Frédéric Malle, Master Perfumer

Creating fragrances through collaboration and strict attention to detail, the perfumer is building a brand as layered and intriguing as his own personal influences.

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Frédéric Malle

Frédéric Malle

CreditTina Barney

“It’s about friendships and sharing taste,” Frédéric Malle says of his fragrance house, Editions de Parfums, for which he has been commissioning top noses and artists to translate ideas and interests into scents for the last 14 years. Modeling his business on a publishing imprint, he refers to himself as an “editor of perfumes.” His latest endeavor — building one-off boutiques around the world — is similarly collaborative. “I’m calling on the best architects and designers in various cities to create stores according to their whims and my desire.” First up was the New York location at 94 Greenwich Avenue with the architect Steven Holl, to be followed in the spring by the transformation of a London landmark building in Mayfair. The origins of this new project, and indeed Malle’s entire perspective on perfumery, can be traced to growing up in Paris, where he was raised on good design and great fragrances. Malle’s grandfather founded Parfums Christian Dior, and his childhood apartment once belonged to Jean-Paul Guerlain (“The walls smelled of Vol de Nuit,” he says). But while he comes from the Old World, his tastes also run modern and eclectic — finding inspiration in everything from Donald Judd’s Minimalist installations in Marfa to a boxy Braun hair dryer from his youth. “Because of the way they looked,” Malle says, “these objects made me dream.”

SOURCE:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/t-magazine/frederic-malle-perfume-editions-de-parfums-profile-in-style.html