Atelier Cologne - MorningCalm February 2018

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LA VIE EN ORANGE

French fragrance house Atelier Cologne’s founders are, above all, storytellers. Containing a mix of exotic essential oils, their long-lasting fragrances spin tales of love and joy, introducing us to the expressive language of scent.

It was inevitable: the scent of blood oranges always reminded them of the south of Italy. For Sylvie Ganter and Christophe Cervasel, there’s a vivid story behind all the fragrances they create for Atelier Cologne. The description of their iconic scent Orange Sanguine is presented in narrative form: “Everyone was here, gathered on the terrace for breakfast, and the scent of fresh oranges was diffusing in the yellow heat.” Every one of their 30-plus fragrances is accompanied by a literary paragraph.

Ganter and Cervasel launched Atelier Cologne in part due to a mutual admiration for the original eau de cologne, a centuries-old fragrance that contained citrus essential oils. Since 2009 Atelier Cologne has been recreating the classic airiness of eau de cologne while also providing a scent that’s as long-lasting as eau de parfum. In homage to this history, all of its colognes contain citrus.

At any given time, Ganter and Cervasel have about 20 ideas they’re developing, but only about two new fragrances are released a year. “It’s never easy to say what comes first,” Ganter says. Sometimes it begins from a single ingredient they want to explore — at other times it begins with the challenge of capturing something more ineffable. “It’s also a mood we want to convey,” she says.

These moods are conveyed with the help of two perfumers based in Grasse, France. “We’ve been working and partnering with them since the first day of our company,” says Ganter. Whenever it can, Atelier Cologne uses oils distilled from nature. But a stubborn refusal to use any lab-created scents can be limiting. “There are things that you can’t distill,” Ganter points out. “Like the scent of the sea.” Or take musk, a popular ingredient in perfumes. Natural musk is a material banned in many parts of the world today. Ganter loves Atelier Cologne’s synthetic musk, likening it to a cloud. Bois Blonds, which includes musk as a base note, is like wearing a very old cashmere sweater. Ganter is eloquent at explaining smells in feelings and impressions. Her favorite Parisian smell is fresh rain, which she describes as “green,” and New York smells like radiant sunlight. “It’s funny because, with perfume, we all lack vocabulary. We’re not used to talking about it,” she says. “I find that using images and using the idea of a moment, something that everybody has lived — then it becomes vivid.”

Ganter compares wearing a fragrance to wearing an outfit. Today, she’s wearing Bois Blonds. On an evening out with her husband, she would spritz on Vétiver Fatal — a bold scent. “There’s something bold about love,” she says. “We talk about roses all the time, and that’s great for romantic comedies, but it’s not real life. I find that there’s a rawness in vetiver, an earthiness that feels very real.”

It wasn’t love at first sight for her and Cervasel. They fell in love while working, and when she announced that she dreamed of opening a fragrance house dedicated entirely to cologne, he told her he wanted to join her — and marry her. In a profession that involves plumbing deep into human emotion, maybe it’s no surprise that, for them, business is so personal. No Atelier Cologne scent is bottled and sold unless both Ganter and Cervasel adore it.

Making cologne is an interdisciplinary craft; Cervasel and Ganter’s myriad passions influence their creations. Ganter’s favorite musician is Mozart. “There are no words to describe what I feel when I listen to Mozart,” she says. Maybe there are no words, but she feels confident that he would wear Oolang Infini, a scent for intellectual and artistic souls that contains ingredients like oolong tea and tobacco flowers. Cervasel is interested in psychology, and the scent consultation offered by Atelier Cologne can delve deep into the mind, involving questions about your dreams, hopes and memories. Most of all, the two are inspired by their vast travels, where they encounter new ingredients.

Ganter loves the writer Paul Auster, whose recent novel tells four versions of the protagonist’s life. “He explores themes that I find fascinating — choosing different paths in your life,” she says. This is the path Ganter and Cervasel have chosen together in this version of their lives. It’s hard to imagine a more joyful possibility. The truth is, they include citrus in their fragrances not just for its connection to eau de cologne. It’s exactly what they imagine happiness to smell like. “It’s full of life!” Ganter says.