The untold story of a best-selling perfumer

What’s your favorite scent? Chances are, Francis Kurkdjian created it. He is the nose and the creator behind many well-known best-selling fragrances. His creations include John Paul Gaultier Le Male, Narciso Rodriguez For Him and For Her, Lanvin Rumeur, Dior Eau Noire, Guerlain Rose Barbare, Yves Saint Laurent Opium and Kouros, F by Ferragamo, Acqua di Parma Iris Nobile, Elizabeth Arden Green Tea, Giorgio Armani Mania for Men and many other acclaimed fragrances. Yet no one knows his name.

“When I met Francis 12 years ago, I was so surprised to learn he had created all those scents,” recalls Marc Chaya, CEO and founder of Maison Francis Kurkdjian, house of award-winning perfumer Francis Kurkdjian. Founded in 2009, Maison Francis Kurkdjian is a boutique luxury fragrance house that carries the name of one of the most celebrated perfumers of our time.

Only a year after it was founded, they opened their first store in Asia with Eman Pineda at Adora, Greenbelt 5 Makati — even before Hong Kong, Seoul and Japan. The luxury brand initially didn’t want to enter the Philippine market, but when they saw Adora, they instantly wanted to open in Manila.

“The Francis Kurkdjian name, to the fragrance industry, is equivalent to any famous artist in the field of painting. Or you pick up any fashion designer, really playing in the field of Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent and Dior,” explains Chaya. “Except that perfumery is the only form of creativity and art where the perfumer was hidden behind the curtains. Now it has changed.” Marc Chaya tells us why.

PHILIPPINE STAR: Tell me more about Francis Kurkdjian. It’s been a while since a perfumer’s name was on the bottle.

MARC CHAYA: It’s the first time since 200 years that a famous perfumer, one of the most celebrated perfumers of his time, has founded his fragrance house. Before that it was Guerlain — that was two centuries ago. It was our vision to launch a star perfumer, a talent to express himself and to bring back perfumery to where it was in the past at the level of arts and craftsmanship.

How has the fragrance industry evolved?

It has evolved from a perfumer being an artist, being his own talent and having his house to a stage to where perfumers are working for the sake of fashion houses and fashion brands and they are hidden behind the curtains. 

Our aim with Francis was to reestablish the fact that perfume is a form of art. Perfumers are artists. That’s the only form of art that with time has disappeared for the sake of a wider industry and for global commerce.

Francis won an award of sorts in the perfume world, the equivalent to winning an Oscar. When he was 23, freshly graduated from his perfume school ISIPCA (International Perfumery School — the only professional perfumery school), he created Le Male for John Paul Gaultier. He was a trainee in a fragrance house and he met Chantal Roos, a giant in the fragrance industry. He was walking in the doorway and she asked, “What are you doing here?” He said, “I’m just a trainee.” “Oh, I’m Chantal Roos.” “Of course I know who you are.” But he was very intimidated. And she said, “I’m here to introduce our new project, why don’t you give it a shot? Of course as a trainee, you’re not part of the brief. But if you want to work on it, in two weeks show me what you’ve got.”

Of course she forgot everything about him, but in the meanwhile he worked on it. Two weeks after, he ran into her again and he reminded her that she asked him to do his homework. She took five minutes and was just astonished. He gave her what became John Paul Gaultier Le Male. And it became the best-selling men’s fragrance, even now, 17 years after.

A year after, he did Green Tea for Elizabeth Arden which became the bestselling fragrance in the US for more than four years. But the time he got to the age of 30, he had worked with all the designers, all the fashion houses. He worked with Hedi Slimane at Dior, he worked with Saint Laurent, Guerlain; he worked with everyone. You name it, everyone. When he was 30, he was awarded the Prix Francois Coty in 2001 for this entire career. At the age of 31, he was the first perfumer to create his own bespoke fragrance atelier. And ever since, all the industry followed his steps. He was a visionaire. Now everyone has this bespoke (fragrance) offering, even Guerlain and Hermes. He was always a step ahead and he always had a vision of his craftsmanship and his art that no other perfumer had in this industry.

