MANIFESTO FOR APERFUME (R)-EVOLUTION
I want to explore olfactory worlds that no one has ever thought of.
Over the past 25 years, I have worked as a perfumer at IFF, Givaudan, and Takasago, houses associated with the era of industrial perfumery. I am proud of the work I did there, but I have always had a foothold in the world of alternative perfumes, having a visceral need for freedom of artistic expression. Now that I am outside of the industrial perfumery system, I want to invest in projects that are part of this new era of more embodied, authentic fragrance design.
Why?
Because I have seen the limits of a system that prioritizes consumer testing and marketing, all of which override the olfactory message.
When I was a perfumer at the heart of the industrial system, I began to feel like I was a part of a machine that created formulas robots could eventually make.
I also sometimes wonder about artificial intelligence and its impact on the perfumery of tomorrow: How can you feel real emotion through perfumes that are the analytical results of algorithms full of targeted data? Will the perfumes of the future simply be accommodating or will they still be able to provoke new emotions?
I would like to return to an artisanal style of perfume design and manufacturing, where resources are invested in people, expertise, and creation and not primarily in marketing proposals. Images and marketing can be powerful, but they must be put in the service of the perfumer’s artistic creation.
I envision perfume as artistic expression. What distinguishes a luxury fragrance is not only beautiful packaging and dazzling marketing, but also the quality of its ingredients, its originality, and the time it takes to design it. Time is the ultimate ingredient of luxury.
-Antoine Lie