LUXE TREND 23
TREASURED ROOTS: VETIVER
There's a lot to be said about the development of new technology and its imperative of being multi-sensory from inception. If a new invention does not engage all our senses at once, we have learned to ignore it. Our multi-featured portable devices are the best examples of that practice.
Old technology like radio, activates only 1, or maybe 2, of our senses. What radio does exceedingly well is to activate our imagination; Perfume is a similar technology. If a fragrance has a strong emphasis on one note like bergamot, for example, we instantly imagine not only the ingredient but also a place, a location or a life event. For me, a whiff of Frutti Amari di Sicilia by Bois 1920, transports me to Siena and its Piazza Del Campo, right before the Palio. It is where I bought that fragrance on a hot August day.
This singular ability of perfume to transport the wearer has helped it become a mythical object, enabling it to create a highly desirable, non-tactile luxurious impression.
In a perfumer's palette of notes, vetiver is a primary hue. This root's essential oil in its natural form smells like wet soil after a storm. Wet, dark, deep and mysterious, vetiver has a strong grounding effect, similar to no other ingredient.
When mixed with other components, vetiver adds body to a perfume composition, like heavy ancestral furniture does to a big room.
Vetiver has been used for men's fragrances since the 1960s. Guerlain's famous Vetiver anchored the genre and along with some fougère fragrances, became the olfactory standard of the era. Guerlain's Vetiver is still being produced, after having been reformulated to appeal to younger consumers.
Vetiver has an uncanny ability to communicate old money. A longtime favorite of bankers, lawyers and Ivy League graduates, a perfume with Vetiver signals trust, success, and pedigree. It is camouflage for Privilege.
Some newer grand crus of the Vetiver genre have updated the note, and in some cases, are currently putting it in the hands of a younger audience. The more adventurous of perfumers have recently made Vetiver fragrances that are unisex, though still quite aristocratic. Below are three examples.
Roja Dove's Vetiver seems to be sadly out of production. For the intrepid, there are still some available bottles at high prices. RD's Vetiver was always an expensive fragrance. Mr. Dove always insists on the highest quality ingredients and his fragrances maintain their exclusivity through limited distribution. RD Vetiver is spontaneous, high tech, metallic-tasting like a chilled bottle of Verdicchio.
It opens with bergamot and lemon but these two notes only serve as grand servants announcing a grand master, in this case, Vetiver clothed with labdanum.
The scent's lasting power is superb. The impression it leaves is that of sparkling intelligence, tacit affection, polymathy, curiosity, upward mobility, and excitement. Do you know anyone with those qualities? If so, go out of your way to find RD Vetiver. Gift it to a person whose presence can be felt vibrantly, even when they're not in the room.
Frederic Malle's Vetiver Extraordinaire premiered in 2002. Composed by Dominique Ropion, it is deep, profound, warm, emotional and steady. It is a warm embrace, a calm and reassuring friend, the type who won't take no for an answer. Unlike Roja Dove's experimental tour de force, the Malle Vetiver is peppery and spicy, with a persistent warmth that seldom leaves the space it inhabits. Its aromatic heart hides a pink pepper accord that mellows the scent gradually and persistently.
Vetiver Extraordinaire is ideal or a poet, a scientific authority, a diplomat, or someone who is on a mission to seduce their next soul mate.
Each one of these fragrances will elicit a response. Even more important, each one is individualistic enough to render it an important component in stimulating the creation of new memories.
Vetiver by Commodity is a newer entrant. Composed by Caroline Sabas, it is fruitier and more acidic than the others, younger, and hipper. This Vetiver is stronger on cedarwood and sandalwood, eliminating some of the grounding notes of Vetiver. With its opening notes of Apple and blackberry, it is the impression of landing in the middle of an exotic market, full of fruit, ginger and spices.
This fragrance hovers above the ground, like a virtual drone, with a type of olfactory hum. Like in the Roja Dove Vetiver, the middle notes of jasmine add a faint vintage feeling to the scent and renders the overall impression almost futuristic.
Each one of these fragrances will elicit a response. Even more important, each one is individualistic enough to render it an important component in stimulating the creation of new memories.