The Challenge of Creativity
A lecture given to the Society by Mr. Bernard Chant
on November 11th 1982
I want to thank the Society for giving me this opportunity to share with you some thoughts of my favourite subject...creativity.
I think we perfumers have a real responsibility to help our industry grow by giving the public the fragrances that make new statements, that have good diffusion and that last a long time. Do you know of any other multi-billion dollar business that depends on a handful of people like us for its growth and vitality? We should be very proud of the role we play, but also very conscious of its great responsibility, and our responsibility is to bring forth new ideas constantly, adapting them to the needs and tastes of our varied clients.
As our particular company loyalties prevent us from sharing our latest discoveries, I would like to discuss with you tonight some of the contributions that have been made in the past; to look at some creations that, in my opinion, have made their mark in the history of the fragrance business and have exerted their influence on the rest of the market. By doing this I hope to provoke in your mind some new thoughts that will perhaps lead you to new creations. I would also like to try to put everyone at ease. I am going to take the liberty of mentioning some key ingredients used in these creations. I feel that in the age of chromatography anyone can identify them, so I am not revealing any secrets. I also believe, very strongly, that a chromatographic formula is just a guideline, or a thin skeleton, and never gives you the true smell of the fragrance you are studying.
What do I mean when I speak of a new creation in fragrance? Why are some fragrances true creations and others not? Quite simply put, creations contain new notes, or products, or combinations of notes, or notes used in a brand new way.
Why is creativity so important? While the public does not understand anything we do, they seem to have a natural sense of taste that helps them appreciate what is beautiful. Let's face it, no bad fragrance ever made it to the top. If we don't bring them new ideas on a fairly regular basis, eventually their interest in perfume will wane even though they might not be able to explain why. What we do is part of the fashion world and it must be as up-to-date as the latest clothes. In a new product introduction, the box, the bottle and the perfume must all work together to achieve a certain level of beauty and newness.
I do not pretend to talk about every creation, nor about every fragrance. I will try to mention and explain ingredients used differently for the first time and the reasons for their success. I will illustrate my emphasis on new notes by going back into history and showing you some great perfumes that creatively have brought something new to the industry.
Fragrance has been important since the very dawn of civilization and nowhere more than in ancient Egypt. I have just returned from a cruise down the Nile and am happy to report that if Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tut, I've discovered traces of the first perfumer. Here he is, this nose of the valley of the Kings, already duplicating a flower. You can see several trial bottles in front of him. Please realize that these murals are 4,000 years old. We move next to the temple of Ed Fou where there is a room covered entirely from floor to ceiling with nothing but ancient fragrance formulas. Then we see this farmer who is very happy with the price of jasmin flowers and is giving a wreath of jasmin to his God. Now, we feel that the marketing positions of our fragrances are very sophisticated, but the Egyptians could teach us some tricks. Here you see the back of King Tut's throne with a scene depicting his Queen applying perfume to her husband. Quite an achievement for brand X. Jumping now a few millenia, let's look at the important creative contributions of today in their classic groups:
The Citrus Group - The Splash Colognes: This is a very important group in Europe where some colognes are sold in quart sizes and are used by the whole family as a basic fragrance. Technically speaking, and until recently, they have not brought any revolution to the industry. Some of them are very old and still very successful. They are well-made with a large percentage of citrus. We had to wait until the latest generation to see real sophistication, such as in Eau Sauvage, where maybe for the first time Hedione was used, bringing to the public a very natural note of jasmin that was immediately loved. Created for men, it was also used by women because, in my opinion, of this very natural jasmin note. The influence of Eau Sauvage was felt in the new generation of Eaux like Eau de Rochas, 'O' de Lancome and others.
