Années Folles: How a Time Machine Works

by: Serguey Borisov

History-based perfumes, by their appearance, pierce tiny holes in the impenetrable veil of time, giving us a glimpse into the past. Interestingly, what part of history might we glimpse through them? Would we see a true or invented history?

Vintage bottles let us smell the past, as old photographs show it – a history turned yellow and brown, torn and scratched. New bottles made upon historical themes, promise the new development of old once popular themes and show history embellished, like those white and black retouched photos with the cheeks and lips gently colored by pink paint.

Vintage bottles with ancient perfumes are ambassadors from the past, like older women who still wear the gowns of their 20s on the streets of today. Newer perfumes on ancient themes are our peers, relatively young fans of alternate histories, dressing in steampunk style.

In both cases, “the perfumes of the past” try to stand out and make a splash in a fragrant stream of new products. After all, sooner or later, in a stream of aroma-diversity a new crystallization point should appear, which will be the start of something great! At least, so it was with the aldehydic Chanel №5; so it was with a chypre family and Chypre Coty; and so was the case with ozonic New West for Her by Aramis and the gourmand Angel Mugler.

The small perfume house of La Parfumerie Moderne hopes to catch something important and forgotten in the ocean of the past and to bring it onto the shores of the 21st century. Last year, La Parfumerie Moderne undertook its fourth attempt after releasing the charming lilac fragrance Desarmant, a solid leather perfume Cuir X, and a modern rose-patchouli fragrance No Sport. For the fourth time, the net took away from the past a warm lavender-amber fragrance named Années Folles (Crazy Years). The scent is cozy and warm, homey, as if it came from a parallel reality in which there were neither The Great Depression, nor the Second World War. In that reality there was no turbulence in the history of fragrance – all German and Italian perfume brands are alive and well, François Coty and Ernest Daltroff did not emigrate from France to the United States.

Thus, gradually, from Mouchoir de Monsieur Guerlain and Pour Un Homme de Caron, classical ideas such as Années Folles were born - a lavender perfume with an emphasized oriental amber base (tonka, benzoin and patchouli) with warm musk, reminiscent of a fur stole. And then, due to natural evolutionary methods, new descendants appeared out of the Années Folles – the immortal Eau Noire Christian Dior, and sunny and fresh Sunshine Amouage. There is the warm animalic sillage even in the rich fruity floral chypre of Parfums MDCI named Chypre Palatin, it`s hidden under all the chypre evolutions.

I was trying to understand why the warm, homelike and hearty Années Folles was named so inappropriately? I have not seen or heard anything roaring, mad, erratic, irrational or momentary in the perfume! No tantrums, no laughing, no Charleston, no rushing or alcoholic parties. What the?

Then I tried to imagine the perfume and suddenly I heard a soft voice of Années Folles and saw her eyes. The voice was female. She said, “Come hither, I do not bite”. She laughed softly and hoarsely, and her eyes were heavily blackened with kohl like a silent movie actress. She was obviously trying to pose as an exotic queen of the silent historical drama: whether the Egyptian Cleopatra, the Queen of Sheba, or Indian Mumtaz Mahal. She does not dance or move. Basically, she smiled and said nothing. Her weapon was her silent look. She just did not look anywhere but at me. That’s her way to approach and seduce.

And that was the last piece of the Années Folles puzzle. The perfume is about a pair. The start is a calm and reasonable man in a suit and volatile lavender cologne. The sillage is a silent movie actress in her sleeveless evening dress and fur stoles and never-to-be-forgotten oriental amber perfume. And they went into the night together, a conservative traditionalist man and a woman of sweet mystery.

Années Folles La Parfumerie Moderne Top notes: French lavender, French thyme, Nutmeg; Heart notes: French lavender absolute, Geranium, Vetiver; Base note: French lavender absolute, Tonka bean absolute, Benzoin and Patchouli.

