{"id":16109,"date":"2016-08-30T15:36:47","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T15:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dutyfreehunter.com\/blog\/?p=16109"},"modified":"2016-08-30T15:36:47","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T15:36:47","slug":"les-parfums-louis-vuitton-journey-begins-bare-skin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dutyfreehunter.com\/blog\/les-parfums-louis-vuitton-journey-begins-bare-skin\/","title":{"rendered":"Les Parfums Louis Vuitton – A journey that begins on bare skin…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some things should not be rushed. When Louis Vuitton, the venerable fashion house with a history steeped in fine leather goods, decided to re-enter the fragrance world, it had been seventy years since its last one.\u00a0Here’s everything you need to know about – probably – the year’s biggest perfume launches…<\/p>\n

Think of one major fashion brand that doesn’t have a fragrance. Hard, right? Unbelievable though it may seem, Louis Vuitton was on the very short list\u2014until now. As previewed on Duty Free Hunter (see story<\/a>)\u00a0The house is launching not one but seven perfumes, each one based around a different flower. Here’s the backstory of each (very chic) perfume.<\/span><\/p>\n

The launch has been a long time coming.<\/span><\/strong> The last time Vuitton launched a perfume was 70 years ago, in 1946; before that, the brand had created only two. No sample of any of the three exist today.<\/span><\/p>\n

The perfumer behind the new collection is basically a rock star in the fragrance world.<\/span><\/strong> Jacques Cavallier Belletrud is a third-generation Grasse-born perfumer (his daughter, who is studying to become a perfumer, will make it four generations) and has developed some of the most iconic scents of our generation, including L’Eau d’Issey, Dior Addict, Jean Paul Gaultier Classique, and Stella by Stella McCartney. After 22 years of working for the fragrance and flavor company Firmenich, Cavallier Belletrud accepted the job as Louis Vuitton’s first in-house perfumer.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are seven scents in total.<\/span><\/strong> “We decided right away, and very quickly, that it would be a collection,” says Cavallier Belletrud. Each scent is available in a 200-milliliter bottle, a 100-milliliter bottle, and a travel spray (which comes with four cartridges). There are also two sets: a box of all seven in miniature size (10 milliliters) and the pi\u00e8ce de r\u00e9sistance\u00a0–\u00a0a monogramed Louis Vuitton travel case that holds three full-size bottles from the collection.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The collection is based entirely on flowers.<\/span><\/strong> “We also made a decision that these fragrances would be feminine\u2014it’s not written on the bottle that they’re for women, but they’re feminine,” says Cavallier Belletrud. “And the third choice I made was that [this collection] would be a story about flowers, because flowers to me are so delicate, so intense, so powerful, so beautiful\u2014just like a woman\u2014and it’s always been my longtime obsession to try to put the beauty of fresh flowers in a bottle.” There’s Rose des Vents, based entirely on roses; it actually includes three different kinds\u2014centifolia, Bulgarian, and Turkish. Turbulences was inspired by the scent of tuberose and jasmine at dusk, an idea that came to Cavallier Belletrud after walking through his garden with his father. Dans la Peau contains jasmine and narcissus, but also pieces of natural leather from the Vuitton workshop. Apog\u00e9e contains a few flowers but centers on the lily of the valley. Contre Moi is a scent born from Cavallier Belletrud’s obsession with vanilla. Mati\u00e8re Noire explores the balance of patchouli and white flowers. And finally, Mille Feux uses a mix of Chinese osmanthus (a white flower) and leather.<\/span><\/p>\n

They were made using cutting-edge technology.<\/span><\/strong> Cavallier Belletrud used a process called CO2 extraction\u2014originally developed to make decaffeinated coffee\u2014to coax the headiness out of flowers such as Chinese jasmine and May rose straight from Grasse. In doing this, he was able to achieve his goal: to produce floral notes that copied the fresh, dewy quality of blooms still in the field. With this technology, “you’re not boiling the flowers as in classic extraction techniques,” says Cavallier Belletrud. Instead, the process traps the CO2 in the air and through some basic chemistry, transforms the CO2 molecules into a liquid. “You then mix that with your flowers at a very low temperature, as low as 20 degrees celsius, and you maintain the fragile, volatile elements of the flowers,” Cavallier Belletrud explains further. The perfumer likened the process and effect to heating up an expensive red wine in the microwave. “It’s still wine; it just doesn’t taste as good when you heat it up.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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