Last week there was a meeting with master-perfumer, Creative Ambassador of Great Britain, Roja Dove, held in Moscow. Sir Dove arrived in Moscow to meet his new distributors and during the planned event he was talking about some of his perfumes:Reckless, which talks about the fragrance smelled by a man from his beloved's dress;Mischief, which tells a story of a mother's love to her naughty child; about gorgeousDiaghilev, created for the Victoria and Albert Museum, and about Nüwa, inspired by Chinese mythology.
Though there were no new launches presented, I could not miss a chance to meet Roja Dove.
Evgeniya: Good evening, Mr. Dove. Thank you for this evening and for the stories behind the perfumes you brought us. Honestly, I'm not sure that I know exactly what to ask you as I'm afraid to ask the questions you have already answered thousand times. Sometimes we journalists can be too egoistic. That's why I want to ask if there is something you was never asked but you'd like to talk about?
Roja Dove: Wow. [Silence for a moment] I think ... what's interesting is a lot of people make comments on what I'm doing. [At this point I was enormously surprised, as I wanted to ask Roja Dove about that but thought that it could be not very polite—EC] They leave their opinion on what I make, which is great and generally very kind. But sometimes they seem not to understand clearly the motivation behind the creation of this collection. Maybe it was a surprise for the audience today—to hear why I made this collection.
Evgeniya: I think it was. [Roja Dove told very touching story about it and we will come back to it later.—EC] And I wanted as well to ask you about your transition from Guerlain to your own perfume collection. It really took a while to come to the creation of a public perfume line.
Roja Dove: You have to imagine—working for the house of Guerlain and then leaving it ... where do you go? Now, the reason why I left Guerlain. The company I worked for, as you know, was a family company and suddenly it was bought up by a large international company working in a different way, and I never had an experience of working in a large international company and, personally, I did not like a lot of things they did. I understood, that as a human being, one person, I could not change a big organization and aIso understood it was time for me to leave. And I also believed that Jean-Paul Guerlain would most likely be leaving a little bit later. So, I had this big decision to make—what to do. Because I felt I can't suddenly arrive at this or that house because I felt I would lose my credibility. So, a little while after I launched my own company. I was asked if I would create a perfume for a very important British Charity—it's called the Terrence Higgins Trust London Lighthouse and it's one of the most important HIV charities we have. They have an auction once a year at Christie's. So, each year Christie's give them a Great Hall, or Great Room and its the oldest auction room, I think, in the world. Most significant. And I decided what I would do. I asked Baccarat if they would re-blow a bottle that was originally created for the1925 Decorative Art Fair, from which we get the term "art deco," they agreed. And so the auction lot was an empty bottle and I said whoever buys it, I will make them a perfume. The perfume fetched the most money at the auction. The person who bought that perfume's partner decided they also wanted a perfume for themselves and so I had my first bespoke customer. And so I realized that there are the people who really care how they smell. And then, around the same time, I was asked to go into Harrods and they said to me "We want to open a perfumery with you." I said: "Really?" I was most surprised. And so I decided I would create what became the Roja Dove Haute Parfumerie, I'm sure you know it well, it was the first of its type anywhere in the world. It was the first perfumery anywhere to be called Haute Parfumerie. Now everyone opens Haute Parfumeries. So, I was very pleased to be a small part of the transition that happened around the world to niche, selective ... I dislike the word niche ... but niche, selective—whatever you prefer. I mean creative perfumery. And so, because my perfumery is in Harrods and Harrods is the most significant shop in the world, everyone came to look to see what we were doing. I think it's interesting with my work, with my collection, that I really very rarely explain the reason of its creation ... I'm not a twenty-year-old starting a career, but just because I'm older doesn't mean that I know everything. What I always say with my work: all I try to do is the best I know how to do. So I think the approach is the very simple one. I found it interesting when I read what people write about my work. I think generally people are very very kind and many people say very nice things about my work. Generally. All I ever say about it—it is the best I know how to do.
Evgeniya: You know, sometimes people hear just "the best."
Roja Dove: But I've never said that. I wrote at the beginning of my book - I try to do the best I know how. Yes, sometimes say very unkind things. And I wonder why sometimes people feel they can feel so much dislike to someone they have never met. I have no idea. So, a lot of people say: "He is like this, he is like that". Did what I say in my talk this evening comes across as arrogant? I hope it didn't. I don't think as a human being I'm arrogant. I try to explain the stories behind - why I do, what I do. I think it's very very easy to criticise. So, I think many people decide who I am in particular way. Maybe they don't realise with raw materials I choose to use. (short silence) In the last three years fine quality roses grown 30% price. I didn't put the price up, global market put the price up. So, I think there is an interesting thing - when I make a work with very fine raw materials and when I write "The finest fragrances in the world", I'm trying to talk about the quality of what is inside the bottle. I'm not saying, and never say, the best perfumes in the world - it's very different.
Evgeniya: The problem is that as far as I can see, this difference is not evident to everyone. As preparing to the interview I also read your other interviews and comments to it and saw what you mean when talk about some not very nice comments.