It’s the first time since 200 years that a famous perfumer — Francis Kurkdjian —one of the most celebrated perfumers of his time, has founded his fragrance house.

Best three words to describe Francis Kurkdjian.

Humble, genius and curious. Very curious about others.

Aqua Universalis is one of the first scents Francis Kurkdjian created for his fragrance house. Every fragrance tells a story — what is Aqua Universalis’ story?

It tells a beautiful story about freshness, softness, sensuality. It’s the ultimate sense of freshness. He had freshness in his mind when he created this and freshness goes for both genders. It’s a universal water and freshness has this universal attitude. I don’t think a man wants to feel more fresh than a woman would.

They say each person reacts to a fragrance differently because of the chemistry with the skin.

That’s not really true. It’s true but it’s a minority of people that react in a different way to fragrance. You would say, a majority of people, say 95 percent, would react the same. But you would still have those five percent who react in a different way due to the chemistry of their skin and this is something you cannot do anything about.

Would you say that is one of the biggest misconceptions about fragrance?

It’s not a misconception. It’s about chemistry. It’s the only form of art that enters your skin and that mixes magically with your skin. So either you have a skin that loves you to be a good canvas for that experience or, unfortunately, you would have a skin that doesn’t go with this particular fragrance. Some people cannot wear fragrance because it turns sour on their skin. The trick here is to wear it on your clothing or on your hair. So that way it (the scent) doesn’t change.

So you can tell when a man or woman passes by that he/she is wearing the fragrance of your brand?

Of my brand, yes, of course. But if you think of fragrance, you can tell the personality of people. It’s the only form of accessory that gives away a part of yourself, of your personality. That’s the chemistry and magic of perfume.

Perfumed candles, incense, scented bracelets, detergent — what inspired Francis Kurkdjian to create all these? Is there a story behind each one?

Our core collection are the fragrances themselves but he also wanted to interpret scent in a modern way. When I want to enter my bed sheets, or imagine I don’t wear cologne, and I don’t feel like wearing cologne — you can wash your clothing with this Aqua Universalis fresh scent. You open your (washing) machine and you feel like you’re on a cloud. Or you use your towels and they’re so fresh and so citrusy. It’s a very nice modern way to interpret the fragrance. (As for) bracelets, in the past perfumers used to scent leather for gloves. This is what we used to call them — perfumer and leather glove makers. But today no one really wears gloves.

So you mean perfumers before were first trained by scenting leather gloves?

They used to work with leather makers because leather was worked in horse urine. So you can imagine the scent, no one can wear it. So they had to work with perfumers to rescent the leather so that people could wear it. This is why they used to be called master’s perfumer and leather glove makers. A modern way to look at it is to create a fashion accessory that you would wear on your wrist that would be scented with a plain silver magnetic clasp that is made by a jewelry house in Paris. So the Maison Francis Kurkdjian has a very classical and a modern way to look at fragrances — very classical because it goes at the roots of perfumery in the 17th century but very modern because it was born in the 21st century.

Do you have a personal favorite from the collection?

I’m not into love affairs. I’m more a one-night stand person. So I like to cheat on the fragrances and I would like to wear a different scent every other day and one that goes with what I’m wearing or the way I feel or the weather.

When choosing a fragrance, they always say to spray it on and leave it for a while to see if you have good chemistry with the fragrance.

With your personality! Chemistry is the right match between your personality, your emotions and the fragrance.

So it’s not with the skin?

No, no. It’s the chemistry between your personality and your emotions and the given scent. It’s a relationship between yourself and the fragrance.

How important is fragrance to one’s wardrobe? What is the impact of good scent to a person’s everyday life?

Fragrance is part of my life. Sometimes I feel like not wearing fragrances, but very often when I don’t wear fragrance, I feel naked. 

It’s part of your accessory. It’s either a love story and you wear the same scent everyday and it becomes your signature scent and people can identify this scent with you. Or you can be more into changing scents, the way you have different shoes, different bags and different outfits. You can pick a different fragrance for your mood and mixing it with how you’re feeling, what you’re wearing, and where you’re going.

Are there trends for fragrances just the same way there are trends in fashion?  

