Stéphanie de Saint Aignan

Stéphanie, tell us a little bit about yourself, about the fragrances you’ve created?

A passion for smells was my first incentive; which is pretty standard. What is less so, is that I got into the business for love. It’s true, I designed my first fragrance in order to recreate the intoxicating scent of the man I was in love with. Once I got my nose in the door, bursting with creative inspiration, the idea of creating my own collection to express every facet of my life just came naturally.
Another thing is that I wanted to design fragrances that have something to say, ones whose goal isn’t to go mass market, but exclusive distribution. Fragrances for aesthetes, people who stand out in a crowd, those rare people who don’t wear a brand, but a fragrance they maintain an intimate relationship with.

What are your influences as a designer?

Fragrances from alternative brands, on principle, because I don’t like wearing a perfume that 5 other women at the same party will be wearing. And when I really look into the ones I love, there’s almost always the same designer hidden in there somewhere… Jean-Claude Ellena, most often. I like the simplicity and the balance of his juices.

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

That’s a hard question for me, because you’re basically asking if I have a set style … My juices are all quite different from each other, but I think that what they have in common is that they’re not afraid to exist, and to stand for something. They tend to be quite colorful and fragrant, and they have a “love ‘em or leave ‘em” attitude that is in my own image.
The spirit that hovers through all of my scents is one of an old-fashioned designer, using noble ingredients, going against the trend. As for my formulas, they’re all short, never more than 30 ingredients. Beyond that, I just can’t.
As for the ingredients, I’m not really into flowers. On the other hand, I go for woods – cedars and precious woods like sandalwood. I like animal notes that can be found in aromatic herbs, too, like marjoram and sage, or in a wood I use in ‘Berberiades’, Atlas cedar.
I also like the crisp notes of galbanum, the smoothness of patchouli. And for every day, I’m addicted to bergamot. I use it all over the place.

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

Bois Farine by Jean-Claude Ellena for L’Artisan Parfumeur. Because the cedar accord, with that little, almost hazel-nutty, pyrazine-like facet drives me wild. It’s not a fragrance you see on a lot of people. But it’s the one that really rocks my boat, that gives my skin the presumptuous scent of the irresistible. It’s the most intimate fragrance I know.

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

When I see that designers Viktor attt’n, c’est Viktor, pas Vicktor & Rolf are selling like hotcakes at H&M, and the same thing for the Loulou de la Falaise collection for Monoprix, I can’t help wondering if that kind of collection tends to raise or lower the level? I really don’t know. On the other hand, to what extent can you stay rare and alternative?
Who’s right? Dior or Santa Maria Di Novella? The answer is probably somewhere between the two, but I hope there’ll always be a place for those who stand out from the crowd, who are free to invent, to dream...
I also believe in ethical and ecological values, which are catching on, but I can’t help wondering if it’s just a marketing fad, and not necessarily verifiable. On the other hand, when charts are imposed to create standards for ethical, ecological and biological production, I’m totally into it.

Do you have a wish for the future?

Oh yes, I have more than one. I’d like to hit the jackpot. I’d also like to work with young fragrance designers, to open the doors of my collections to new talent. I’d like to give young designers a hand breaking into the marketplace, where they don’t always get the attention they deserve.
But to do that, I’d need to develop my brand in 2007. But I have to stay level-headed, my brand could be gone in 6 months time…