The garden
"As a perfume designer for Hermès, in 2004 I designed the first "Jardin" (Garden) fragrance for a collection that I very much hoped would have a future. With Un Jardin en Méditerranée, Un Jardin sur le Nil, Un Jardin après la Mousson, Un Jardin sur le Toit, and recently Le Jardin de Monsieur Li, I have sought to express the ties that bind nature and culture, in perfume form. For all gardens seem to represent, at the very least, a form of thought from a particular country and time. The Jardin du Parfumeur at Chaumont-sur-Loire strives to show the differences between scents and fragrances. Scents are creations of nature, while fragrances are creations of the mind. By creating fragrances in the form of perfume, we take Nature, and we add to it." Jean-Claude Ellena
DESIGNER
Jean-Claude ELLENA, perfumer
FRANCE
Jean-Claude Ellena was born in Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes département) in 1947. Harking from a family of perfume makers, he was immersed in the profession from a very young age, and it was therefore only natural for him to become one too. His brother Bernard Ellena (who works for Symrise today) and daughter Céline have followed in the same footsteps. In contact with different matter from childhood, his training has been entirely self-taught and he nowadays lives completely through fragrance. He loves to seize the everyday, volatile moment and has developed a clear, transparent and simple style out of it. His "touch" is often compared to a style of Japanese poetry: haiku. Jean-Claude Ellena created some of the finest fragrances of our day – First by Van Cleef & Arpels, Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert by Bulgari and Déclaration by Cartier – before going on to found his own brand with his daughter (The Different Company) and to join Hermes as in-house perfumer, creating Terre d'Hermès, which is still a big hit with consumers today. He is credited with having conjured up innovative blends, particularly in Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert by Bulgari, as well as in Bois Farine by L'Artisan Parfumeur. Since 2004, he has been Hermès' in-house perfumer, creating the Hermessences, Un Jardin sur le Nil, Elixir des Merveilles, Terre d’Hermès, Kelly Calèche and Un Jardin après la Mousson.
