It was hard not to love the Parfumeurs du Monde stand at Esxence, earnest and glitz-free. I was dragged there by a charming Québecoise1 from the Osmothèque stand to meet Ellen Dahlgren, one of the PdM perfumers, who explained to me that she made fragrances inspired by the nature around her house in Sweden, then handed me a bag of samples. Thierry Bernard, the founder and CEO, was animatedly talking to visitors. I am struck by the high proportion of Frenchmen in their sixties and seventies who come up with wonderful perfumery: MDCI, Parfum d’Empire, PdM, Le Jardin Retrouvé.
They all share something I recognize: a cheerful austerity and childlike passion that I have often encountered among my French scientist colleagues of that age. Sooner or later in conversation, they will use the word schmilblick, meaning thingy. I then know tacitly that we would agree that the Cube is the finest van ever, that nothing beats a Picon-bière, that no airliner comes close to the Caravelle in looks, and that Michel Legrand was the best French composer since Rameau. The French make truly great aging hippies, arguably the best in Europe. I should know—it’s my tribe.
PdM does 100% natural perfumes, art directed by Thierry Bernard and Gwenaëlle Chauvin, and often composed by rookie perfumers. This in itself is a wonderful corrective to the slick chemical swill served up in duty-frees these days. It is in some ways analogous to the original-instruments movement in classical music, which refreshed the baroque and for years made us all feel guilty about enjoying Karajan’s Vivaldi. Natural perfumes are lovely, but they have a problem with volume, especially in the treble and bass. Their midrange, however, is totally wonderful. They also tend not to last very long. I took home 13 perfumes, and then I culled them mercilessly down to five, in which clarity and originality of structure more than made up for a lack of power.
For paid subscribers: reviews of Tjärn, Üjan, Tundzha, Androgyne 16020 and Tsingy.
Samples from Parfumeurs du Monde.