Saturday Question: Who In The Perfume World Do You Most Want To Meet

/ australianperfumejunkiescom

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Portia

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Hello Fellow Fumies,

Every Saturday we have a Question, an idea purloined from Olfactoria’s Travels. Everyone gets to chime in with an answer, chat with other responders and it is a fun event each week. Taking sides never means taking offence and everyone keeps it respectful and light, even though we can sometimes trawl the depths.

The idea is you’ll see it on the weekend or chime in through the week. Hopefully you will come back and see if anyone has responded to your comment and you can reply to them.

Over 100 responses I will draw a Scent Sample Pack (from my collection)
This week:

  1. Keiko Mecheri Oliban
  2. Annick Goutal Mandragore
  3. Estes Lauder Bronze Goddess
  4. Atelia Cologne Tobacco Nuit
  5. Serge Lutens Chergui

Last Weeks Winner:

eMail me at (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with the eMail you’d like me to send your Gift Card to.

Saturday Question:

Who In The Perfume World Do You Most Want To Meet

So many interesting and inspiring people in the perfume world. There were more than a fair share of crazy, out there and walked too. So many sparkling personalities, ability packed, over the top and quietly genius. Many of them are names we see again and again who have created the juice, own the company, creatively direct or are marketing arms. The bloggers, most of whom I find delightful. Magazine/newspaper columnists and beauty editors, store or chain owners, bottle designers, big business fragrance houses.

So many people create, work, critique and consume perfume. It’s hard to think of a couple you’d MOST like to meet. Especially now I’ve been around the business for a few years. So many of the really exciting people I’ve been lucky enough to meet, some have even become friends.

My Answer:

One person who I’d really love to meet is Pierre Dinand. The man who has designed some of the most iconic bottles for fragrance the world over. Opium, Eternity, Madame Rochas, Fendi and many others are his design.

Pierre DinandPierre Dinand

From early Art studies in Paris, recruited to the army where he became an archeologist, to his work in a chemical plant where he decided to redesign the packaging for a product about to launch and suddenly he was a designer. Roaches, YSL, Givenchy, Dior and Guerlain we’re suddenly at his door for bottles.

Imagine getting a day to spend in his company? The stories he could tell of design, people, perfume. That would be a day to remember forever.

My Saturday Question to you is:

Who In The Perfume World Do You Most Want To Meet

 

 

104 thoughts on “Saturday Question: Who In The Perfume World Do You Most Want To Meet”

  2. After briefly seeing Jean-Claude Ellena in a book signing event in Paris, I want (and plan) to attend one of the next conferences he’s going to be part of.
    Apart from a great perfume creator, he’s a gracious gentleman, not to mention a gifted author, too.

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    • Despina, I agree with you. J.C. Ellena’s name was the first that came to my mind after I’ve seen this week’s question. He is the creator of most perfumes that I like and I have the feeling that he’s a great personality too. Good to see it confirmed by you.

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  3. Patricia de Nicolaï, but I did meet her once, after an Osmothèque conference!
    I would also want to meet Bertrand Duchaufour, since he has made several perfumes I love.

    I would have liked to meet Bernard Chant and Germaine Cellier. I admire their work.

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  4. I would love to meet a lot of the people I talk to here, on Fragrantica and Australian Fragrance Network.

    If it must be a celebrity however, I would love to meet Edouard Flechier, who created my precious Tendre Poison, or the late Oscar de la Renta, as he seemed like such a gentleman, and he is my favourite clothing designer as well as the name behind one of my great comfort scents, Esprit d’Oscar.

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  5. Hm, difficult question. I think I would like to meet some of my favourite bloggers, namely you, Victoria from Bois de Jasmine and a couple of others. Then we would sniff and discuss perfume in length and have a great fragrant time 😀

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  6. These are great answers, I would also like to meet up with bloggers and perfume junkies, it is so fun to have people to talk perfume with. Does not happen so often in real life.
    I would also like to meet Christi Meshel from House of Matriarch, she is a bit witchypoo and I think we would get on fine!

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  7. Easy: Luca Turin.
    Knowledgeable, witty, passionate about perfume and fun. No sugar. Just “brilliantness”.
    Meeting perfumers and other industry “insiders” has mostly been an anticlimactic experience, so I rather keep the rest wrapped up in mystery. To be looked at from a safe distance is becoming to many. I am generous like that.
    Though I would have so many questions for Thierry Wasser… yeah, maybe for him I would make an exception!

