Courtesy Archives Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle
To pursue a creative endeavour for a decade is undoubtedly tough—capturing and subsequently sustaining both desirability and relevance pits itself against one of human nature’s most innate cravings—wanting something better. To creatively excel for two decades borders on unicorn-level rarity.
Despite the odds, it’s something that perfume house Frédéric Malle has managed to do. Known more formally as Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle, the house’s longevity is ultimately down to the central value it was conceived with: craft fragrances with the same degree of reverence and artistry as haute couture.
However, this does not simply involve crafting the most alluring fragrance but in crafting a synesthetic experience that incorporates all your other senses to a symphonic effect. To celebrate the house’s twentieth anniversary, Rizzoli has published a visual history of Malle’s double decade quest for beauty and freedom, titled Éditions de Parfums Frédéric Malle: The First Twenty Years.
Malle’s background prior to perfumery should not go unnoticed — as a publisher, his success has revolved around elevating the present vernacular so that perfume’s semantic rhetoric acknowledges the artistic expression innate to its craft. A keen collaborator, Malle explains in the book’s foreword that his approach involves “bringing on board authors and figuring out why we don’t all talk about perfume in the same way” as other artistic outputs. He expands by saying: “to create is to invent, and to invent is to make choices”. If the first twenty years have shown us anything, it’s that Malle has a knack for making the right choices.
Photos: Brigitte Lacombe