One of the hardest things to deal with in life is the difference between what you expect and what actually is there, whether we’re talking about marriage, weather or cooking. If the mismatch is too drastic, the result can be fatal. If it’s too subtle, it subtly disturbs things in a not-quite-perceptible way that can’t be addressed because it’s not known.
I was surprised to find this phenomenon showing up in one of my fav blogs, www.1000fragrances.blogspot.com where Octavian Coifan writes in a fabulously informed and elegant way about the creation of perfumes. He says (edited):
After 5 years, almost 4500 articles on this blog and a number of readers that surprises me every morning, . . . I imagined that my articles would bring not just feedback, but more knowledge to me in an enthusiastic hope to clarify several things about some perfumes or theoretical aspects. Online or not, it proved to be a dream and the only really engaging conversation is that between me and the perfumes / raw materials. Every day, between 8 AM and 8 PM, I "speak" with a forest of blotters on my table (raw materials, accords, new perfumes, vintage creations, experiments) working on 3-4 projects at the same time, things I've never presented here. Last week I noticed the huge amount of formulae I worked and how improperly they are organized in my notebooks. In a similar situation, I hoped that several of my articles would engage a conversation maybe to help me to clarify some aspects of the 8th art or to bring some depth for a further investigation. But, contrary to what I've expected, the answers to my reflections cannot be found by a different person than me. . . . Web 2.0 changed everything adding a touch of "exhibitionism" and sometimes the author became a merchandise. But I considered the things in a different way and, in this unscented web garden, I left the seeds for many things hoping to find them in bloom one day. . . . I hoped that one day somebody knowing more than me about something rare (let's say Mousse de Saxe because I worked on the formula) would find my post and would drop anonymously several words or a mail and the reader coming next year will find something richer in meaning. But this did not happen here and last month I changed my mind when I prepared several posts about this type of curiosities from the past and I did not publish the articles.
One day, when I'll find the perfect place in Paris, I'll hold a fragrance salon, much similar to the artistic salons of the XXth century. It's better to speak about perfumes with blotters under the nose because conceptualization in fragrance is an exercise that very few people are able to do. It is not a work to do between 10 and 12 AM in a company because usually this type of artistic meetings happen when people have a desire to enlarge their horizon and not when they are paid to answer a brief. A blog is like a daily conference on a stadium. True things happen only in small circles unless it is a revolution. A salon in Paris with people I invite because I want to listen and inspire them for new aesthetic horizons is much more exciting and intriguing for me at this moment. We'll see what the future brings.
The idea that perfumers reading online texts would bring some of their knowledge about old creations they know maybe better than I do is simply Utopian now. Virtual space is public space, often too much polluted by the idea of selling something. In the past 5 years I've learnt the most important lesson: if you want to learn the secrets of a great perfume (let's say Pour troubler by Guerlain) there is only one way: smell it for months because there is nobody in the world to help you with an answer, or those with answers are not usually on-line. . . .
Maybe the real truth about perfumers today is that very few of them have the time to breathe. Their job is not housed in a dream building. Perfumers are responsible for the multi billion market today but they work in glass boxes. If you want the next Chanel 5 buy a castle for your team, a huge garden to breathe and a music salon for conversation. Without time, space and air there is no creation and our imagination cannot fly.
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He's talking about "slow perfume!" Like slow food. Slow love?
I was moved by the poignancy of the plea. In the comments, some of his readers scolded him as selfish and others expressed great appreciation though they simply could not meet Coifan on his informed and complex level. Myself and Aad (a poet friend in the Netherlands) swap Coifan’s remarks even though Aad has access to fine perfumes and I don’t. In the past in big cities I’ve been the scourge of the perfume counter but I had no idea about many things.
One of the issues is another of those unexpected differences: European restrictions on substances considered irritating or allergenic have forced their omission from classic formulas. Noses also change over time, but often a named perfume is truly not what it was, less . . . something not quite identifiable. Of course, skin also changes its chemistry over time. And ethnic tastes differ.
I’ve learned so much. Machinery can identify the molecular structure of the ingredients of a perfume and their proportion, but that’s like saying geometry can identify the movements of a ballerina. In order to create a perfume that stirs the emotions (which is the point, isn’t it?) there are questions of base, first impact, layering, dry-down, lingering development. It is the choreography of the responses and interactions of the molecules over time that counts. Flowers, woods, leathers, designed molecules, amber and many more substances that might be rather unpleasant alone are all part of the design. Yesterday the subject was a perfume that suggested freshly baked bread. Coifan can recognize the perfume’s creator, analyze the historical background, suggest what the geographical sources of the ingredients might be, and so on, like a great literary critic unfolding a fine and complex novel.
All this has nothing to do with movie stars or fancy bottles. It is quite free for those who read blogs. It’s about awareness in the world. I expect it daily now and will be much disappointed if it ends. It’s been years but I can still remember Guerlain’s “Spanish Geranium” or Estee Lauder’s “Aliage” well enough to figure out what Coifan says about them. They are no longer on the market. Ended. The world is faster and more flat.
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