    No draw for me, but this format is a really nice way to spread the perfume love!!!<3

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  9. No draw for me. I’d like to meet the indie perfumers in the US that whose work I have been exploring- Ellen Covet, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz and especially Laurie Erickson, whose body of work entirely suits me. (So sad she’s leaving!). From the wider world there are too many to list – Bertrand Duchaufour, Isabelle Doyen, Sophia Grojsman…

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  11. Ben Gorham from Byredo. Just to look at him because he’s such a hottie! 😉

    But seriously – I’d like to meet Dominique Dubrana, AKA Abdes Salaam Attar, of La Via del Profumo. It’d be like meeting the mystic holy prophet of perfumery.

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    • O M G! That would be amazing. I’ve not met Liz yet either but am dying to.
      Where are you MikasMinion?
      Portia xx

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  13. I’d love to meet Victoria Frolova from Bois de Jasmin. She is an always entertaining writer and has so many different interests. Katie Puckrik is another blogger/vlogger who seems like a hoot!

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    • Katie Puckrik was one of the first perfume people I followed and I met her last year. Made a complete ass of myself, totally fan grilled and then had nothing to say. It was a ghastly communication melt down and we were left staring at each other before I ran away. I can’t remember a time I’ve EVER been so socially awkward and I have a few of those stories.
      Portia x

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      • Portia! Really? I can’t imagine you having awks social interactions 😂 Aren’t you a butterfly?
        Mind you, if I ever ran into you it would be a case of “oh hellooo, great to meet you in the flesh. . . So errr, what’s the story with you. Never say never, I say. If I ever visit Australia again, you’re on my hit list. You have been warned😎

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  14. I’d like to meet Serge Lutens. There is so much mystery that surrounds him, and for similar reason, I’d also like to meet Domininque Dubrana (Abdes Salaam). For sheer fun, it must be you Portia.

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    • Hey Ellen M,
      Serge Lutens might intimidate me. Having been in his Paris store a few times and been completely overwhelmed by the experience, I think he might be much the same.
      Portia x

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  15. Hello APJ’s, such a wonderful question! My fantasy meetup would be with Germaine Cellier, but I’m afraid I might be too star struck to say a word, and it would require a time machine. In real life I need to meet Denyse Beaulieu because she’s utterly fabulous. On another note I tried to wear Chanel no 18 today and it seemed to disappear immediately. Maybe it holds up better in summer. I grabbed my husband’s bottle of TF Tuscan Leather for a reboot. Love from chilly Ohio!

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    • Alanna,
      We probably could natter away a day, or two. Where are you?
      Denyse Beaulieu is fab, utterly wonderful stories and anecdotes. She is a tell all Jackie Collins novel of perfumery and I laugh with her for hours. Such a superstar. You’d LOVE her.
      Portion xx

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  16. Luca Turin came to mind first, but I’d also like to meet a Russian blogger Liubov Berlyanskays who works as a fragrance evaluator for one of the biggest perfume companies in Russia. I admire her sincerity, whether it’s about perfumes or anything else. It could be fun.

    And it’d be really awesome if one day we all could gather for a grand sniffaton 🙂 I know we all live on different continents but a girl can dream 🙂

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    • Hey Diana,
      A blogger who works for the big companies. that would be VERY interesting reading. Does Liubov Berlyanskays
      write in Russian or English?
      Big sniffs are fun. I’ve been a part of a few and they are so entertaining, learned a lot too.
      Portia xx

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      • Hi Portia!

        Sorry about that typo :(! Berlyanskaya writes in Russian, and she does have a beautiful IG account under the name of “unfragranced”.
        What I love most about her, Turin, Victoria aka Bois de jasmin and a few other Russian bloggers is their extensive knowledge of chemistry and the industry itself.

        There are a couple big perfume communities here in Russia, a few times a year some enthusiasts send a bunch of samples, from one member to another until the package ends up right where it started (and after that those who took part in that exchange “divide & conquer” i.e. choose the vials they’d love to keep for their collections). Last year there was a lot of vintage – Guerlain, Caron, Patou, Dana, Schiaparelli, plus some I’ve never even heard of, and some niche perfumes.
        This year it was the turn of vintage Soviet perfumery. I never knew that they used to make such lovely perfumes in Russia what with me being born shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

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  17. I would love to meet Francoise Caron who is one of the best perfumers ever in my opinion. There are lot of creations of her that are some of the best perfumes I have smelled. I am not sure whether she is still active or has retired but if I were to start a perfume brand, she will probably be the first perfumer I would like to collaborate with.