ANNÉES FOLLES BY LA PARFUMERIE MODERNE (2015)

I was very eager to try this new creation byLa Parfumerie Moderne, which is nearly the only new French niche act (of, say, the last 2-3 years) I personally consider worthy consideration and praise. And I surely appreciate the fact it took nearly two years for them to come up with a single new offering – in a time when niche brands launch a whole line once, sometimes even twice a year, that’s a true mirage. And well... once I sampled this, my expectations were decidedly exceeded. You can skip my boring detailed review and just trust me: Années Folles is absolutely great, probably the best offering by this brand, and in my opinion, one of the best works by Corticchiato. Années Folles surprised me for several reasons in fact, the first of which in chronological order being its breathtakingly rich opening. The fragrance starts with a truly sumptuous, yet actually rather simple structure of lavender (bold, deep, balsamic and “skanky” double-distilled lavender absolue) blended in a dusty-herbal frame of Mediterranean herbs and spices (thyme, nutmeg) and paired with a very clever and delightfully harmonic core of geranium and vetiver, which is quite subtle at first, but the drydown will do it justice. A veritable triumph of lavender (I think this was missing in Corticchiato’s portfolio?) and woody herbs supported by a gentle cascade of dusty resinous notes of tonka, patchouli and myrrh, vith a vague aftertaste of dry vanilla. 

So basically Années Folles opens as a creative, remarkably well-executed mix of a breezy Mediterranean green-woody cologne, a formal, dusty old-school French “barbershop” lavender-based fougère, and a tangy, warm Oriental spicy-ambery-resinous blend. Floral, herbal and resinous, melting together a classic French inspiration (powdery, soapy, at the same time kind of dirty traditional fougère notes) with a whiff of Mediterranean rawness following Corticchiato’s fondness for herbs and green notes, brilliantly warmed by a touch of Oriental aromatic and dusty spiciness (blending with the French part to echo a sort of “Guerlinade”). All in the most genuine quality, almost an “artisanal” quality of materials, but with a rather mannered appearance – a sort of sophisticated, distinguished, kind of melancholic look in which the “rawness” and the depth of lavender and of the Mediterranean and Oriental inspirations are elegantly tamed down, as if the center and the perspective of the fragrance still remain rooted in a certain French sense of discreet, slightly decadent “chic”. Mediterranean and Parisian at once, so to speak, all filtered in faded, dusty sepia tones. 

The evolution brilliantly unravels the vetiver heart, with a transition towards a powdery and smoky drydown tinged with masculine nuances of geranium and darker spices, and still a sharp hint of thyme. Some of the initial lavender-herbal “raw” greenness slowly fades away, bringing in a warmer, sort of talc-like and slightly sweet feel, reaching a (rather close to skin – maybe a tad too much for many) final drydown based on a very simple, delightfully cozy whiff of spicy-floral vetiver dusted with fine talc. Lavender remains as a “fil rouge” throughout the scent, with a shimmering transition from a bolder initial phase, to an ethereal, discreet powdery-soapy presence on the drydown.

So, to cut it short, Années Folles smells fairly “old school” on one side (a French digest ranging from Guerlain’s Mouchoir de Monsieur to Pierre Cardin pour Monsieur), and very modern on the other – the “modern” factor being an extremely fascinating weightless texture, which smells as much rich as crisp and somehow very breezy and almost thin, with a dark shade, or better say a “mist” feel. French, Mediterranean and Oriental inspirations are very effortlessly blended together in a sophisticated, natural, discreet blend with a very neat composition and a fantastic refined presence on skin. For some reasons this fragrance smells quite different from any other work by Corticchiato, both for the materials used (there’s a more massive natural feel here for me) and for the way its is composed and how it behaves on skin. I think this it is at once the most “old school” scent by him (except maybe for Musc Tonkin) and the most creative one, and it seems he really tried to use at best the natural behaviour of the materials with no “synthetic help” and no formal patterns – rather combining some of them. I really enjoy this fragrance, as it smells rich and fulfilling yet very approachable and actually simple to enjoy, extremely sophisticated but very cozy and versatile. As regards of the projection, Années Folles won’t be a bold “compliment getter” bomb as it soon sits rather close to skin, but that’s how most of elegant and quality scents perform. But well, I don’t want to start sounding servile or suspiciously enthusiastic, so... Just support the last good niche we have, don’t miss this.

8,5/10