French niche house Serge Lutens will launch La Dompteuse Encagée, a new fragrance in the brand's Collection Noire.
Just as Joan of Arc, at her trial, could not swear to her judges whether her apparitions were clothed or naked, I cannot swear to it either. Her determination is like marble: cold and powdery white. Nonetheless, I sense the snow – so dreaded, yet desired – the avalanche is on its way. She provokes him by reminding him his injuries: All the screams you swallowed, and suffered in silence, will come pouring out! But they will barely be recognisable to themselves any more than to you, or perhaps in a past caught in the mirror, where you lose sight of yourself.
Notes for the gourmand floral include frangipani, almond and ylang-ylang.
Serge Lutens La Dompteuse Encagée will be available in 100 ml Eau de Parfum.
(quote via vertigomag.co.uk, additional information via holtrenfrew)
Joan of Arc doesn’t scream “gourmand floral” to me….but I do love almond.
I will wait to hear if it smells worth trying
Yeah, I love the idea of a Joan of Arc perfume – perverse though that may be – but almond and frangipani – WUTT!?
This is the most confusing ad copy I’ve read in a while. I thought it would have metallic ozone notes, but nope.
I suppose, but it seems no weirder than most Serge Lutens quotes.
Dompteuse is apparently french for a (female) animal trainer. So I think the translation for the name of this fragrance is Caged Lady Animal Trainer. This is not how I think of Joan of Arc. Neither Caged Lady Animal Trainer nor Joan of Arc make me think of passionate, powdery marble. Actually, the only thing that I associate with passionate and powdery and marble, is my Art History teachers decrying the effects of contemporary air pollution on outdoor renaissance sculpture.
I also don’t think of Joan of Arc in connection of S&M like games where you taunt your lover into naming his injuries while suffering in silence. Joan probably would have wanted a lover to declare a commitment to driving the Brittish out of Paris. But maybe I fail to understand some erotic charge the young saint has upon the imagination of French school boys.
Lutens ad copy has always been sort of deranged. Maybe it’s a specifically French literary thing? I dunno. This one is a new peak in weirdness, though: every sentence seems to up the ante further.
It’s neither here nor there for me, because I doubt I’ll be trying this. I used to be the biggest Lutens drum-beater but his work has left me cold for a decade now — and worse, perpetual reformulations have reduced even his standbys to a shadow of their former selves.
I can’t read French but I find English translations of French literature to always sound like hyperbole maxed out on steroids and tottering on stilts…
Same for me, pyramus. Serge Lutens was one of the houses that tossed me down the rabbit hole many moons ago, but I haven’t loved much of his recent work.
I had heard “caged tamer”, which does have a slightly different nuance than trainer. But I do not speak French.
Seems to me that the wisest course with Serge Lutens is to ignore the announcement altogether, forget all about it, and later if it is a fabulous fragrance you are bound to hear about it.
R: True…and I’ve not heard anyone raving about a Lutens fragrance in a long, long, long time.
Insightful comment, Dilana, the ad copy had me feeling repulsed before I got to the notes that I would otherwise rather enjoy.
It sounds good to me, I enjoyed his last one Fils de Joie.
That ad copy is totally nuts! I’m going to stay miles away from this!
RIP this line, which I refuse to call Serge Lutens as it has been reduced to little more than Shiseido tap-dancing on the grave of his long-abandoned creativity.
What an unmitigated disaster.