Classics
When asked perfumer Francis Kurkdjian what, in his opinion, makes a classic perfume, his eyes light up. "I've really worked on an answer for this," he says, revealing to me that he has put a lot of thought into in recent times. And he has decided it comes down to a couple of important things: one, the way in which the scent blends with the skin, as described above, and two, a balance between familiarity and audacity.
"I asked my friend, who is a contemporary art adviser, how she determines what pieces of art will become future classics, and she answered in a simple way that relates to perfume, too. The art has to speak to your subconcious in a familiar way, but it needs to have an innovation. In architecture, the pyramid of the Louvre is timeless and iconic because its shape is easy to understand—a pyramid, like the Pyramids of Giza that everyone has seen. But the innovation is with the glass. A pyramid is where you hide treasure, so it should be closed—but the Louvre is the opposite, it's open. And the Mona Lisa—portraits are normal, but the specialty is in the technique Da Vinci used to blur the lines, which was totally new," he explains. "It's a balance between traditional and audacious. When a new perfume launches, you can determine if it might become a classic with this concept. If you can combine the two things? You are the king of the game."
If you want to get a straight, no-holds-barred answer from anyone in the fragrance world, you go to fragrance editor, Frédéric Malle. "What is a classic? They are easy to recognise. They have character and they have performance. A perfume has to function, last and diffuse. These are very black and white things—a perfume works or it doesn’t," he says.
