Guy Robert on Theories of Perfume Creation
Guy Robert, the creator of fragrances such as Hermès Calèche, Christian Dior Dioressence and Rochas Monsieur Rochas, during the course of a lecture given in April of 1998 to the British Society of Perfumers brought up a very interesting point about perfume creation. He notes that “our art is so mysterious, most of the perfumers cannot explain the proceedings they use to build a perfume. Our method could be compared to the Art of Cooking, a sort of “rule of thumb” (empiricism), and I agree this is not looking very serious!”
Recognizing the relationship between music and painting, Robert proceeds to offer two theories, even though they have not been defined. First, “for every perfume note there are several levels, like what the musicians call “octaves”.
