 Archive secrets from the creation of Angel. |
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...1992: it was 15 years ago. A young couturier by the name of Thierry Mugler was getting ready to launch his first fragrance. He would call it Angel. Here are a few anecdotes about that bold launch.While Angel may be one of the best-selling perfumes in the world today, its creators had to struggle every step of the way to make their dream come true. In the beginning, Mr. Mugler and Vera Strübi (CEO for fragrance and couture at the time) had a goal: make of Angel a timeless classic. It was a risky bet, because it implied creating a universal – no pre-determined target – non-consensual fragrance: you would either love it or you’d hate it.
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The Angel bottle
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....‘ The color will be blue’. Another risk, as most classic fragrances come in hues that are more…. well, classic. There’s no hard-and-fast rule, but golden or amber hues are the ones generally associated with the timeless classics, like N°5 or Shalimar. But for Mr. Mugler, blue was the obvious choice: the color of dreams, a celestial hue, an eternal source of inspiration…
‘The bottle will be a star’. For, fetish-like, stars inspire all of Thierry Mugler’s creations. The roots of this fascination can undoubtedly be found in the dreamy nights of escapism he spent under the stars as a child. “I used to watch shooting stars all night long. I could feel a distant, but very real presence; something beautiful, benevolent and magical.”. For its creator, the idea behind Angel is ‘an angel that descends from the stars to bring a positive message.’
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Thierry Mugler’s sketch for the Angel bottle |
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In 1992, perfume shops willing to take a risk on this new fragrance weren’t legion.
So the Thierry Mugler Parfums team decided to go to meet perfume customers around France,
introducing them to the designer’s world in a large truck emblazoned ‘Angel’s Tour’.
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...‘Your bottle is impossible to make’… In 1990, all the glassmakers consulted about making the bottle said it couldn’t be done: no way to spread the glass into each branch of the star and not have it settle at the bottom, or to achieve an even thickness… But Thierry Mugler didn’t want to sacrifice the concept in his imagination on the altar of glassmakers’ technical constraints. Only one glassmaker was willing to give it a try. Two years of development were needed to perfect a special machine. But, to everyone’s consternation, 6 weeks after the fragrance’s launch, the first bottles produced in real conditions didn’t meet the high standards they had established… After a thorough verification and an engineering study, it turned out that a simple breeze, caused by a machine’s having been moved since the first round of production, was the cause of the problem. Once that was established and fixed, production could be re-launched, full steam ahead…
But the road to success still had plenty of potholes. For above and beyond the name, the bottle and the color, there was the fragrance itself, designed by Olivier Cresp. 608 trials were necessary. The result, a mouthwatering oriental, reminiscent of childhood memories, seemed too avant-garde or unusual to some. But they weren’t counting on the motivation of a team that truly believed in its creation’s future… |
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Inside the ‘Angel’s Tour’ truck, women were invited to discover the creator’s world of couture and perfume. The first seeds of a love affair were sown…
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Luxurious, imposing stars: the star bottle collection and
the Angel source bottle are true to Thierry Mugler’s sketch. |
First ad campaign for Angel, in 1992. Estelle Hallyday incarnates the young Mugler woman: fragile and strong at the same time. Other faces would follow: Jerry Hall, Amy Wesson and Anna Maria Cseh
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