The avant-premiere of
The White Collection by Jul et Mad Paris at Esxence 2015 was made March 27, with perfumer
Luca Maffei, who was involved in its creation. In order to smell the perfumes even earlier, I made an appointment with Julien Blanchard and Madalina Stoïca-Blanchard one day before.
Serguey Borisov:
Good morning, Julien and Madalina! So happy to meet you again, in Milano, presenting the new perfume trio! Please tell us why the collection was called "The White?"
Julien Blanchard:
There are so many great explanations for the collection to be The White Collection. Our family name is Blanchard, and our nickname is White. Our friends calls us like that: “Oh, we go to dinner at The Whites!” So we named our perfumes The White collection. Also white is the color of a new start, and of purity and innocence, etc.—because we wanted to express the essence of what we are, our souls, and make it on the next level of sincerity: what defines us, what we like to share with others. And it makes sense to us to change the color. It's the new part of Jul et Mad which is different from the first part, which is our Classic, or Signature collection …
Serguey Borisov:
I remember, they were designed to tell the story how you have met and became a couple, a family …
Madalina Stoica-Blanchard:
Now we decided to step away from our personal happiest moments whcih we shared with our customers. And now we want to share our new collection, and each perfume in it is about who we are, what are the things that we love, and things that inspire us. Those things that had always been our passion for both of us.
Serguey Borisov:
Why did you choose for the perfumes such oriental names?
Garuda,
Nin-Shar,
Nea … not to mention the
GOLD
and white design and crystals…
Julien Blanchard:
We decided to devote the first three perfumes of The White Collection to the passion I share with Madalina—the passion for the ancient civilizations of the past. So we devoted
Nea to Byzance,
Nin-Shar to Babylon and
Garuda to Angkor Wat. And all of these civilizations were mighty, rich and opulent at their peak, as it can be seen in the great architecture in their former capitals and their most luxurious jewelry in museums of history, so we decided to make a more sumptuous grand design. I would not say that we made the perfumes to be as rich as Byzantium Basileuses, Angkor Wat and Babylon Kings, but we were inspired by the most great ancient monuments like the Angkor temples, Ishtar gate of ancient Babylon and Hagia-Sophia in Istanbul. Sure, we have visited all those ancient cities to be inspired.
Serguey Borisov:
How did you meet your new perfumer,
Luca Maffei?
Julien Blanchard:
Actually, Luca visited us at our stand at Pitti Fragranze last September. At the time we were already working on this new collection, but we are always open to every new proposition. So we told him that he could make his own versions for the briefs.
And right after his first proposal we decided to continue working with him, so he won two briefs, for
Nea and
Garuda. The third brief named
Nin-Shar was won by
Sidonie Lancesseur of Robertet, because the company is famous by their extraordinarily great raw materials of rose, and Sidonie is great in rose perfumes. And as we know Nin-Shar was a goddess of flowers, plants and fertility in Sumerian mythology, so if we had to build The Hanging Gardens of Babylon we cannot escape the most beautiful roses, especially Damask rose of Turkey.
Serguey Borisov:
Would you say that The White Collection was made with UAE customers in mind, or were you oriented by the oriental trend?
Julien Blanchard:
Well, we are not presented in Emirates yet, so it's definitely not the first reason. But I think that we have had the oriental trend in mind, and it's going pretty strong now everywhere, in the European and Russian markets, too. As you can see, a travel spray is added to every 50 ml bottle which is our brand's signature, so there's a small secret compartment for the travel spray hidden under the bottle in each coffret made of lacquered white wood (piano keys color). And one more thing: we have refill bottles now. We made them for each fragrance from both collections for our regular customers, as they already have the coffret and do not want to buy second or third—they just want some more of the perfume they are addicted to. And we also made a mini-bottles of perfume instead of samples you could buy from our website—we called them Love Dose.
Serguey Borisov:
Now let's smell the perfumes!
Madalina Stoïca-Blanchard:
The perfume inspired by Byzance is called
Nea; it's named after the Holy Church Nea Ekklesia (Renewed Church), that was built in the Golden Age of Byzance, in the 9th century. The perfume is a gourmand that is also oriental, but it's very elegant. When Luca Maffei of Atelier Fragranze Milano contacted us, we expressed our wishes and ideas to him. We really wanted the perfume to be rich and elegant, but without a heavy gourmand feeling alike Loukhoum or other oriental sweets. In the perfume the gourmand part is expressed by dry notes of dates and dried plums, with vanilla and caramel in the sillage. Also Nea is great for its fruity Jasmine Sambac and Damask Rose accord in heart. The base notes are woody (Cashmeran and Patchouli) and sweet (Vanilla, Benjoin, Tonka beans, Ambroxan), so Nea is a very long-lasting flowery gourmand perfume. I think it really should be our bestseller actually—'cause it's my favorite perfume now!
