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Aurélien Guichard
“The best is yet to come…”
Aurélien, tell us a little bit about yourself, about the fragrances you’ve created.
I’ve been working in fragrance for seven years: four years as a designer, after three years on a job-training scheme at Givaudan. One of my first creations was an Aqua Allegoria for Guerlain, Anisia Bella, with an overdose of anise. I also designed several fragrances for Nina Ricci, including the floral Love in Paris, and Cherry Fantasy in the Les Belles line. Then I went to the States. I’ve worked on different projects, including Unforgivable by Sean John (P. Diddy), which I collaborated on along with three other fragrance designers. It’s doing very well in the States, and I think it’s definitely because Sean was totally dedicated to the process from beginning to end. More recently, I’ve worked with some alternative brands. Like Bond N°9, for Chinatown, which evokes both cherry blossom and the Orient, for its amber and frankincense notes. And then I was put in charge of recreating Baghari, a Piguet fragrance from way back. It was the first time I’d ever done that. It was a really interesting exercise, like an exercise in confidence and respect for the original work. Rewriting that perfume was like a renovating an antique, using modern tools.
What are your influences as a designer?
First of all, there’s my family background. My grandfather grew roses and jasmine in Grasse. It’s no accident if I like to work with flowers. I was also influenced by my mother, who’s a sculptor. I got spontaneity, perseverance and a sense of conviction from her.
My father (NB: fragrance designer Jean Guichard) inculcated me with a passion for the beauty of this job. Recently we worked together, just the two of us, for the first time. It was on L’Eau du Temps by Nina Ricci, a really unique experience.
I am also influenced by fragrance houses with a strong heritage, like Guerlain, Dior and Ricci. In my job, I really feel a need to be part of a house, to be connected to something.
In terms of art, I like pop: Jasper Johns particularly, in the work where he excites an interest in the ordinary by sublimating it. I like the idea of seeing beauty in the ordinary, everyday things that surround us.
And then there’s Cézanne, too. When you look at all the paintings he did of the Montagne Ste Victoire, no two of them are alike: the light, the perspective… something’s always different. A fragrance designer’s work is like that, bringing a new gaze to bear on what is olfactorily beautiful, reinventing, creating different timbres of colors…
How can we recognize one of your fragrances? What are, in your opinion, their characteristic features?
It would be kind of boring if I already had a signature at my age…
Still, in my creative method, I think I’m intuitive, even naive sometimes. I love designing florals, for example, but I think it’s fairly intuitive, and tied to my childhood. I like the idea of still being able to feel a sense of wonder for a rose, for example. I do master florals more than other families that bring me fewer emotions, even if I’m trying not to box myself in. There are other themes that stimulate me, like creating a sense of freshness. And like the painter, I also enjoy playing with ordinary notes to stimulate new interest in them.
What other designer’s fragrance(s) do you wish you had created? And why?
I would have loved to have created Diorissimo, for its simplicity and its obviousness. L’Heure Bleue, too. For men, the fragrances I like are ones with a floral nature, like Fahrenheit, with its violet note, and Kenzo pour Homme, with its salicylate*. I admire those fragrances for their diffusion, the way we smell them, the unique way the scent radiates.
How do you envisage the future of fragrances and fragrance brands?
I’m very optimistic, I think the creative possibilities are endless. There will always be visionary brands, with a certain grain of folly. That represents a real challenge for fragrance designers.
The ecological and technological stakes are connected to each other. They allow fragrance designers to have access to raw ingredients that are both new and ecological.
I think fragrance will keep on surprising us. We need to give good fragrances, the ones that excite emotion, a chance to become classics.
Do you have a wish for the future?
While I’m creating, I feel like I’m living in a waking dream. I hope that my job as a fragrance designer will keep on making me happy, as it does now. I think the best is yet to come…
(*) Salicylate notes grant a solar, floral, sandy character