Do you know what is the woman’s best-selling scent today? It’s No. 5 from Chanel. Do you know when it was created? Eighty-five years ago. And do you know, during those 85 years, which was consistently the number one scent for women? Chanel No. 5. So can we say there’s a trend? We try to get trends but I think there are no trends. There are new scents that come to us. There are new essential oils that are embraced by perfumers so that the palette of perfumery is enriched over time. From time to time, you have a scent, and you don’t know why people embrace it. And it continues over time. Au Savage from Christian Dior was built in 1945. It’s still in the top 5.

Is there a scent Francis wishes he created?

This is a question that maybe you should ask him.

I’m sure the brand has many celebrity users. Can you name some of them?

A lot of celebrities have embraced our brand. We don’t have pay celebrities. Celebrities, they love to feel that they are intimate. A lot of them come to our stores. We have Catherine Deneuve; Kylie Minogue is a recurrent customer; Elton John is another of our customers. More and more celebrities are embracing the brand. I think the brand is becoming really a momentum for the people who love the exclusivity of it. And the fact it’s the first time they can access real talent that is expressing them in total freedom and that is very unique.

Elizabeth Taylor, Celine Dion, J.Lo, Sarah Jessica Parker, Paris Hilton, David Beckham, Victoria Beckham, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, Usher, Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne, even TV show character Hannah Montana. What are your thoughts on celebrities who lend their name to fragrances?

I think you need that. And I don’t have any criticism for that. I respect that. I think wider market brands need to be identified with celebrities because that would take you to their counter. But would that make you buy the fragrance? That’s a very interesting story. Have you ever bought a fragrance just because you saw an ad? No. You buy a fragrance usually it’s either because you went by, you smelled someone, you loved the scent and then you want to have it. Or because someone gave you a blotter and then you tried it on your skin and then you buy it. You never buy a fragrance because you are into a celebrity. However I think in advertising, it can guide you to a store for you to experience a fragrance. 

I think it’s important for wider brands because they have 800 launches a year. So it’s a real jungle out there. Whereas we don’t sit in that field. We sit in the field of exclusivity, of uniqueness. We only have 150 doors globally, and we’re a boutique luxury fragrance house. So in all cases, we cannot supply millions of customers. We use the best and most exclusive essential oils. One of our fragrances, Aqua Universalis Forte, has bespoke bergamot that is grown exclusively for Maison Francis Kurkdjian. So there are a limited number of bottles that we can produce each year. So we’re really not into that field. We’re really in the field of creativity and craftsmanship.

With the right fragrance, a man or woman can be sexy without undressing. Which among your fragrances makes a man or woman sexy?

You see, that’s a very interesting question because I think defining what sexy is is very personal. Sometimes you can feel that this guy or this girl is so sexy and your boyfriend or girlfriend would think exactly the contrary. Why do you think he’s sexy? It could be a look in his eyes, his eyelashes, the way he’s dressed. I think it’s part of the aura of a person and the aura you cannot touch it. And perfume is part of your aura. The more your fragrance is in harmony with your personality, the more it’s going to go with your natural sex appeal. It’s not going to add to it, it’s going to intensify it. However, you cannot just wear a fragrance and become sexy. It’s not like the ad where someone sprays it on and gets all the girls — that is fiction.

Different places remind us of different scents. How does Manila “smell” like? What memory does Manila leave you with?

Manila leaves me with the memory of warmth, of being caressed by the sun, of being at ease. I also think people here are very friendly. I think my life here is more or less easy going. So I think of the sun and I think of brightness. When I’m in Manila, I’m into fresher scents.

What about every time you visit Adora — what memory does it leave you with?

I’m happy every time I visit Adora. As I always say, my business takes me to incredible places and I can meet incredible people. And the first time I met the founder of Adora, Mr. Eman Pineda, I was impressed by his talent and by the sharpness of his choice. Sometimes people say to us, “Oh, what are you doing in the Philippines?” and I say, “Hello! Wake up to the world. Go there and check, it’s one of the most beautiful stores in our network.”

What message does Maison Francis Kurjdjian want to convey?

It wants to convey elegance, sophistication, authenticity, and respect of art and craftsmanship. It is a house of fragrance but it is also a house of art.