About a month ago, a mysterious perfume blotter without any name but a glorious floral scent arrived in my mailbox. It was a secret invitation to an unusual event that took place last Friday in Paris. Francis Kurkdjian enchanted the audience with the celebration of 10 years of luxury at "Le Grand Palais" the famous monument built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition where he created last year a symphony of scents.
Maison Francis Kurkdjian, is still a young and bright star in the galaxy of perfumes, but the perfumer started the creation of exclusive scents in 2001, composing perfumes for the Opera, Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres, Versailles Museum and also several parfums sur mesure, which made him famous all around the world. For this event, Francis Kurkdjian invited all his collaborators from the luxury industry, masters of French craftsmanship, expressed now through his works and future scent projects.
In early May, "Le Grand Palais" is surrounded by the blooming mock orange (seringat) with its white intoxicating scent during the evening. Inside the building, the perfumer imagined a white space with white elements where the bottles where glittering like champagne in an air rich with a sophisticated floral perfume blooming near the 120 white porcelain roses created by La Manufacture de Sèvres.
In the center of La Rotonde de la Reine, I was delighted to see a mirror anamorphosis with column where Francis Kurkdjian's name and the interpretation of the famous engraving "Habit de Parfumeur" by Nicolas de Larmessin were appearing on a curved mirror (see also my old article about anamorphosis and the 8th Art). One of the most unusual design element brought by Francis Kurkdjian was a big fan, a masterpiece of patience and delicacy, created from at least 100 paper blotters by Sylvain Le Guen and scented with an amazing perfume. The idea is highly ingenious because it offers an unusual 3D experience of the perfume, similar to the engineering of scent under a linden tree.
For this special anniversary, Francis Kurkdjian created an impressive opulent floral fragrance, a limited edition with 20 crystal bottles of pure perfume (200 ml) created by Cristallerie Saint Louis. 10 are decorated with gold and 10 are decorated with platinum and they are sold for 5500 EUR while the 200 ml perfume extract costs 1100 EUR (a very good price given the quantity of pure perfume). The white leather boxes have mirrors and secret drawers with a hidden solar nanolight to cast the unusual quality of the Saint Louis crystal.
During the evening, other 2 special perfumes (for Monte Carlo and Trianon) were presented on the new ebony desk (cabinet de curiosités) created sur mesure for the new Francis Kurkdjian boutique by Nicolas Basile.
Another amazing luxury creation was "Le Mètre parfumeur", a tape measure created from a white silk ribbon and highly scented with perfume, an exquisite floral aldehydic jasmine-orris creation to die for, still embalming my desk one week after the exclusive event.
Francis Kurkdjian is creating perfumes for major brands and his own house, but one thing is clear after that evening: in his drawers, the perfumer hides several great surprises and great creations with an impeccable taste. There is one which brings the unusual tea - maté note in an opulent floral context with the precise dose between classicism and a very modern aesthetic.
Here you have some photos I took at the event.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
