It’s very much in the style of people like Edmond Roudnitska, like a modern version of Eau de Rochas and other scents from the 1970s. It’s that type of writing we went back to. It’s very true to the flower, actually. I discovered a while ago that Roudnitska had a magnolia planted in his garden. It’s something that I always kept in mind, thinking, What would he have done?
— Frédéric Malle, talking to Bora Kwon about his new Eau de Magnolia fragrance, in an interview at Tank Magazine.
Would this be a shameless place to plug the split I trying to host?
I love reading interviews like this: the process of a scent from inspiration to bottle. Between Malle and the expert interviewee Jean-Claude Ellena*, there’s always something to wet my whistle.
*I hope Mrs. Nagel is as eloquent. I can’t say I’ve ever seen an interview with her.
I emailed you earlier today re: the split.
Thank you! I posted this then immediately went to my email tab and face palmed! I’m organizing my thoughts in another tab as we speak.
It’s a great interview…loved the bit about the modern oakmoss in EdM being like a very good decaf coffee.
I too think the decaf was a great analogy. His Fracas story was thought provoking — it *is* easy to idealize memories.
Yes, loved the Fracas story!!
Not sure I see anything un-modern about Eau de Rochas – I’m wearing it today and loving its fizziness!
I know what you mean…but also what he means — betcha anyone (ok, any perfumista) smelling Eau de Magnolia and Eau de Rochas could correctly guess which was 2014 and which was 1970.
It’s funny because Coco originally smelled contemporary to me (but that was towards the beginning of my scent explorations) and now I can’t shake the dated feeling when I wear it. With Eau de Rochas I think its the refreshing quality that avoids the last-century feel, but I agree it probably does not conform to current conventions – for one thing, it just has too much body…
But now I want to do a side by side so I can verify whether I am a perfumista, lol!