Interview ‘Etat Libre d’Orange’

Dual interview, with Etienne de Swardt, founder of the brand Etat Libre d’Orange, and Nathalie Feisthauer, the “nose” behind several of the brand’s creations, including their best-seller, ‘Putain des Palaces’.

Etienne, tell us a little bit about yourself and your brand, Etat Libre d’Orange. What made you want to found it?

EDS : Etat Libre d’Orange was founded in the fall of 2006. I work with fragrance designer friends on all of the fragrances. There are the two Antoines, Antoine Lie and Antoine Maisondieu, and there’s Nathalie Feisthauer. All three work for other houses as well. Nathalie, for instance, created l’Eau des Merveilles for Hermès and Must pour Homme for Cartier. Fragrance-designing at Etat Libre d’Orange is very free (NB: after all, the name means “Free State of Orange”). Free of censorship, and money is no object. I have been working in the perfume industry for a while now. I was at Givenchy at one point, and a few years ago I created the canine fragrance ‘Oh my dog!’.

What are your influences as a designer?

EDS: For me, designing is about perfumers, it’s about camaraderie with them. Our fragrances often spring from their creative impulses. I like the idea of being able to work without having to compromise.
NF: For me, it depends. Sometimes I start from a specific ingredient. Or from a painting, or an image. For Nombril Immense (“Immense Navel”), inspiration came from a lovely fraction of patchouli. I combined it with smooth, sweet notes of ambrette seed, which aren’t very common in fine fragrance. There are hardly any top notes in the scent. For Putain des Palaces (“High- Class Whore”), I was inspired by a brothel scene from the film ‘A Very Long Engagement’. That was my starting point, then I added a leather note, to evoke the scent of boots, etc.
As for designers who have influenced me, there are two main ones, with very different styles. There’s Jean Claude Ellena. And there’s Sophia Grojsman, who created a lot of best-selling women’s scents in the 80s.
EDS: Several people have told me they notice a strong 80s feel to the brand’s fragrances. But I don’t know. It is true that I love the smell of leather, that powerful animal scent you get when you go horseback riding. It’s a note we expressed in the candle Bottes & Ceinturons (“Boots & Belts”). I also like the smell of tuberose, which you can find paired with a costus note in our new fragrance Vierges et Toréros (“Virgins and Toreros”), a tuberose scent for men. And for the Entrecuisse (“Between the Thighs”) candle, we worked with a sweet animal-honey scent.

How can we recognize one of your fragrances? What are, in your opinion, their characteristic features?

EDS: Each of our creations includes an element of entertainment. I didn’t want to launch just another alternative-fragrance brand. I was looking for pleasure, for entertainment. I love the idea of giving designers some space. Like for our most recent women’s scent, ‘Don’t get me wrong, baby, I do not swallow’. We came up with a white-flower perfume with sweet cane-sugar notes, elaborated around the idea of a young virgin. It’s the concept of an American Kiss, somewhat chaste, at least for the sake of appearances.

What other designer’s fragrance(s) do you wish you had created? And why?

NF : Angel or Opium. Both of them are creations that really tell a story.
EDS: Ennemi by Nickel. At least for the concept, the unusual idea. I also would have loved to launch ‘Lucifer’. It’s a creation for an English fashion designer that I worked on a few years ago, but it was never released. I think that’s a great concept too.

How do you envisage the future of fragrances and fragrance brands?

NF : I really believe in ingredients. I think the choice of naturals is going to be on the rise. Fair trade in purchasing ingredients is a concept too, not just for fragrance, we’re seeing it all over the place lately.
EDS: I’m not so sure about fair trade. Maybe. In any case, I’m a big fan of everything natural. I’m sure there’s going to be a big upsurge in everything ecological and natural. I also think that there’s some real leeway to work with in the distribution networks. For a more selective, even exclusive distribution system.

Do you have a wish for the future?

EDS: I want to take my time. I’m not totally profit-driven, because I don’t want to wind up losing my original vision. As for points of sale, we’ve had interest from the French provinces, foreign countries, Italy, Russia. We just signed an agreement with the New York department store Henri Bendel. They came to visit us in Paris several times, because they loved the concept. We also have other projects in the works. We’re going to enlarge our boutique somewhat, and work with the publisher Taschen to create a perfume-publishing pole. We’re also working with designers on new fragrances, and new ideas. There may also be a candle called 69 rue des Archives. Although in the beginning, the Number 69 for the boutique was entirely by chance…