The very exciting group of Floral Bouquets: There are many great names, but I would like to mention L'Air du Temps, the grandmother of so many successful fragrances. If we smell L'Air du Temps it is really, in 1982, a rather straightforward scent - floral, spicy, woody, very smooth, smelling more or less the same way from beginning to end. So why such a success? In my opinion it comes from the utilization of Benzyl Salicylate. I do not know of any other perfume before L'Air du Temps that contains Benzyl Salicylate in such an amount and, although it seems that many perfumers are strangely anosmic to it, it produces a diffusing, blooming effect very pleasing to the public. Many big successes were created on the same theme, such as Wind Song, Norell, Estee, Charlie... there are too many to mention them all.
The Tuberose Group: White Shoulders and Fracas in the early fifties, now Chloe, Jontue, Candid and many others. All the fragrances using a Tuberose note give to the consumer a scent with tremendous diffusion. In my opinion, no other note can give you as much diffusion as this one. Usually, women cannot smell their own fragrance; when they wear a Tuberose, they can and they receive many compliments. In the age of diffusion, this is a key quality.
The Aldehydic Group: We all have to recognize the genius of the perfumer who first discovered the value of this very difficult smelling group - the Aldehydes - and tomorrow, when you are about to reject a new chemical, think that it could give you something as special as the Aldehydes did years ago. Though Chanel No. 5 is recognized as the first Aldehydic fragrance, created in the mid-twenties, the truth is that the first Aldehydic fragrance was Reve D'Or, or Golden Dream, created in 1905 by Armingeat. Its success was tremendous around the world. This group of chemicals really helped to create a new class of fragrances as modern today as they were seventy-five years ago... from Chanel No. 5 to Arpege to Madame Rochas, with the addition of peach, to Calandre, that modernized the note with the addition of Hedione. What a group of creations!
The Green Fragrances: Vent Vert, created in the early 1950's, was really the first green fragrance. A genius of a perfumer, Germaine Sellier, thirty years before anyone else, considered the influence of nature and sports on our lives. She created a very green scent that is still very unusual today. When the sports fragrance category became fashionable, Alliage, Grey Flannel and Devin came into existence.
Now I move into another great family that I call Chypre: Francois Coty made the first one in the early twenties. He understood how to create a modern fragrance using Patchouli and Oakmoss, this very warm undertone of so many fragrances today. Then Guerlain had the brilliant idea of adding peach to make his Mitsouko, the first of a new generation of fruity fragrances. The peach note gives a natural effect to the perfume. It goes well with the skin and is very sexy. Femme followed that trend and increased the fruity note in such a way that it became the top note.
Other perfumers took this mossy theme again and added aldehydic notes and produced great names such as Crepe de Chine, Aphrodisia, Caleche. Let's not forget Ma Griffe, created just after the war, which is still so modern with Styrallyl Acetate, peach and aldehydes, used in such a way as to give tremendous diffusion. This trend of mossy fragrances still shows many possibilities.
We can now take the same group again and with Styrallyl Acetate and I.B.Q. move to Cabochard or Cachet, that are so sexy and long-lasting. Another creation was Halston with a new woody feeling due to a new chemical, Iso Cyclemone. If you just think of all the great names that I just mentioned, the Chypre group really still gives tremendous possibilities for new creations.
If I mentioned green fragrances earlier, I must also mention Miss Dior as the first modern fragrance to use Galbanum as a top note. With its strong Patchouli and Peach notes, it is still very modern forty years later. Patchouli is used in many fragrances but rarely as the central theme with its sexy and warm notes like those in Aromatics, Coriandre, or Polo for Men.
The next two great classical groups are the Oriental Fragrances such as Shalimar, Youth Dew, Opium, that show such a great balance and unique diffusion of the fresh, floral, sweet and warm notes, and the oriental types with orange flower and spicy notes that we find in L'Heure Bleue, Bal a Versailles, Private Collection, Halston Night and Oscar, also great successes with their warm, diffusive and sexy notes.
It is interesting to note that two of the greatest sellers sit at the two ends of the spectrum. In the L'Air du Temps/Norell family we have Charlie and in the ever-loved oriental area we have Youth Dew, a great classic that recently gave birth to Opium.
