Room 1015 – Nice and Rough!

by: Miguel Matos

Room 1015 was the most trashed room in the story of rock n'roll in the 1970s. In Los Angeles, at the HYATT HOTEL, acording to urban legend, all the bands that used to play in the city used to book this room to do after parties where orgies, drinking, drugs and what not took place. So why not choose this place for inspiration when you are a rocker doing fragrances?

Room 1015 is one of the most exciting brands showing for the first time this year at the Esxence expo, in Milan. The owner of this french brand is Michael Partouche, former pharmacist and also a musician. In 2005 he took a degree in pharmacy and worked as a pharmacist for three years. At the time he had a band that started to get some success so he moved to London with the band. Michael lived there for five years, just doing music, touring and recording albums. After the band stopped, he decided to go back to Paris and return to the pharmacy. “It was very boring and I needed to do something creative,” he says. But then he started to search for new creative outlets and began to think that the best combination of pharmacy and music would be fragrance. “That was the best way for me to create and tell stories. From pharmacy I took the knowledge about aromatherapy, essential oils and chemicals. I was very interested in this and I believe that scent can cure some problems. Then I met perfumers from Flair Anne-Sophie Behaghel and Amélie Bourgeois through David Frossard from Différentes Lattitudes. It was a chance meeting because the perfume world is very closed. I had very precise ideas of what I wanted to do, so I gave a briefing to Amélie and Anne-Sophie and we had a very close collaboration in order to develope these three fragrances.”

Electric Wood

“When I was 12 years old my dad came back from California with a gift for my birthday and it was a Gibson guitar. When I opened it, the smell of the case was just wonderful. It was wood, metal from the strings, lacquer, varnish ... This was a unique experience for me and a smell that has followed me since then. I also wanted to recreate a vintage touch because vintage guitars are the best. The greatest guitars are the ones that have suffered. To add this dust effect there is iris and nutmeg. We have lemon, sage, cedarwood, oakwood and musk. I also wanted it to be fresh and electric. Then it becomes more round and warm”.

Atramental

“Atramental, in French means 'black as ink' and the inspiration came from tattoos. I love tattos and I wanted to recreate the feeling that you have when you enter a tattoo parlor. It smells like ink, leather, wood, antiseptic ... I wanted a fresh perfume with the smell of ink and leather and an animalic aspect. It has lemon, cistus, saffron, castoreum, suederal, black pepper, cardamom ... It becomes very leathery on the skin. I wanted to have the feeling of the ink inside the skin. When you have a tattoo, it has a specific smell during the first two weeks. It's a smell that I love and it is very addictive. But it's a dark perfume because tattoo is something hard and tough.”

Blomma Cult

“Blomma means 'flower' in Swedish. My wife is Swedish so I wanted to make and dedicate a fragrance to her. The inspiration was my favourite music of the 1970s which is psychedelic music. I wanted to do a perfume that is an homage to the sexual revolution. This is a very sensual fragrance, like sexual revolution in a bottle. I wanted to have something sensual and animal, based on patchouli and cashmeran. It has violet, lilac, musk, cinnamon ... Its floral and a bit oriental.”

I was pretty much convinced by the imagery and the stunning bottles, with heavy glass and the right size to fit the palm of my hand. The cap is black with smoked effects and it works like a dark jewel, cut like a gem. It is a dark and even sometimes gloomy image, with touches of psychedelic and narcotic references. All these fragrances are trademarks of the work done by Amélie Bourgeois and Anne-Sophie Behaghel. Very contemporary, clear and well balanced, but never boring. These perfumers know exactly how to make startling perfumes with a wearable style. These three are all striking but not heavy, and sometimes they even take a twist on the verge of experimental, like the one I prefer, Atramental.

ATRAMENTAL

I love tattoos and I even have three (on the way to four very soon) so I instantly knew what Michael was talking about. There is this particular smell that comes from the healing tattoo in the first week.

I just never thought that it could be interesting to translate that into perfume. And here it is. I have to say that this is a very strange fragrance and even though I fell in love with it, I admit that this can be a little too difficult for most noses. I mean I love the smell of desinfectant and antiseptic, ether, etc so I am a bit suspicious. At first this doesn't smell like perfume at all. The antiseptic and ink accords are really dominant, making the opening very chemical which is interesting but also challenging. It was a bold move to do such a fragrance, but also a very evocative one for someone who goes to tattoo parlors. The effect is realistic, indeed. However if this went on in a linear fashion it would be just an odor, a particular smell, recalling a place, not something for a body to carry around as perfume. As time passes, the smell of ink and antiseptic develops into something warmer, reaching the animalic but not in the conventional civet-oud-castoreum kind of thing. All of this olfactive artwork is done by playing on effects and suggestion. It gets leathery, yes, like Michael said, but again not the usual leather accord and I'm guessing musks play an important part here.

Peculiar is the word to apply to Atramental. It goes from chemical to animal and later on to an almost cuddly vanilla and musk combo. But don't think that this goes into the sweet territory. Yes, this is a rock perfume by a rockstar who asked a rockstar perfumer for a fragrance. And would you expect a pretty scent? This is not pretty. It's addictive and strange and rough. And I love it! Bring on the needles!

Images from the event: Miguel Matos