Carnation, by Serge Lutens

Although the flower is found in many women’s scents, men also wear carnations, in their lapels. In olfactory terms, carnation can be compared to a spice dressed up as a flower. Ambiguous and mysterious, carnation couldn’t leave Serge Lutens indifferent, and indeed, he made it the hero of his fragrance Vitriol d’Œillet. Looking at carnations, the designer sees anger, violence… and elegance, too.
as told to Nicolas Olczyk

red carnation

The Flower

Carnations are wrinkled looking. The petals have saw-toothed edges. Visually, everything about them is aggressive. Which is what gave me the idea of making an angry scent.
For me, carnations symbolize two different things. Red carnations evoke Provençal poppy fields, in the South of France. Whereas white ones remind me of what men tuck into their lapels.
For some people, carnations have a social or political symbolism. In any case, it’s probably easier to wear a fragrance on your lapel than a flower.

The Scent

It’s a spicy, very peppery scent. I knew it would be strong and peppery. To reconstitute the odor, I used clove, pepper and gillyflower. In French, another name for gillyflower is … slap in the face! And clove, in French, means nail, as in nailing you to the ground. As for the pepper, it is hot chili pepper from Cayenne. Where France used to have a penal colony.
So Vitriol d’Œillet is a violent scent. I wanted it to have that anger, that violence. It’s a battered carnation.
At the same time, it’s ethereal – my other fragrance, De Profundis, is more ‘dug up’. Ethereal and elegant. Yes, very elegant to wear.

white carnation

Serge Lutens’ Vitriol d’Œillet

A flower for him or for her? For me, it doesn’t matter. I don’t know if women will enjoy this carnation, if men will… For Vitriol d’Œillet – as for all my fragrances – I aim for… a sensation, not a person.