Dries Van Noten par Frédéric Malle is the first entry in a new collection from the Frédéric Malle brand: XXX par Frédéric Malle, in which Mr. Malle promises to “translate the world of people and brands that [he admires] into scents”.1 The Belgian designer Dries Van Noten is up first, and most long time readers could probably guess that I don’t know Dries Van Noten from Adam, but after reading in Wikipedia (where else?) that Mr. Van Noten does not do haute couture because “I’m a little naive but I don’t like the idea of showing things that you don’t sell in a store”, he has already stolen my heart.2
Reportedly, it took 18 months for Malle to translate the Van Noten universe into scent, working with perfumer Bruno Jovanovic:
Then I tried to make Bruno understand the essence of Dries’ world. I spoke about the different themes and recurrent materials that my hero often uses: Indian embroidery, XVIIIth century engravings, or the very graphic and colorful prints that he juxtaposes to create unexpected harmony — just like a perfumer does…