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  18. Since I do mostly naturals, first choice would be Sultan Pasha, then Joseph DeLapp. If I had a chance to, Luca Turin, who is the greatest Nez in my mind.

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  19. I prefer to stay clear off meeting people whose art I enjoy – actors, musicians, artists. Perfumers are the same: I want to enjoy (or criticize) their creations from afar, I do not want to know them as people.

    Who I’d want to meet are people like me – those who wear those perfumes that the talented people with whom I do not want to meet create.

    Portia, if you’re a secret perfumer, I would still want to meet you 😉 (and I do not mind meeting future perfumers – just in case).

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    • So true. Sometimes getting to know the people you’ve previously admired from afar makes you see how shallow or even cruel they are, snd it’s heart-shattering.

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    • Interesting Undina,
      I’ve met some pretty cool people through music friends of mine. They would invite me to parties because I’m clueless about anyone famous really. They’d sit me next to the most famous person in the room and watch me as I found out who they were. You know, I’d be asking questions and chattering away and suddenly I’m sitting next to someone from The Eagles or INXS, a sportsman or any number of super famous people. My friends got a kick out of it and those people usually turned out to be amazingly fun to sit with.
      Having said that. YOU are pretty high ion my Must Meet list. Next time I’m in the USA if you have time we are coming to you.
      Portia xx

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      • I wouldn’t mind meeting people … naturally and discover later that they are “somebody”: I do realize that many perfumers are good and interesting people. But I do not want to meet a perfumer (writer/actor/etc.)

        If I have at least a couple of weeks’ notice, I’ll always make time to meet you, dear Portia. So just whistle! ❤

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  20. There are a few, actually. Sophia Grojsman is first. So many iconic scents which have etched their way into perfume lore. And many are still made 25-30 years later!

    Second is Hannan; aka The Broadwalk. A funky young lass from Singapore who makes fun Youtube videos. She, and Pep, aka The Scentinel, are the only two Youtubers I watch. Occassionally, Peter from Fragranceview, Jeremy and Mr Oz get a viewing too. But Hannan makes perfume enjoyable. We have very different tastes in scent, but it would expand my view on scent to meet her.

    Last is Ellena Vosnaki from Fragrantica. That woman’s mind…! She and Liam Sardea in a room together would be mental fencing!

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    • GREAT choice Kate,
      Ellena Vosnaki is wonderful. I love her stuff. She got really quiet lately.
      Portia xx

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      • Liam, the temptation to bear hug you and tussle your hair cos I adore you is super strong! But I shall restrain myself when in your presence. That reminds me…I need to visit Men’s Biz. Sana wants Tauer soap.

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    • I love Peter….he has talked me out of SO MANY blind buys with his brutal honesty-LOL! And Hannan is adorable…I enjoy watching her videos as well.

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  21. From the fashion world, Yvress St Laurent and Ms Vivienne Westward.
    From the perfumers world Francis Kurkdjian.
    From the perfume bloggers world, YOU dear Portia 💗
    From the sewing world ( as I am a sewer) Kenneth King.

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    • Hey Melissa,
      I’M an easy one. where are you?
      Yes, Francis Kurkdjian would be an interesting man indeed.
      Portia xx

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  23. I would say Francis Kurkdjian, but I already did meet him, at an event at Dallas Nieman Marcus. Lovely man, very patient. And I would love to meet Patricia de Nicolai as well. Or anyone else mentioned above!

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    • So weird Greg,
      We live on the same continent yet have never had a moment. It will happen.
      You’re Melbourne right?
      Portia xx

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  25. No one has mentioned Mr. Fragrance Wheel himself, Michael Edwards. However, apart from him, perhaps a young Jean Paul Guerlain during the creation of his masterpieces…say from Jicky to Samsara. Also Neil Morris

    Do not enter me.

    As an aside ,perhaps, for another Saturday question is to tell where we live?

