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.
The (elusive) scent of magnolia has received lots of attention this year from perfumers. I’ve already reviewed Grandiflora’s two magnolia offerings by Michel Roudnitska and Sandrine Videault, and now comes Frédéric Malle and perfumer Carlos Benaïm with Eau de Magnolia.1
Benaïm has already created scented products for Malle based on magnolia: the Jurassic Flower candle, room spray and rubber incense. I went to the Frédéric Malle boutique at Barneys to get a whiff of Jurassic Flower but became sidetracked, and nasally exhausted, by the zillion candles that were calling out to me, not only from Malle’s line, but from Cire Trudon, too. Jurassic Flower smelled great, if not very “magnolia-ish…”
You have to realize that I never knew my grandfather, who was the founder of Parfums Christian Dior. [...] Obviously Diorling, Diorama, Eau Fraiche — which is a very nice fragrance — and Diorissimo, which is of course probably the best of that bunch, were made between my grandfather and Monsieur [Edmond] Roudnitska. My mother worked with him on Eau Sauvage and on a very, very good fragrance called Diorella. It didn’t enjoy the same success [as the others] but it is one of the best fragrances ever released by Dior. So working with Roudnitska for me — and it wasn’t really working with him because he had already passed away when we launched it — and connecting with Madame Roudnitska was very emotional for me.
— Frédéric Malle, talking about his brand's release of Le Parfum de Thérèse. Read more at Perfumer Frédéric Malle: Matchmaker Extraordinaire at The St. Petersburg Times.
Niche brand Frédéric Malle has opened a second boutique in New York City (see our shopping report on the existing Malle store here). The new store, at 94 Greenwich Avenue in the West Village, is the first of a projected series of boutiques designed to “showcase the work of top architects in the same way he showcases perfumers”…
French niche line Frédéric Malle will launch Eau de Magnolia next month. The last release from the brand was Dries Van Noten par Frédéric Malle, introduced last year…