Roja Dove: I think it's because people miss one important thing - I'm trying to explain that it's Nature decides some ingredients are rare, like Rose de Mai, for example. I explained this - the entire year of its production is less than one day of production of Bulgarian rose - that's what nature gives us. And saying about preciousness of the ingredient I don't want to say that people shouldn't be able to have it - nature just doesn't give us much. I was saying that it's so precious that we should appreciate it. So, this is how people interpret it. So, it's difficult. And, as you saw, what I made, what I created is a very very personal thing. It is....just that. And it really hurts, you know, when I ask myself what on earth am I doing if someone can hate me so much and wish me dead. Sometimes people say what I do is irrelevant. It's how war starts - people are killed around the world for a hatred. And I just make perfume. Maybe I shouldn't really speak about it. But I do, because it really hurts me. Look, I have messages from many people, sometimes they are my customers, sometimes I don't know them and sometimes they are very surprised that I answer them.
Evgeniya: Perfumery is always very personal. It's just a beautiful thing, piece of art or piece of luxury, but in the way we choose and use a perfume there is a personality, that's why it's not only about marketing and sales but also about psychology and anthropology. And the most common problem of the humanity is that we do not understand each other well very often.
Roja Dove: You know, with my brand image you see two Lalique maidens - they are called Reverie, a Dream, because I've always believed that perfume is the one thing that allows all of us to dream, however hard and ugly life is. And I have also said for years the reason I love perfumes is not judgemental. It has no age, colour, gender, creed. An eighty year old woman can put a perfume that she wore when she was eighteen and she is eighteen again. We look in the mirror, we see that nature is not kind, because we age, fashion is unkind as your body changes and beautiful clothes doesn't fit you any more, but perfume is kind. It doesn't judge. It's a very special thing perfume.
Evgeniya: Do you believe that perfume can not be just a trick of your memory, senses and emotions, but also be a piece of art that can transport some universal idea that can bring humanity to the better way?
Roja Dove: Maybe, if everybody find a perfume that will make them feel good, maybe they will behave in a nicer way.
Evgeniya: Thank you very much, Roja, for this conversation and separate thank you for the story you shared about what pushed you to create this collection of fragrances (and the story was that Roja's mother once made a comment that it's the last generation of the family name Dove, as neither Roja, nor his brother have children; that's why when his mother died Roja Dove decided to create his own perfume line hoping that if the perfumes survive then his family name survives). It was very touching, because it was unexpectedly intimate.
Roja Dove: There was another moment. After my mother died I met my friend - I thought that I was ok, but, evidently, I was not - and she (my friend) told me: "All of your life you have worked as an ambassador or protector for everybody else's work. The one thing you have never done is promoting your own work. You need to start doing it." In the front of my book I put a very clear and simple dedication. I dedicate it to my mother. Everything I've always done was always about this. And we were always taught that we should never judge somebody. When I first went to the Middle East, of course there is a lot of problem there. But I found the people who are very lovely. And I'm kind to them as well. They maybe think that I'm and West are not so bad, and will tell somebody that West is not so bad. And I think that the only thing we can do everywhere is ignore prejudice. That's very easy to say, but we have to try. Another way to understand each other is travelling. I always travelled a lot. That's why I feel myself privileged. My life is a privileged life, though everything I do I worked for. And I'm very proud of this. And travel opens your eyes, because in the end you discover that actually most of the people are the same. Fundamentally, we all need food, we all need shelter, we all need to feel we are loved and we are appreciated. And while selling perfumes I come to any country and I try to meet my distributors, as I can't just meet any other people, I can't talk to anybody in Russia as I don't speak the language, then I'm not here long enough, for example, so my distributors are the ambassadors of my work and I need to let them understand what's in my mind. And they also have to decide whether they like me, or whether they don't like me. So in the end it's all human.
Evgeniya: And, to conclude with some "perfume" question - is there any perfume, in any era, that you regret no to be the author of?
Roja Dove: Ooohh...I think, maybe, it would be the perfumes from the very first twenty years of the last century. And the reason why is because I think so much was possible, because the houses were tiny, there wasn't globalisation. If, for example, the company launches a perfume and they didn't sell it - it doesn't matter. Today if an international company launches a perfume the cost is huge and if it fails, it costs a lot. In those days, because a few people could afford perfume , which is a bad thing, people tried to experiment. I think there are a lot of perfumes that are very bad, but because of the development of organic chemistry there are a lot of new synthetic raw materials, you have the couturiers coming in, you have people like François Coty, all the perfumes from Parfums de Rosine and all the old perfumers saying they thought their work was terrible. It was because they sound revolutionary and I think it will be fascinating to really look properly at the perfumes of this period. I think people often write or talk about old perfumes in too romantic way like "because it's old it must be good" but it's not true. I think it would be interesting to look at the creative process in this period because maybe more changed in this period than in any other time.
Evgeniya: And how do you feel the changes of today?
Roja Dove: OK, I risk to sound arrogant, but I wrote the version of this book (The Essence of Perfume) before and there is a little chapter called 'What's next'. If you look in the old book you will see that all I said I thought would happen happened. It was about 6 or 7 years ago. This is a new 'What's next', of course I don't know if this would happen, but I think perfumery is undergoing the biggest revolution. It is gone through like more than hundred years in sixty years. And all that because of the social media. It means that suddenly the small perfumery brands appear. People are discovering the things through social media, they don't need to go out for stocking it. That is interesting, I think for the first time the consumer is driving the industry. And I agree...when you go to the perfume fair you can find there many fabulous things, but as well the things that are shocking.
Evgeniya: So, will see what's new this time in Milano on next week's Esxence'15.
Roja Dove's portrait: Esterk Lux; other photos Evgeniya Chudakova
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