By Matthew Zink was my first1 review of an Arquiste fragrance a few days ago. Why am I so late to the party? Because when I asked for samples of their entire range in 2016, I got an email back to the effect that they did not give out samples. The email ended with “have a great day,” which I thought was uncalled-for.
In the typical paranoid mode of thought encouraged by email, I interpreted this as a snub. I thereafter thought of Arquiste as “those pretentious dudes who would not send me samples.” Eight years later, I get a charming message from CEO Carlos Huber. It turns out that the offending email had been sent by an intern without Huber’s approval.
So it all ends well, and Huber has now sent me the full range. What is unusual about Arquiste is that it is a stable collaboration between an art director and two perfumers, Yann Vasnier and Rodrigo Flores-Roux, both originally of Quest New York, now Givaudan. Flores-Roux does (I simplify) beautiful complicated florals, while Yann Vasnier did some wonderful stuff for the small French brand Divine and composes (I simplify) spontaneously odd and arresting fragrances.
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