Serguey Borisov:
So sorry to say, but too feminine for me …
Madalina Stoïca-Blanchard:
The second one is inspired by Babylon civilization, its name is
Nin-Shar. Nin-Shar is the Goddess of Gardens or Plants in Sumerian mythology. She is the daughter of Enki, God of the Waters, and Nin-Hursag, Goddess of Fertility. So we decided to take Rose as a queen of garden flowers and recall the Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders for the ancients.
Serguey Borisov:
Smells like rose with a woody base of patchouli …
Madalina Stoïca-Blanchard:
Yes, Sidonie Lancesseur from Robertet used a very good quality fractionated Patchouli component from Robertet, to contrast with the most beautiful Rose absolute from Turkey that Robertet has and she even used some Rose liqueur in the sweet top notes. The base is also woods, Benzoin, Vanilla, Musks that are very complex again—when I close my eyes it feels like a drapery of really heavy, dark red velvet. It's a huge unisex rose, and Sidonie Lancesseur is famous for her modern rose interpretations, as she made
Cruel Intentions by Kilian,
Dangerously in Love by Kilian,
Rose Chic Hayari and more. Sidonie used to be an apprentice of
Michel Almairac, the perfumer who loved rose so much that he wanted to insert some rose note in everything (he created all the new rose range for
Chloe,
Voleur de Roses,
Rose Infernale Terry de Gunzburg, and the new
Ivoire Balmain). So he managed to pass a very special relations with this note to his apprentice, I believe.
Serguey Borisov:
Well, it's a really nice and well-done perfume, and the rose is unusual with a boozy start and a berry-like and powdery heart. I like it much better than Nea as far as I can wear it myself.
Madalina Stoïca-Blanchard:
Thank you! So the third perfume,
Garuda, is inspired by Angkor Wat, the old temples lost in the sea of Cambodian forests. We did not name it as Wood or Oud Something, as it's not our signature way of naming, Garuda is half-bird and half-human, the mythical God of birds that probably has come to Khmer mythology from Indian legends. Garuda was the deity that carries Krishna in the battle with Evil, and was fighting with the enemies of Krishna. Actually we were inspired by the moment we experienced in Angkor Wat, when we were at galleries where all the walls was covered by Garudas, there are hundreds of them on the bas-reliefs. And when the sun settled down, all those Garudas turned golden in color—just gorgeous! That was the image that inspired us, actually.
Luca Maffei based the perfume on Cambodian Oud, with a lot of Saffron and Cashmeran. And you know what? He just won the brief of this perfume with his first proposal! We did not even change it! We just added some color to the perfumes to make them more intense and oriental. To add some passion, voila! The red-orange color just fits our White concept of ancient civilizations' opulence much more—it has sensations of old
GOLD, rubies, velvet, luxury, etc.
All the perfumes are in Extrait de Parfum concentrations. We made them in the highest possible concentration for our perfume formulas as we have Rose absolute, Jasmine Sambac ...
Serguey Borisov:
And the last question: after the collection's pre-launch premiere today, when and where are you going to launch it?
Madalina Stoïca-Blanchard:
It's going to be launched worldwide, at the end of May/beginning of June 2015.
Serguey Borisov:
Thank you very much, Madalina and Julien!
Head Notes: Date, Davana, Pomegranate, Palm Leaf, Black Pepper;
Heart Notes: Jasmine, Damask Rose, Dry Plum;
Bottom Notes: Patchouli, Cashmeran, Vanilla, Benzoin, Caramel, Tonka Bean, Ambroxan, Musk.
Head Notes: Bergamot, Rose Liquor, Davana Essence
Heart Notes: Turkish Rose Absolute, Jasmine of Egypt, Patchouli Fraction
Bottom Notes: Oud, Benjoin, Bourbon Vanilla, Virginia Cedarwood, Sandalwood, Incense Absolute.
Head Notes: Bergamot, Orange, Cumin, Pink Pepper
Heart Notes: Cambodian Oud, Saffron, Rum
Bottom Notes: Patchouli, Timbersilk, Vetiver Java, Cedarwood, Cashmeran, Amber, Vanilla, Musk.
Photos from the exhibition by Elena Knezhevich.
Image: Tauerville
Château de Fontainebleau
