From bottle to scent
The delicate pink juice is just a press away. Psst!
First impressions on the skin: refined petals (rose, narcissus and mimosa) humming a joyfully feminine tune that ignores the heavy artillery of more-obviously tantalizing formulas in order to suggest an aristocratic, highly nuanced sensuality. But Cuir d’ange (“Angel Leather”, the fragrance’s backstage code name) soon flies off to a different register altogether. And while we’re still talking leather, forget about Russian army boots and the thick coat of smoky-smelling tar they were waterproofed with. The leather here is more in line with the house’s finest glove leather.
Just then, a different evocation slips in. Like an imperfection that was deliberately allowed to go through, the better to distinguish the scent from the smoothly ordinary perfumes our nostrils are constantly overwhelmed with. An odd little detour in the narrative, like a whiff of fresh hay in the stable… A July hay, with accents of dry grass mixed with meadow flowers, and even a vague impression of horse manure carried by the country air… proving our animal natures can rub shoulders with our good manners.
So has leather found itself a new family tree? More plant-based and equestrian (after all, when you’re called Hermès, it’s only fair, right?), almost a stylistic about-face when you get right down to it! But why not, since it works for us…
Kelly Calèche’s trail leaves an almost imperceptibly powdery trace of iris. Chic and very niche! The kind of classy niche that almost makes you long for the easy arguments and olfactory charms of the measured sensuality that is everywhere of late. Cheap tricks, it’s true, but ones whose absence makes the perception of this juice’s elitist, well-orchestrated stance slightly more random and hard to pin down…