Collection: Paul Guerlain

The quest for the perfect accord, in duality, tension or harmony.

Paul appears that morning on the terrace of a Paris café, as the city awakens to a new life. He wears a leather jacket, his fragrance is a subtle blend of vetiver and orange blossom and, with his old-fashioned gentlemanly manners, he recalls Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Joseph Kessel and Romain Gary. It is a fleeting but, paradoxically, persistent thought.

He comes from a long line of perfumers, the Guerlains, who have become a household name. Not only in France, but all over the world, his name is synonymous with the absolute pinnacle of French perfumery. For him it has never been a burden or a relief, it is simply his story, his memories, who he is as a person. He tells me about his first trip with his grandfather. He was 5 years old when they travelled together to Mayotte to visit the vanilla, clove and kaffir lime plantations. He wandered around the house, smelling the distillations in progress.