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Interview with Thierry Wasser

A native of Switzerland, fragrance designer Thierry Wasser started his career at Givaudan in 1981, before settling in at Firmenich from 1993 to 2008. In June 2008, Thierry Wasser succeeded Jean-Paul Guerlain to become Guerlain’s new in-house perfumer.

Thierry Wasser, besides yourself, who would you have liked to be?
I would have really loved to be an orchestra conductor, or a pianist.

Your first encounter with fragrance ?
I must have been 13. I didn’t really look my age; physically, I felt I looked as if I were about 8. A friend of my mother’s used to wear Habit Rouge. I wanted to make it mine, because I thought it was very manly. So I bought it. It was my first fragrance.

Your favorite fragrance components ?
Just now, I would say Bulgarian rose and vetiver, which both fascinate me. But I don’t actually have any. For me, the concept is really what counts the most when you’re creating a new fragrance. The ingredients flow from that.

Your favorite smell ?
Apricot pie baking in the oven.

Your favorite flower ?
Rose. No contest.

What fragrance by a different designer do you wish you had designed ?
L’Eau d’Issey (editor’s note: for women). It’s a very complete, well-balanced scent. There’s the warmth in the floral note’s honey-indole aspect that makes a harmonious contrast with the perfume’s cool side.

Which Guerlain fragrance would you like to have designed ?
Mitsouko. Even if the chypre theme had already been addressed before 1919 (editor’s note: year the perfume was designed), I still think the fruity-peach accord makes this chypre scent unique. It’s both straightforward and extraordinary at the same time.

What influences you as a designer ?
Traveling is often a big part of it. But I guess I’d have to say that the most important thing is nature. I have a lot of memories of the land being tamed and farmed. A rose grown in a row and a wild rose don’t have the same history… or the same smell. Nature inspires me, maybe because I grew up in the country.

Which perfumer(s) style do you admire ?
Annick Menardo, with whom I’ve often had the chance to work. When it comes to scents, I wish I were as rigorous and strong-willed as she is. She knows how to stand by her ideas, to be unyielding.

An artist whose work fascinates you ?
I’m fascinated by the American painter Cy Twombly. Especially his larger work. There’s an allegorical side, but also power in the movement.

A travel destination that you really enjoy ?
Wherever I was last. Ever since I was young, I have always identified with the place I’m about to leave. Leaving a spot is always hard, even if my attachment to it is superficial. I bring thousands of things back from every trip, both in my suitcase, and in my mind.

A fashion designer you particularly enjoy ?
Marc Jacobs. He’s very talented, because he manages to express something wild and to break the codes with his style, even though he works in an incredibly codified system.

Is it hard to follow in the footsteps of a whole generation of Guerlain perfumers ?
No, I don’t think so. The House of Guerlain has 180 years of history, but right from the start, cosmetics and beauty were very important too. As far as fragrance goes, what strikes me most is how long Jacques and Jean-Paul Guerlain kept at it (for more than 50 years each). As true masters, each of them managed to imprint their own style on the House.

And do you think you’ll be able to bring something new, a change of style, to Guerlain’s fragrances ?
I probably don’t have enough perspective to be able to say so. Perhaps one needs 20 years of creation to be able to assert something like that. But for a new fragrance, I do have something to say about the name, the bottle. In addition, for Idylle, for instance, I wrote the formula based on my taste. Which, by definition, is not going to be the same as Jacques or Jean-Paul Guerlain’s.

How do you envisage the future for fragrances ?
I think the industry has turned perfume into something functional. The act of applying fragrance has, for instance, been turned into something functional and everyday. In the future, amidst the multitude of new launches, I glimpse a window that’s still open to the fantasy. With a few brands that propose a hedonistic relationship to fragrance. One in which perfume is a personal pleasure, and wearing fragrance means making the smell one’s own.

Your own little luxury ?
My own personal luxury? Doing - absolutely - nothing.

You can also find interviews with: Patricia de Nicolaï, Dominique Ropion, Sylvie de France...