The fragrance industry has always been a silent but powerful backbone of the luxury world. Not everyone may buy an expensive accessory but almost everybody loves a luxe perfume — it is the simplest way to wear a designer label, head to toe. And not many can rival the easy elegance of Chopard, especially today when the brand combines its experience in luxury with sustainability. They may not yet offer refillable perfume schemes (like Lancôme, Mugler or Guerlain), but their newest haute parfumerie collection, The Garden of The Kings, with four masculine fragrances, is proof of changing times.
- Chopard also focusses on the more obvious aspects of sustainability, such as the glass and paper they use. “The flacon not only looks luxurious but we insist on a lean design, so that it minimises wastage during production,” says Stella. Most of their paper is FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified and they ensure all their suppliers are compliant with sustainability. “In our next collection, we will use GMO-free alcohol and biodegradable cellophane,” he adds.
Green state of mind
For Chopard, the ‘Journey’ to sustainable luxury began in 2013 at the Cannes Film Festival, with the launch of the first Green Carpet Collection, where the jewellery and watches were crafted with 100% fairmined gold. Since then, they have focussed on responsible sourcing of raw materials. For their new fragrance collection — with oud assafi, the most precious variant of the fragrant resinous wood used in perfumes — the team travelled to the Sylhet region in Bangladesh to visit the Jalali Agarwood family “that has been in the business of producing oud for seven generations,” explains Patrizio Stella, CEO of Chopard Parfums. “If we say that we take care of the full chain of production, then we have to go there to see what is happening,” he adds.
Not only does the Jalali family have a legacy of producing the best-quality oud, but they also preserve the ecosystem. They use an environmentally-responsible approach to extract the essence and have acquired many forests that grow Aquilaria Agallocha (oud) trees, to fight against deforestation (they plant five trees to replace one infected tree that is cut down). The family is also partnered with Swiss fragrance company Firmenich’s ‘Naturals Together’ programme, from which Chopard sources their ingredients. “Firmenich has identified 20 sites all over the world with outstanding quality of natural ingredients produced in a sustainable manner, such as cardamom in Guatemala or vetiver in Haiti,” says Stella.
- Not only are sustainable choices the right way to go, but it also resonates with Chopard’s younger generation of customers who are more conscious of their purchasing choices. As Stella shared with news channel, CNA, “They are the ones who understand what is happening in the world… and ask what is going to happen tomorrow. Because of this, they are careful to understand how what they use will preserve the world for the future.”
The inspiration
In terms of fragrance, the real story of The Garden of The Kings is about oud and “its relevance in different cultures and times” — an olfactive journey across India, the Far East, the Middle East and South America. Keeping that in mind, there are four variants: the Agar Royal, a tribute to the maharajahs (a heady blend of oud with jasmine sambac, tuberose, sandalwood and nagarmotha); the airy Aigle Impérial, an ode to the imperial gardens of the Far East (with notes such as mandarin, lemon, citron, green tea, ginger and patchouli); the Nuit Des Rois, inspired by the magnificence of Arabia (a perfect evening perfume with oud, Bulgarian rose, saffron, honey and Orris root); and Or De Calambac, reflecting the colours and energy of Latin America. Here master perfumer Alberto Morillas has combined rich oud with the playfulness of gourmet notes such as cocoa, vanilla and tonka beans, with vetiver and gaiac wood.
“We want to recreate a maison de parfums — people with true expertise in the fragrance industry,” says Stella. “In order to do that we wanted to be identified as masters of oud and rose, the two ingredients of modern perfumery.” They began developing an expertise in rose with 2018’s Garden of Paradise collection, and now with oud. But do perfumes need a gender? “When the quality is high, gender doesn’t matter; there are so many women who are intrigued by the strength of this new collection,” he says. “The job of fragrances is to give you joy and remind you of the beautiful memories. And joy is neither male nor female.”