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  26. I wouldn’t mind meeting Ellena or Roucel, or even Turin. I have had the great good fortune to have met Andy Tauer, Vero Kern, Denyse Beaulieu, Neila Vermeire and YOU, Portia, at the LA Scentsation. 🙂 Such fun!

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    • YAY Hajusuuri,
      Wasn’t that dinner fabulous. ALL the cool kids.
      You will love Lucasz, he’s a big, handsome, sweetheart.
      Portia xx

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    • I don’t understand how it happened that we haven’t met yet!

      But – unless something really unexpected happens – I definitely will be in NY next January (I’d prefer another time but it’ll be a big BD in the family). And you’re welcome to come over practically any time of the year (our climate is much more forgiving than yours 😉 ).

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      • As soon as you change your President I’ll come back to the USA Undina. Until then we are going elsewhere.
        Missing the peeps we love there a lot.
        Portia xx

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  28. I would love to meet Jean-Claude Ellena. “Journal d’un parfumeur” gave a glimpse of his personality. I am sure we would find things to discuss, such as Japanese traditions, art in general and a love for Italian. Plus perfume, obviously!

    I also hope to meet some of my favourite perfume bloggers and online perfume friends. I do think that will happen sooner or later.

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  29. One? Andy Tauer.

    I’d have enjoyed being a fly on the wall watching Lutens and Sheldrake collaborate. (I mean does one even collaborate with Lutens?) I smell so good in their stuff, it’s a dream.

    Mira Takla to talk about her Vallee des Rois and the magic of ancient Egypt.

    And our own Rasei Fort, Dmitri Weber & Teone Reinthal.

    Portia, of course! And any of you here! Come visit and I’ll cook you an amazing Indian meal. xx
    (P. S. This question was as hard as the Serge Lutens one)

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    • OMG!!! I am coming to your house for the food!!!! Indian is my all time favorite!!!! We have an authentic Indian restaurant not too far from our house where they make EVERYTHING fresh from scratch….I love their all you can eat lunch buffets…I can easily devour three full plates…(although you would never know it looking at me)

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  30. I think I would only like to meet perfumers if I was photographing them. Like Undina, I am wary of meeting creators of any art I enjoy, and like Portia’s encounter with La Puckrik, I may have had one or three moments when I couldn’t get past the “gosh, um, wow! you’re [person]! I love your work!” and the dorky silent blushing stage. Because what does that leave them to do but say “er, thanks”?

    Meeting someone in a differing context, something less one-sided, is fine. Either not knowing who they hell they are until mid way into a conversation, or meeting them with a specific reason? I think I could do that. Hence, photographing them. Making portraits can be good for that–also, because I usually use large format cameras, I’ve got something to hide behind if it goes horribly, and I hit a shy patch, or conversation dies.

    Hmm… now that would be quite a cool project.

    (I would, however, love to meet a whole bundle of perfume bloggers.)

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    • Crikey,
      I hear you on all levels. You could interview them while photographing them, it would be a good way to capture their real reactions.
      Portia xx

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      • I hope you realise I am not suggesting that you could ever be dorky, though, right?

        (p.s. If we ever meet, and I hope we do, I hope you will allow me to break out the black and white big camera!)

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  31. I’d like to meet Liz Moores of Papillon Perfumery and Dawn Spencer Hurwitz of DSH Perfumes. Sorry if this is a duplicate comment, my other attempt didn’t go through, maybe because I included their websites?

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  32. I would love to meet you, Portia! And maybe Jean-Claude Ellena and Laurie Erickson, but that sounds a bit less fun and more scary 🙂

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  33. My first thought was J.C. Ellena. I didn’t think further than the “noses” in perfumery but then you mentioned bloggers, columnists, designers…OMG… There are some more I’d love to meet:
    Bruno Fazzolari – because of his art combined with perfumes and his unusual scents,
    Dariush Alavi alias Persolaise – because of his language and style when reviewing perfumes,
    YOU, Portia Turbo – because I consider you a far-away-friend more than just a witty and charming blogger 😉

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  34. I think Olivier Cresp would be a great conversation. So many of his that I truly love–and those that I absolutely abhor.

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  35. That’s a tough one. Christi Meshell, Maria McElroy and Sophia Grojsman would be great to sit down with. As would Alberto Morillas (the nose behind one of my all-time favourite perfumes, Salvador Dali for Women) and Aurelian Guichard because of the beautiful Narciso Rodriguez for Her L’Absolu.

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