How would you advise someone choosing a scent for their wedding? Well, you are not getting married to the scent, but I think it’s important to share your choice with the person you love, unless you really trust that you share the same taste. The fragrance you choose should be something you are comfortable with, that makes you feel secure in your charm, your beauty and your seductiveness.
In 1798, 24 year old perfumer Pierre-François Lubin founded The House of Lubin, which would create fragrances worn by the Empress Josephine, Marie-Therese (Marie-Antoinette’s only surviving child) and Alexander I of Russia. The house survived for almost two centuries but after World War 2, as fashion designers began to develop perfumes as an offshoot of their couture businesses, supported by costly ad campaigns and tied to trend cycles, the “pure players” of perfumery began to disappear. By the 1980s, The House of Lubin was all but forgotten.
But in 2004, it was revived by Gilles Thevenin, an ardent perfume admirer who’d worked at Guerlain for many years, and had discovered the lapsed brand while at Rochas, a French fragrance company that, like the House of Lubin, had been acquired by Wella. As well as devising innovative originals, Lubin has since reissued some of its most evocative vintage scents, including Gin Fizz, a 1955 fragrance Grace Kelly is rumoured to have been wearing when Prince Rainier proposed, and, most recently, Kismet, an opulent perfume with layers of bergamot, citrus, rose and vanilla, originally launched in 1921.
How does Kismet fit into Lubin’s history? It was Lubin’s first major creation of the “Roaring Twenties”, a decade when artistic creation bloomed, not only in painting, sculpture, music and literature, but also in industrial design and architecture. It was really the beginning of modernity, when aesthetics became a central part of social life, not just for the most powerful to show off, but for everyone. It was commissioned by Kismet, an Indian princess who was a socialite in Parisian high society, and the original bottle was shaped like an elephant — an allusion to Valmiki’s Ramayana, an Ancient Indian epic poem.
The House of Lubin was then already more than 120 years old, and considered a very conservative, aristocratic supplier. No one expected the “old lady of French perfumery” to produce anything so outstanding. Theodd thing is that Kismet turned out to be an imposter, a secret agent sent to spy for the Ottoman Empire. I was told this story by a family that has held shares in Lubin for five generations.
How has French perfume changed since Lubin began? Only a handful of companies are still independent, with the will to promote individual and original scents using ingredients available in limited quantities. It’s difficult and costly to maintain high quality production and sell worldwide. But it’s possible. We meet the requirements of a small fringe of connoisseurs who love refined perfumery.
Do vintage scents need to be lightened up or simplified for modern consumers? Perfumes of old were sometimes heavy, sometimes light and fresh. When relaunching fragrances from the 50s and 60s, the main problem is sanitary regulations and replacing ingredients that cannot be used anymore because of environmental issues.
Do you feel a great reverence for historic formulations, or an urge to push on and create new perfumes? Perfume is not a serious matter, but it has to be made seriously, with great care and respect for those who will wear it. My duty is to take care of the heritage, to make sure that the great creations of the past, invented by people who disappeared long ago, should survive, and please new generations of clients. But only some of the old creations, the most interesting ones, deserve to survive. An ancient brand cannot live off its past.
Kismet & Lubin Fragrance Available at WORLD