News from Narciso Rodriguez: an Interview with Marketing Director Stephane Goret Dervailly

by: Miguel Matos

We've just seen the arrival of a new perfume line from Narciso Rodriguez called simply Narciso but there's more to come in a few months with the introduction of a flanker in eau de toilette concentration. In Cannes, at the TFWA expo, this brand was presenting three new perfumes, all of them I guarantee to be very good surprises. Narciso Eau de Toilette, For Her L'Absolu and For Him Bleu Noirare the accords of the conversation I had with Stephane Goret Dervailly, Narciso Rodriguez's International Marketing Director.
 

Stephane Goret Dervailly

MM: Narciso just came out and there's more to come. Can you tell me about the beginning of this new chapter within the Narciso Rodriguez line?

SGD: After For Her, the idea was to create something within the same family, complementary but different. So four years ago we started this project with Narciso. When we started this, Narciso himself was very excited about creating a new fragrance because after 10 years he would like to express a different kind of femininity, still very much in the same line of elegance and restrained beauty, but starting a new story. He wanted something universal, minimalistic, very soft and sensual.

MM: For Her is already an icon and a milestone in contemporary perfumery. The new chapter initiated with Narciso is much more subtle. At first it's almost a shock but if you think again, it's actually coherent ...

SGD: It's exactly what we wanted with Narciso. We wanted to do something very different, but it was not easy. To tell you the truth, 99% of the consumers know the brand because of For Her. The consumer doesn't know Narciso Rodriguez from the fashion and accessories. So, when you create a second fragrance, you have to be coherent with the first one but also it's got to be different. That was the starting point. By chance, Narciso Rodriguez is very much involved into the creation and he wanted to have a black and white portrait again for the new fragrance. For Narciso it represents timelessness. Because he is not creating a fragrance for a season, like in fashion. The other thing he wanted was to start with musk again, like in For Her. He wanted to have the same olfactory signature. All Narciso Rodriguez fragrances are based in musk, which is also a timeless accord.

After a very long conversation between Narciso Rodriguez and our perfumer Aurelien Guichard, they decided to define a new femininity. For Her is more about restrained femininity and Narciso is more about seduction, attraction. Aurelien wanted to work on a very masculine olfactive family and twist it in a feminine way. That's when he decided to work with woods, which are notes that appear mainly in fragrances for men or in the base notes of feminine fragrances. Well, there's the exception of Feminité du Bois, which is very niche. Aurelien wanted to talk about sensuality and seduction with Narciso, so he wanted to twist what is very masculine in order to seduce a man. More than 50% of the formula is woods (vetiver from Haiti, Atlas Cedarwood, black and white cedarwood, Virginia cedarwood) and then there's musk. But to give this fragrance a feminine aspect we have a white flower bouquet with Bulgarian rose and gardenia. Finally, it's a very feminine fragrance but a very different one because of the treatment of the woods as a main part.

MM: The bottle design is also minimalistic and very sober ...

SGD: The design was very important. After For Her, we wanted to create another bottle that could be recognizable as a Narciso Rodriguez perfume without seeing the name. The idea came from Narciso himself. He loves architecture and he wanted the bottle to have this aspect. It's a glass block painted from the inside to give it a feminine touch, with the soft aspect of a woman's skin. The nude tone comes from that principle.

MM: Next year we will already see the launch of a new Narciso flanker ...

SGD: Yes, the eau de toilette version which will be available in June. At first we were not sure if we should launch it so soon. But you know the business requires us to rush. It's a pressure. The eau de toilette is complimentary, with the same woody-musky family but this time with more flowers in the top notes. We have white peony and Bulgarian rose instead of gardenia.

MM: But I see here that there are other new products within the For Her and For Him lines. Can you tell us about them?

SGD: In the second semester of 2015 we will launch For Her L'Absolu. This is a new facet of For Her, very sensual and enveloping. It's the ultimate version in eau de parfum, completely different, more intoxicating, with tuberose. It's more opulent. After that there is going to be a new version of For Him. It's the first flanker of the masculine fragrance.

MM: The original For Him was very strong, with a big personality, but not very easy to wear in my opinion.

SGD: Well, the idea was to create a new opus, a new variation almost ten years after the creation of the original. The top notes in the original, I must admit they are not easy. Our goal with For Him Bleu Noir is to have an accessible top note and afterwards a very mascunine heart of spices and woods. We keep the musk and the fougère family but we twist it.

I had the chance to smell all the future releases and I tell you I loved them all and finally there is a Narciso Rodriguez masculine scent that I can wear with loads of pleasure. I will tell you more about them in complete reviews when the timing is right. I feel it's too soon for me to reveal what should be smelled and not only read. So keep tuned for there is a bright smelling year coming soon.
 

Photographs from the TWFA exhibition in Cannes by Miguel Matos