I do not think it is the creative capacity that is lacking, or the capacity for understanding on the part of the public (which remains what it has always been). What is in process of petering out is the capacity for starting something. It is really responsible people who are lacking, and it seems that to-day there is no man capable of launching a Chanel No. 5.
— Perfumer Edmond Roudnitska in Where Are We Going?, an English translation of a talk given in November 1967. You can download the paper in PDF form at Anya's Garden.
Perhaps if no man is capable of producing Chanel No. 5, they should let a woman try.
Ha! But in all truth, many of the best-known creative directors in fragrance are women, and still we are not getting innovative & exciting new mainstream fragrances, at least, not on the level of a Chanel No. 5.
Nostalgia is a curse on any discipline, and it is easy to lament the past. That being said, I think that if a magnificent, iconic fragrance is going to be launched today, well, it won’t really be launched in the standard way we think of it with all the marketing, aromachemicals, and bean counting nonsense of the regular fragrance and fashion industry. It will be developed and released almost under a rock by some indie artisan perfumer, and discovered by caring & informed fragrance consumers.* It can take decades maybe before enough people will notice and admire the fragrance for it to stick around and become a new classic, as with most art forms – literature, fine arts, music, etc. Even something like Mitsouko or No 5 weren’t developed for the the millions of global masses from all different ethnic backgrounds the way most new fragrance released are today. How many hundreds of millions of bottles of a new release must be mailed all over the world? That’s not how an icon is developed. Maybe now there are millions of bottles of No 5 all over the world, but it certainly wasn’t so when it was launched. There is no way anything can be developed like that by anyone and be an iconic fragrance. The iconic fragrances need to have time to grow and transcend time and become part of people’s lives. No one is genius enough to know the future, and all this hand wringing and nostalgia would be better served by those in the industry forcing less launches and more *diverse* better quality fragrances.
*My little push that something like Amouage XXV or Lyric Woman or even the VC&A Bois d’Iris may be future icons, but we won’t know that for a few decades now will we.
And a plug that I think the Sonoma Scent Studio Tabac Aurea will be a future icon of amazing beauty and quality.
I’m sort of confused…you object to what he was saying because it is hand-wringing & nostalgia? I mean, he *was* in the industry, and he was trying to convince others in the industry that they needed to slow down, give adequate time to fragrance development & less attention to quantity, more to quality.
I’ve confused myself too! That’s what happens when you take Nyquil during the daytime….Can I blame it on the headcold?
Yes, I agree with him completely, and as someone who “was there”, his insights are invaluable. I suppose my nostalgic hand wringing comment was primarily based on most current justified disatisfaction with the fragrance industry. But it is always easier to think things were easier to get done in the past, that being said things seem to have degenerated a lot all these years. Still no clarity. Sorry.. I can sign off now. Gak.
LOL…sorry about your cold, and sorry to “grill you” on top of that. Hope you feel better!
No, it’s good that you grill – need to keep up the quality discussion. I should have just not commented at all with my head in a muddle – it was more of an incoherent ramble than anything.
No worries, and your clarification makes perfect sense to me.
I am so grateful to have had the chance to read this. Thank you very much for the link, Robin. The genius of Roudnitska’s insights and the correctness of his observations have stood the test of 42 years.
Roudnitska really brings home the point that for great, enduring, original fragrances to be made, there must be the freedom for perfumers to pursue innovation for beauty’s sake alone. First comes the art; then and only then comes true artistic achievement and then, possibly, commercial success on the scale of Chanel No 5.
He maintains that it is completely misguided to apply the same formula used to create and manufacture a new cold cream to the production of a new fragrance. “If this is not realised, the splendid perfumery industry will be finally condemned,” he writes, “and this will be the death of the goose that laid the golden eggs, whose sole desire is to lay them.”
It is sad that the perfume industry hasn’t understood or acted on Roudnitska’s reasoning. It’s becoming more and more clear how right he was.
It’s an almost amazingly prescient article. I loved “Heads of firms, who do not understand this and think that by increasing the attempts they automatically increase their chances, are acting against their interests and do wrong to the whole profession”. That could have been written yesterday.
Loved that bit too, R. And I am going to bed tonight wearing several generous spritzes of vintage Diorama in dear Ed’s honour. 😉
Hi Everyone:
I just uploaded the second article “Perfumery and Marketing”. Next week will be a Dragoco article for perfumery students.
Thanks Anya!