Rebel with a cause
If you want to rewrite the fragrance rule book, look to legendary perfumer Christine Nagel and her surprising first scent for Hermès.
There’s a woman in your life. You probably haven’t met her, but she’s been there for most of your important milestones: first kiss, first date, graduation, wedding. Chances are if you charted your fragrance history, Christine Nagel’s exceptional nose would have had some influence. As the perfumer behind some of the most iconic fragrances of the past 20 years (Giorgio Armani Sì, Narciso Rodriguez for Her and Jo Malone Peony & Blush Suede, to name but a few) she has continued to influence the field of fragrance, not by following trends but by creating them. Which was why the beauty industry and fragrance fan clubs alike waited with bated breath for Galop d’Hermès, her first solo instalment since joining the storied French house in 2013. With the assumption she would take the reins from Hermès’s long-standing perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, 69, when he retired earlier this year, Nagel (one of only six in-house perfumers globally) was granted unrivalled freedom. It’s a rare luxury in the world of luxury: no brief, no budget, no deadline. “I have time; in this case if I’m not ready then the perfume doesn’t exist,” she says, almost dumbfounded by the fortunate position she’s found herself in. “I am very free. I don’t have any limitation of [cost], but I’m not crazy. If I need a flower from India, from Australia, it is all possible if olfactively it is important.” Nagel’s first port of call for inspiration was the Hermès archives: a vault in Paris that houses many years’ worth of Hermès leathers, fashion and accessories. “When I arrived at Hermès all the doors opened for me, all the universe opened for me,” Nagel says. “And the first department, the first discovery was the Comptoir de creation. It’s the secret place in Paris but it’s very difficult to go; you need a card, a name, a password. It’s a top-secret place.” With autonomy came unexpected surprises, not in the ingredients but in Nagel’s interpretation. The scent’s hero is leather, boisterous and full-bodied, made all the more powerful by saffron, used to “give more character, more colour”. The genius comes into play with the use of Turkish rose (not a rare ingredient by any stretch) but it purposefully rounds out the leather while simultaneously elevating it. The two are opposites but good bedfellows. They dance in unison, at once understated and attention-grabbing while being utterly modern and feminine.
It seems, at least where Hermès is concerned, the modern interpretation of feminine isn’t with sickly sweet florals or wafty candied notes. Despite the heady leather accords, Galop d’Hermès isn’t overtly masculine or even within the realm of the androgynous “borrowed from the boys” mood the fragrance world has been flirting with for the past few years. As Nagel points out, to assume the modern woman can be pigeonholed with her fragrance is to underestimate her. “The femininity is with character. When you see a woman wearing an Hermès dress it’s so chic, so elegant. She is a woman with complexity,” says Nagel, who, sitting there in a vibrant lemon Hermès dress accessorised with statement jewels and bold-rimmed glasses, could be describing herself. “For me this isn’t a sugary perfume, it’s not a sweet perfume; it’s a perfume with a signature.”
It’s every perfumer’s holy grail, in the saturated and ambiguous world of fragrance, to create a juice with a point of view, one that’s disruptive and rebellious for all the right reasons. Which made Nagel’s self-imposed brief, to create something that speaks to the Hermès woman, all the more difficult. “The Hermès woman has a lot of independence and character,” Nagel says. “When you go into the Hermès shop and you touch the fabrics, it’s incredible, because the choice of raw materials is so elegant and elegance is very important.”
For a perfumer to be so precisely in tune with what women (and men) ultimately want to smell like, while being directional, says a lot about Nagel’s craft. She thinks in textures and colour, not smell. That is, until she indulges in her guilty pleasure. “When I’m walking on the street and I pass someone who I think is wearing one of my perfumes, it’s special for me. Normally, I pass her or him and then I turn around. I see their face and I am proud. He or she doesn’t know that their skin is a part of me. It’s special.” Perhaps you don’t know Nagel, but she might know you.
“AT HERMÈS ALL THE DOORS OPENED FOR ME, ALL THE UNIVERSE OPENED FOR ME”