After 5 years, almost 4500 articles on this blog and a number of readers that surprises me every morning, I noticed two things at the end of 2010. The number of spam comments increased dramatically and the idea of a conversation is rather Utopian. Several years ago, I imagined that my articles would bring not just feedback, but more knowledge to me in an enthusiastic hope to clarify several things about some perfumes or theoretical aspects. Online or not, it proved to be a dream and the only really engaging conversation is that between me and the perfumes / raw materials. Every day, between 8 AM and 8 PM, I "speak" with a forest of blotters on my table (raw materials, accords, new perfumes, vintage creations, experiments) working on 3-4 projects at the same time, things I've never presented here. Last week I noticed the huge amount of formulae I worked and how improper they are organized in my notebooks. In a similar situation, I hoped that several of my articles would engage a conversation maybe to help me to clarify some aspects of the 8th art or to bring some depth for a further investigation. But, contrary to what I've expected, the answers to my reflections cannot be found by a different person than me. Leaving behind the Utopian web 2.0, I go back now to the first idea of a blog that I see today as a journal / diary as it was used by all intellectuals of the past. Athletics for the grey cells. A diary was personal, secret, not shared. Web 2.0 changed everything adding a touch of "exhibitionism" and sometime the author became a merchandise. But I considered the things in a different way and, in this unscented web garden, I left the seeds for many things hoping to find them in bloom one day. For some vintage perfumes that I described in the past 5 years I hoped to find a sparkle. I hoped that one day somebody knowing more than me about something rare (let's say Mousse de Saxe because I worked on the formula) would find my post and would drop anonymously several words or a mail and the reader coming next year will find something richer in meaning. But this did not happen here and last month I changed my mind when I prepared several posts about this type of curiosities from the past and I did not publish the articles.
One day, when I'll find the perfect place in Paris, I'll hold a fragrance salon, much similar to the artistic salons of the XXth century. It's better to speak about perfumes with blotters under the nose because conceptualization in fragrance is an exercise that very few people are able to do. It is not a work to do between 10 and 12 AM in a company because usually this type of artistic meetings happen when people have a desire to enlarge their horizon and not when they are paid to answer a brief. A blog is like a daily conference on a stadium. True things happen only in small circles unless it is a revolution. A salon in Paris with people I invite because I want to listen and inspire them for new aesthetic horizons is much more exciting and intriguing for me at this moment. We'll see what the future brings.
The idea that perfumers reading online texts would bring some of their knowledge about old creations they know maybe better than I do is simply Utopian now. Virtual space is public space, often too much polluted by the idea of selling something. In the past 5 years I've learnt the most important lesson: if you want to learn the secrets of a great perfume (let's say Pour troubler by Guerlain) there is only one way: smell it for months because there is nobody in the world to help you with an answer, or those with answers are not usually on-line. I still do not know what is inside several Roure products while I'm searching for years for several Dragoco bottles to smell their content.
Maybe the real truth about perfumers today is that very few of them have the time to breathe. Their job is not housed in a dream building. Perfumers are responsible for the multi billion market today but they work in glass boxes. If you want the next Chanel 5 buy a castle for your team, a huge garden to breathe and a music salon for conversation. Without time, space and air there is no creation and our imagination cannot fly.
Maybe the real truth about perfumers today is that very few of them have the time to breathe. Their job is not housed in a dream building. Perfumers are responsible for the multi billion market today but they work in glass boxes. If you want the next Chanel 5 buy a castle for your team, a huge garden to breathe and a music salon for conversation. Without time, space and air there is no creation and our imagination cannot fly.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
