Up until last year, the house of Celine had zero perfumes. Soon it will have a whopping 11 thanks to its new artistic/creative/image director Hedi Slimane.
In a new WSJ interview conducted by perfume critic Chandler Burr, we learn that Slimane has been hard at work on Celine’s Haute Parfumerie collection ever since he was onboarded. He’s building his “11 juices” a “mini-temple” (a dedicated perfume shop on rue Saint-Honoré) and everything, and we’ll finally be able to sniff nine of the new scents in late October before sniffing two more in 2020.
It’s notoriously difficult to truly describe what fragrances really smell like, but this interview was actually extremely helpful in painting a vivid, scratch-and-sniff picture.
Here’s some of what you can expect to waft in the upcoming months. The scents will be $220 per 100 milliliters.
1. Saint-Germain-des-Prés
According to Burr, it smells like:
- “A work of impressionism.”
- “The scent of this specific, chic, moneyed Paris neighborhood and the Parisian families who have lived there for generations.”
- Blurred photographs of those families who live there.
2. Reptile
According to Burr, it smells like:
- “The scents of black pepper and crystal meth.”
- “At once edible and thrillingly poisonous.”
- “A guy before us in a python jacket and toting a gun.”
- “An opaque, dangerous-looking, vulnerable-feeling man in liquid form.”
According to Slimane, it smells like:
- “A glittering olfactory kaleidoscope of all the rock stars that I have photographed and dressed for the stage over the past 25 years.”
- “An elegant top note, while immoral and poisonous notes build in, leaving an addictive patina smelling of powder, incense, stardust and glitter.”
3. Cologne Française
According to Burr, it smells like:
- “Shadowed, dappled and warm.”
- “Sweet and soft.”
According to Slimane, it smells like:
- “A trompe l’oeil classicism.”
- “Desire.”
- “A kind of femininity and softness in contradiction with a masculine olfactory structure.”
4. Rimbaud
According to Burr, it smells like:
- “The poet’s [Rimbaud’s] youth.”
According to Slimane, it smells like:
- “The idea of being 17 years old, the realm of possibilities.”
- “Teenage subtle fragility but also the spleen.”
5. Nightclubbing
According to Burr, it smells like:
- “Sharply focused photos of the club at 4 p.m., doors open to air it out a bit; the hot lights are off but the hot metal scent lingers on the leather of the booth seats.”
- He does not recommend this scent “for a hot evening at Sound in L.A.”
According to Slimane, it smells like:
- “Nights I spent growing up as a club kid in Paris from age 15 at Le Palace or Les Bains Douches.”
- “Strictly Parisian, smoky and as decadent as can be.”
6. Black-Tie
According to Slimane, it smells like:
- “A strict interpretation of my style in fashion, a sharp and dark composition, completely androgynous.”
7. Bois Dormant
According to Burr, it smells like:
- “The smoke of burning wood, the fir tree in the winter cold.”
According to Slimane, it smells:
- “Aristocratic.”
- “Like the library of a Parisian hôtel particulier from the 18th century.”
8–9. Dans Paris and Parade
According to Slimane, they smell like:
“A form of purely French neoclassicism.” Especially Parade. He likes to wear that one for day time.