A great creation came along just a few years ago. The central theme is an orris note handled, for the first time, as the sexy note of the fragrance Chanel No. 19. I have noticed that the word "sexy" is mentioned maybe too many times and to describe many different types of fragrances. But, to me, this is one of the greatest attributes of a perfume and can mean something different to every consumer.
We should not leave the women's market without mentioning reverse inspiration... when we are inspired by the taste of the public rather than the other way around. I am talking specifically about such trends as Musk. Let's face it, we did not do it. It was the choice of the campus and the young generation. We just followed and developed this trend that is still so widely used. What does this teach us? It is not enough for our inspiration to come only from our training or tradition. We must be ever aware of the changing social and cultural environment. We must pick up important signals and not just send them.
Let me turn now to the Men's Market. The creations for men are not as noteworthy as those for women. We have, so far, dared less. We have controlled our imagination. Men, for a long time, have been afraid to use something too different. They will accept only small departures, small new steps. So the study of the influence of the men's market is more a study of why certain fragrances are successful in spite of the fact that there are few new creations and breakthroughs. I will mention the exceptions as we go along.
Up to the early sixties, men were wearing only fragrances that made them feel safe... Old Spice used familiar spicy notes and nobody could be accused of being feminine. Or Mennen... here you clearly see that men like sweet fragrances for themselves and I will come back to the theme of sweetness. Or Aqua Velva with the theme of a fresh and elegant fougere.
Then a revolution came... Aramis, and the men's market was changed forever. Here was a higher concentration, a strong, sophisticated fragrance with a very unusual top note.
Men have always been fond of green notes, as well. Vent Vert, that I mentioned earlier, has always been widely used by men. This creation led to another very unusual fragrance for men, Grey Flannel, dominated by very strong green leafy violet notes. Then came Devin where the green effect of a pine forest was produced.
I also mentioned earlier that men feel good wearing sweeter fragrances. Brut and all his children are examples of the classic floral fougeres that are very long-lasting with a pleasing sweet musky note. Pierre Cardin is also sweet in the Jicky tradition. Lagerfeld is sweet, but it's also fruity, which is an interesting departure for men. Pour un Homme - lavenders are not popular any more in the United States, but what an elegant fragrance! Copenhagen is fresh and sweet.
Let's now move to another direction... Paco. It's a very successful creation that made its mark with a new clean top note made of fresh-smelling ingredients like Dimetol.
Woody Notes are manish by nature, being the opposite of florals and men feel comfortable wearing them. Vetivert by Guerlain, Arden for men with its rich Sandalwood note, Polo, a unique creation because of its remarkable Patchouli theme, and Z-14 by Halston where woods were combined in a new way with spices.
Musk Fragrances have been adopted by men and women. Everyone likes this soft note that doesn't change character and is so long-lasting.
I do not think I can end this talk on creativity without mentioning functional products such as soaps, shampoos, room sprays and the others where a quiet revolution has taken place.
Smelling Camay or the Luxs around the world we can recognize very sophisticated odours directly influenced by the world of fine fragrances. The same changes can also be smelled in shampoos, room sprays and many other functional products. Ten years ago the goal was only cleanliness whereas today, the public wants to use more sophisticated scents in all their forms.
In my highlights of the men's market, in most cases I could only find fragrances of good quality; really few show great creativity. And yet, some of those fragrances are real commercial successes, so why should we be creative? Why should we be revolutionary when being evolutionary, and copying successful trends, is easier and safer? I really think that we cannot stand still. We must always bring new excitement to the market place if we wish to attract more consumers to buy our fragrances. If we do not rise to this challenge, and if we do not challenge ourselves every day, we will stagnate; our industry will suffer and its growth will slow down.
The challenge is not only for ourselves - perfumers - but also for the chemists who are trying to create new ingredients. If we look at our modern world and look, for example, at the progress which the computer industry has achieved, what have we done? What have the chemists done for us? Not very much lately. But we can be sure that new discoveries will be made again and new methods will open a new era for chemistry. Then chemists working together with the perfumers will find new chemical bodies which will help you create the great perfumes of tomorrow.