Le Parfum de Thérèse
Folks from Berlin are said to be somewhat more open and straight in their statements. When sniffing Le Parfum de Thérèse, composed by Edmond Roudnitska in the middle of the last century, I could not help but remembering a dinner with friends. We cooked and prepared melons with ham as starter. One of the guests, being young and from Berlin dared to speak out. I was amazed.
When I smelled Le Parfum de Thérèse the first time, with helpful comments from a very professional perfumery owner, I was amazed. For me it is a perfume that is like a perfumery palimpsest, partly restored, bridging an epoch with another.
Le Parfum de Thérèse is a masterpiece because it does so with an amazing clarity and straightforwardness and because it dares. This may be your starting ground if you want to take the path towards vintage.
Edmond Roudnitska created a perfume that I find still stands up the test of time, since 50 years now. Lucky us, there is Editions de Parfums, by Frédéric Malle, exposing the fragrance to a wider public after 40 or so years of private use only. (Malle brings us other treasures worth discovering, too)
A leathery accord accompanies the development of the perfume; a leather that is very much on the animalic side, a reference to vintage perfumes where you find civet and castoreum playing with powdery fruity jasmine. Central place is a crystal clear and fresh fruity vegetable line, or is it green fruit line? Never falling into sweet fruity territory like so many pale sugar waters these days, Le Parfum de Thérèse plays with green cucumber and melon like it was not seen before, and like you find rarely these days. It is a perfect construction that has an amazing, very modern transparency.
Never cloying, with a dry line of elegant, soft woods (a dry vetiverol like vetiver, cedar wood) that always stay far away from modern green masculine wood interpretations that are as frequent as they are boring, Le Parfum de Thérèse, may need reapplication after 4 hours. And be just to get a whiff of this marvelous green fruity chord again that is so well done.
Le Parfum de Thérèse was brave for its time, as it entered fruity territory in a new way, yet still referencing to what could be called grand French perfumery of the first half of the last century. Abstract, clean and clear, with a brilliance that is amazing. Edmond Roudnitska was way ahead of his time; he dared to create a clear perfume with a fruity melon heart that is as far away from a modern fruity floral as is Berlin from Zurich.
“Schmeckt wie Alleskleber!” said our young guest from Berlin back then on our dinner table. I wonder what he would say on some perfumes. He would love Le Parfum de Thérèse, for sure.
