If your company is more than 160 years old, like Louis Vuitton, it’s hard to imagine there is anything that hasn’t been done. Yet, that’s exactly what’s happening in 2018 as the luxury house introduces its first fragrances for men. Developed by Louis Vuitton’s master perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, the collection includes five different scents, each inspired by the brand’s history around travel. “I was dreaming about perfumes that a woman would love to smell on a man,” says Belletrud. “I wanted to create a unique personality for our fragrances, with very specific emotions.”
To date, Louis Vuitton has released seven aromas for women, including Le Jour Se Leve, which was introduced in March of this year. For men, Belletrud crafted L’Immensité, a spicy blend of ginger and grapefruit; Nouveau Monde, that mixes leather with cocoa and saffron; musky Orage; the lemon- and cedar-based Sur la Route; and Au Hasard, that combines sandalwood with cardamom. “If we look at fashion for men today, we can notice a lot of colors, flowers and freedom,” says Belletrud of the collection, which took five years to produce. “Nowadays, men dare to wear colorful clothes, they are more disruptive, less classical, but still chic. It is time for men’s perfumes to be in the same mood. Perfumery for men is evolving, just as fashion is.”
“Perfumery for men is evolving, just as fashion is,” says Master Perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud of Louis Vuitton’s debut collection of scents for men, Les Parfums (above).
Belletrud, who also created such iconic scents as Jean Paul Gaultier Classique and Opium Pour Homme by Yves Saint Laurent, began studying fragrance under the tutelage of his father, a perfumer, at age 8. By 18, he created his first formula; he was named Louis Vuitton’s master perfumer in 2012. “Creating a perfume awakens one’s most hidden thoughts, deepest recollections, it questions the most intimate and profound part of our personality,” says Belletrud, whose inspiration for the collection is drawn from his exotic travels and experiences, including sampling Mayan hot chocolate in Guatemala, as well as his home base of Provence. “I start from myself, from my thoughts, then I try to enclose them into a perfume bottle. I believe creating a fragrance is recounting one’s self, but without running.”
Similar to the women’s collection, the men’s fragrances are contained in apothecary-esque bottles that are exquisite in their simplicity. Silver caps differentiate them from the brass-topped scents for women; the engraved LV recalls the symbol that runs throughout the brand’s leather goods. “I want people to have the delight of wearing something exceptional,” says Belletrud of Les Parfums. “You must recognize a Louis Vuitton perfume in the street. Not because it is too powerful, just because it’s good. For me, this is the definition of luxury.”
Photos Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
