Artist Jeanne Briand's vessel (installation, really, so consider whether you have room: I've cut off part of the image so it will fit) for Guerlain holds a new variation on Mitsouko, Mitsouko Absolu 17.
On the bottle: "Part fragrance bottle, part objet d’art, Mitsouko Absolu 17’s bottle’s shape evokes a teardrop, crystallized as it touches the body, reminiscent of a drop of perfume as it touches the skin. As striking by day as it is spectacular by night, when the black glass turns a phosphorescent blue, the bottle gives shape to the art of the invisible that is perfumery."
And the juice: "An Absolu de Parfum exclusively composed for this limited edition standing as a luminous reinterpretation of the original: Mitsouko Absolu 17 (the artist's lucky number). Guerlain's Perfumers offer up a radical, absolutely contemporary vision of history’s first fruity chypre. An overdose of bergamot is made more sparkling still by glittering pink pepper. The peach note that characterizes the original turns to apricot. Rounded, carnal, it is wrapped in rose absolute and an iris accord. To accent the composition’s tension, the perfumers have undergirded this heart of fruit and flowers with a very “vintage” base of oak moss, vetiver, and leather."
And the presentation: "As a tribute to the Japonism that inspired Mitsouko, the installation that showcases Jeanne Briand’s bottle draws its inspiration from a Japanese garden. The piece nestles against a black branch that could be modeled after one of Hokusai’s woodblock prints, with black, gold, and silver leaves echoing the olfactory tones of Mitsouko. Two flat glass pebbles and another fluid-shaped pebble reflect the bottle’s movement."
Bonus, you get "regular" Mitsouko Eau de Parfum in a Baccarat bottle, and the whole shebang comes in a "bespoke jeweler’s box covered in black leather".
8 pieces were made. The price is rumored to be €12,000. It came out in October so I'm my usual late and possibly it's sold out.
Below, a quick video spot, followed by Jeanne Briand, Thierry Wasser and Delphine Jelk discussing the project.
(via guerlain, additional information via ohlalamag.net, luxsure.fr)
I’m sure this is just sour grapes but 1) I actually find the art piece quite ugly and 2) it’s mean and spiteful of them to say, “Our perfumers have worked very hard on this extraordinary new version of something you love BUT YOU’LL NEVER GET TO TRY IT nyah nyah nyah.” Almost any other art form can be and is widely shared, but to create artificial scarcity by making only 8 of something that you have to possess to experience….
Eh. Whatever. I’m happy with the Mitsouko I have. They can keep theirs.
I find the branches with leaves gorgeous. It is not clear to me (did not investigate either) if she made those or if Guerlain had them done elsewhere. I don’t really care either way about the rest of it, but have meaning to post on this since it came out in October so there’s another thing crossed off my procrastination list, ha…
(Obviously I am not a big Mitsouko fan, and am also not a big fan of luxury projects — and watching the perfume industry for 15 odd years has made me even less of a fan than I was. I try to keep my mouth shut, sometimes anyway, but I find stuff like this intensely unappealing. But devil’s advocate: LOTS of art forms are not widely shared. There are paintings you and I will never see, just to name one example, and pieces of jewelry and architecture and other forms of design.)
Yes, but you can see photographs and reproductions of the paintings and jewellery and buildings and so forth. The *only* way to experience a scent is actually come in physical contact with it, and it’s almost unique as an art form in that respect. (If cooking is an art form, then it’s true of that, too.) Obviously if an artist makes a piece and sells it to a buyer who hides it away, then nobody else gets to experience it: but they don’t generally advertise that fact. In this case, Guerlain is bragging about the existence of a thing that it will not be possible for almost anyone to ever experience in any capacity — and not just some random object (“We made yet another perfume, imagine that”), but an apparently exalted version of a well-known and storied scent.
To me it is a matter of degree: perfume is a luxury product out of the reach of many, and not all perfumes are easily or affordably sampled. This is just more-over-the-top so.
Will say that you have more faith in the “exalted version” than I do!
That bottle looks like it would put up a fight if you tried to use it. I like the idea of functional art but not at the risk of an eye.
You know it’s just the little black thing she’s holding in her hand on the front of the 2nd video, right? More likely I’d drop it and the whole thing would be over 😉
I do think of perfume as a commercial product, so I can find it annoying when the message is, “”We have made it, but you can’t buy it”. Le Labo is a culprit, for instance. A $200 perfume in a $2000 bottle is plain silly, being myself more on the content, versus presentation, side of things.
BTW, has NST ever had a craziest-pricing post? Might be amusing…
We have not had that, but when we used to do an 8 part Xmas list every year, there was usually a luxury post. This would not be the top, I don’t think — it’s not even the most expensive from Guerlain, or the first time this was the only way to get a scent from them (see 2016 and 2015 below).
https://freebox.it.com/2017/12/20/holiday-fragrance-gifts-2017-part-8/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
https://freebox.it.com/2016/12/16/holiday-fragrance-gifts-2016-part-8/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
https://freebox.it.com/2015/12/15/holiday-fragrance-gifts-2015-part-8/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Okay, so the new version of Mitsouko is rose and patchouli? Hmm. I didn’t like how on the second video, when all the people where speaking French, and the subtitles were in English, half of each sentence fell against the dark background and could be read, and half if each sentence was invisible in my browser, anyway, against the light background. Trying too hard to make it be mysterious and precious? Just really poor design? I own more Guerlain bottles, than those of any other house, but really? Maybe I am just hungry. LOL.
Well in my opinion this whole piece of art of a vessel looks a hell of a lot better in the dark than it looks in a light background.
I think this is gorgeous.