumes listed here many times over.
§2 Chêne
There's a small workshop in my street, more of a 'hole in the wall' at first impression - possibly a former warehouse, set right into the wall, where day in and day out, two gentlemen restore heavy wooden furniture. The workshop is tiny, there are no windows, one can probably only work with the door open, pieces of furniture that need to dry are pragmatically placed in a driveway on the opposite side of the street. There is no planing or carpentry in this workshop, the focus is on glazing, varnishing, painting, touching up. And that brings us to Chêne.
Aside from a few hits in the 90s, Lutens had a good drive in the early to mid 2000s. The subject matter shifted to French, or to repercussions of 'exotic' ingredients in French climes (so Bornéo 1834). Chêne, Oak, one of the releases from these years is perhaps one of the most impressive woody fragrances of the last 20 years. Chêne is very much about oak. Oak wood when it is cut up in a furniture maker's workshop, oak wood when it receives a fresh cell treatment in just such a workshop after decades or more. Chêne is also a good example of the wood polish chord I appreciate. Poliboy et. al, by a good dose of Lutens' beeswax. Chêne is also, however, and hence this detour, another Lutens with immortelle focus, not listed, but helichrysium or a fragrance with clearest immortelle descriptor could pull the strings here. But the framing always remains the oak, perhaps through an oak CO2 extract that may also have dried fruit, rum, and whiskey characteristics - much of which also plays a role in Chêne.
Chêne's shelf life is impressive; that it was only sold in 75ml and 50ml makes sense. The esteemed Gold mentions a 2018 book in her review of Bourreau des Fleurs in which Chêne is credited with a lengthy creation period of about 12 years. Be that as it may, the scent also makes me think of matured oak barrels and their contents, and in the multitude of sometimes worse sometimes better Lutens, for me the special reserve. The spirit of Chêne appeared together with a residual dose of Chypre Rouge last again in Participe Passé, but so dry, woody and Immortelle intertwined, smells only Chêne.
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