Exclusive: Maison Francis Kurkdjian wants you to wear perfume like a feeling, not a trend
There is such a recognizable fragrance, it has become a cultural stenography. Red Baccarat 540 floats in airports and weddings, on influencers and foreigners, on people who swear that they have found something that smells like that.
“It was not supposed to be by design,” explains Marc Chaya, co-founder and CEO Francis Kurkdjian, on the virality of perfume. “It was limited to 250 bottles, hosted in an artisanal and craft crystal bottle to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Crystal Company Baccarat. Creativity has no other program than to come back to life for what does not exist. ”
Baccarat Rouge 540 is now located in the center of the brand’s olfactory wardrobe. Francis Kurkdjian, the perfumer and co-founder, describes him as “a contemporary perfume by his name and his perfume, almost avant-garde, something that would push the baccarat in the future … A perfume that is masterfully opulent and hypnotic, but not authoritarian.” But the house is not built on a bestseller. And it is not motivated by marketing cycles. “We focused on the United States, then Europe, and of course now we are developing in Asia,” says Chaya. “It took us about 17 years to be present in around 800 doors. When you talk about the scale in the world of perfumes, it can easily go to 10,000, 20,000 doors. ”
This slowness is intentional. “The scale for us is a matter of time,” he continues. “And we can go towards the scale as long as we can preserve freedom of creativity and the power of creativity, quality, as well as the customer journey.”
Kurkdjian resists the idea that perfumery concerns novelty. “It is supposed to evoke beautiful beautiful emotions and transmit seduction, pleasure, glamor and positive attitude … The perfume is supposed to be pleasant and please. It is supposed to express intimacy.”
The intimacy to which it refers is autobiographical. “I am a storyteller. I use perfumes to express what I feel. So for me, the perfume is first of all a feeling, an emotion or a story … I digest emotion around me and I return them with my own feelings. ”
This philosophy of perfume as an emotional extension – not ornament – guides the way the brand speaks to its carriers. Kurkdjian does not believe to lock people in a single signature. “I am against the dictate of” signing scent “saying that we should stick to a perfume over the years,” he said. “So I created a multitude of creations intended for all the facets of our personality.”
