L’ EAU PAPIER | DIPTYQUE PARIS
It starts with a blank page. Giving voice to ink, and to ideas. Letting the imagination and the senses chart their course across the paper as your dreams, and the world itself, gradually emerge. This is how things have always begun, for artists all over the world. Including of course Desmond Knox-Leet, Christiane Montadre-Gautrot and Yves Coueslant, the three multidisciplinary creatives who, united in their shared love of beauty, art and drawing, gave the world Diptyque.It is a unique feature of the Maison that fragrances are first discovered through the eyes and through graphic expression, which has always played an active role in the narrative and construction of our perfumes. A white sheet and a black brush-stroke, instigating a creative gesture that unites the nose and the hand. Sense of sight, sense of smell, a flair for imagery, all bound together in a unique process of olfactory creation – a truly synesthetic experience.
And this, needless to say, is also the origin of L’Eau Papier, the new perfume Diptyque has developed in collaboration
with perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin and artist Alix Waline. By virtue of its history, its nature and its name, L’Eau Papier is a tribute to creation – the backbone of the Maison – and to paper, the primary means by which that creation is expressed. Paper triggers the imagination, the sine qua non for the emergence of both drawings and perfumes, and these in turn liberate the imagination of each individual with the stories they prompt and the memories they evoke. The name of this new creation
brings together water and paper, recalling both the history of the Maison and the founding trio’s driving passion for the line and the brush-stroke. It conjures up the diluted ink that permeates the page and calls forth shape – the act performed by every artist composing a drawing and giving free rein to their imagination.
Alix Waline – a French artist trained at the Beaux-Arts de Paris and the Ecole de la Cambre in Brussels – has stayed true to her own style, fashioning a work in delicate black and white, deploying shades and textures in abundance, and elaborating the drawing dot by dot, layer by layer. In a complete contrast to traditional illustrations for Diptyque perfumes, there is no recognizable figure or scenery – rather, an impressionistic, abstract composition in black and white. On the front, the varying intensity of the inking of the motifs and strokes illustrates the many ways of committing your art to paper and maps out a multitude of different nuances and emotions. Each individual is free to interpret the work as they please, devising a story of their own. Here more than ever before, the onlooker creates the artwork and imagination reigns supreme.
Echoing the pointillist seam that captivated KnoxLeet and Coueslant and helped shape the identity and style of Diptyque illustrations, the drawing realized by Waline for the back of the label reflects her vision of the fragrance and its salient characteristics. An ink wash indicates the gentleness and material properties of the paper grain and of white musks. A host of tightly packed strokes signifies the rice steam accord, its delicacy resembling that of rice paper, a time-honoredmedium for drawing. A series of fine furrows for the woody accord – wood being both a symbol of longevity and the primary material for paper. Small, diluted dabs of ink evoke the vibrant mimosa note added for extra sweetness.
The olfactory composition is the product of the vision and imagination of perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin. “Creating a perfume for Diptyque is like writing a book. You have to have a story, an introduction, a structure – the primary materials that echo each other to form a narrative. For L’Eau Papier, I started with one initial ingredient, grain – in particular, sesame, in the form of extract of roasted sesame seeds. This is the surprise element in the fragrance: I chose it to evoke the novel scent of ink and to add a delicate flavor to the scent. I enhanced this by working in musky notes, to heighten the sensual aspect. Then I added floral mimosa notes with gentle, powdery properties, to supplement the gentle note of paper. The uniqueness of the cereal and ink accords, blended with the sweetness of white musks, creates the scent of paper – and this combination is what defines the fragrance. I’ve tried to convey the subtle, sensitive interaction when ink is applied to a sheet of paper through an overdose of musks.”
Just like ink permeating different sheets of paper uniquely, L’Eau Papier will produce different results from one skin to another and over time, thanks to the way the white musks continue developing and unfolding. L’Eau Papier is a flawless portrayal of paper – and a way for each wearer to express their unique individuality.
View the video below and discover the new Diptyque fragrance, L’Eau Papier at ERA APOLLON in Limassol & ERA Mall of Cyprus in Nicosia.
