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Goutal blossomed late, coming to perfume making
after a career as a prizewinning pianist and model. She then met a man,
separated from him, found herself alone with a baby (her daughter
Camille), was diagnosed with breast cancer and married her childhood
sweetheart. She went into the skin cream business with a friend and
instinctively felt they were missing two things, fragrance and
packaging.
"My fingers remembered", she says, harking back to
her experience in her father's confectionery. "I had acquired a great
manual facility thanks to all the chocolate arranging. I had the idea
of presenting the pots of cream like dainty packets of sweets. In
beautiful handwriting we inscribed hundreds of tags to go with the
bags".
Then, in 1977, she met perfumer Henri Sorsana and spent
the next seven years memorising ingredients and honing her talent as an
extraordinary nose. The words were the same: note, harmony, key...I was
back with music again, with that part of myself I had been sadly cut
off from". Her first three fragrances, Folavril, Passion (her own
personal perfume) and Eau d'Hadrien set her apart, and she opened her
first salon on Rue de Bellechasse in Saint Germain. Each fragrance is a
touchstone, a reminder of someone or something important in Goutal's
life. "Like precious bouquets, gathering the rarest and most noble of
natural essences, they are composed as a symphony, note by note, in an
eternal quest for balance, quality and perfect harmony". Her fragrance
following is cult - once you have sampled the fruits of Annick Goutal
you'll be a devotee. The impalpable Eau d'Hadrien is a favourite of
fashion editors, Madonna, The Artist (formerly known as Prince) ...even
the Guerlain family comes to Annick Goutal.
"It is very rare
that a perfume creator can be free, because they are always linked to a
big perfume company", says Goutal. In the age of the corporate perfume
she provides a truly bespoke service. "I have always had complete
freedom... It is like making music by myself". Her scents are like a
silken web of memory. She weaves a wondrous story around each perfume.
"When my daughter Camille was seven, she was up on the terrace feeling
the ivy and saying: "Maman, I want a fragrance like this." So she was
the inspiration for Eau de Camille-honeysuckle and privet tree mingle
with freshly cut grass".
Charlotte, her stepdaughter wanted
something a little less naive. So Goutal drew up upon mimosa and cocoa.
"This makes Eau de Charlotte a bit more gourmand...And for my husband
(cellist Alain Meunier), I created Sables… |
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