Chandler Burr's questionnaires: With a nod to Proust, it’s all about perfumes. Discover the protagonists of the first episode.
Chandler Burr, perfume critic and artistic director of Pitti Fragranze, is the author of a column dedicated to the world of perfumes and its personalities. Exclusively for Pitti Connect, a series of close and lively Q&As with industry professionals, to find out who is behind the most internationally renowned noses and perfumers. In this first episode, Chandler Burr meets the artists of Mane, the French firm and world leader in the creation and production of fragrances. Discover them with us.
1. What quality do you most admire in other people?
Generosity
2. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Transparency
3. What is your greatest strength?
Tenacity
4. What do you dislike most about yourself?
Sometimes I’m hypersensitive
5. What makes you happiest?
My family
6. What is your greatest fear?
Losing the people I love
7. Which living person do you most despise?
Racists
8. What is your greatest extravagance?
At that time, choosing a career based on senses
9. When do you lie?
Since my daughters are still kids, I allow myself to lie to them sometimes just to get out of tricky situations - like when they ask me for a lot of candy
10. Why did you choose to create in the art medium of scent?
Because when I was young my sense of smell was my lens for seeing the world and my way of communicating with others
11. Who are the architect, the musician or group, and the film director whose artistic style and aesthetics most closely resemble yours?
I love dance in all its forms and above all Sylvie Guillem, who has always inspired me with her strong personality and the simplicity of her modern movements
12. Which scent raw material can you not live without?
Cardamom – I love it!
13. Which scent raw material do you never use?
None
14. What is your favorite perfume of your own?
Eau de Cèdre by Giorgio Armani, the perfume of my husband
15. What is your favorite perfume not your own?
It’s hard to choose just one. I love woody-spicy perfumes
16. If you had to choose in another person: bad breath or bad body odor?
Neither
17. Which city or place smells the best?
Provence because it is full of scents like brooms flower, lavender, roses and wild mint in from my parents' garden. Walking in Corsica with its scents of Immortelle and fig leaves
18. What do you most want that you could get if you had enough money?
I’d like to travel around the world
19. What do you most want that money cannot buy?
Recklessness of youth. Being able to see the people I love who are not with me anymore
1 What quality do you most admire in other people?
Positivity — optimistic and gratitude
2 What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Some people are too accommodating
3 What is your greatest strength?
Discipline
4 What do you dislike most about yourself?
I’m too strict with myself
5 What makes you happiest?
Running in the morning
6 What is your greatest fear?
When my daughter, Lily, was small I was always afraid she would get hurt on the playground
7 Which living person do you most despise?
I prefer not to get political here
8 What is your greatest extravagance?
Time. When I’m training for a marathon, I go running for hours. It’s a luxury
9 When do you lie?
Never. You can read too much in my face
10 Why did you choose to create in the art medium of scent?
My first experience was in bottle design, so it was always going to be perfume no matter what
11 Who are the architect, the musician or group, and the film director whose artistic style and aesthetics most closely resemble yours?
Bauhaus minimalists. Nature photography. Clint Eastwood
12 Which scent raw material can you not live without?
Orange flower
13 Which scent raw material do you never use?
Geranium. It reminds me of French gas station toilets
14 What is your favorite perfume of your own?
A Shiso accord for Harry’s men’s body care. I’ve been working on it for 20 years
15 What is your favorite perfume not your own?
Elie Saab, Le Parfum, the original
16 If you had to choose in another person: bad breath or bad body odor?
Both are NO
17 Which city or place smells the best?
The Atlantic’s sea breezes
18 What do you most want that you could get if you had enough money?
Pure freedom
19 What do you most want that money cannot buy?
Transcendence
Ralf Schwieger
Ralf Schwieger, perfumer at Mane New York, studied fragrance chemistry in Berlin, perfumery in Grasse, and works in Paris and New York. He likes to think of perfumery as something almost primary, requiring a highly developed sense of esthetics, yet always playful
1. What quality do you most admire in other people?
Honesty
2. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Confidence
3. What is your greatest strength?
Creativity, technical expertise, humility
4. What do you dislike most about yourself?
My perfectionism
5. What makes you happiest?
My family
6. What is your greatest fear?
The blank page
7. Which living person do you most despise?
People who use force to express themselves
8. What is your greatest extravagance?
Keeping seeds of entada [African dream herb] in my handbag as good luck charms
9. When do you lie?
Never. I basically can’t
10. Why did you choose to create in the art medium of scent?
Because besides being a form of art, perfume carries emotion
11. Who are the architect, the musician or group, and the film director whose artistic style and aesthetics most closely resemble yours?
Almodóvar, for his capacity to touch people through his films; Jean Nouvel for his structured art; Monet, for his creativity and subtlety
12. Which scent raw material can you not live without?
Woody, sensual olfactive notes like Ambramone™
13. Which scent raw material do you never use?
Butyric notes
14. What is your favorite perfume of your own?
Riflesso by Trussardi
15. What is your favorite perfume not your own?
You by Glossier
16. If you had to choose in another person: bad breath or bad body odor?
Neither
17. Which city or place smells the best?
The nature
18. What do you most want that you could get if you had enough money?
To go on a world tour
19. What do you most want that money cannot buy?
Freedom
20. Of all your time at Fragranze, what aspect has most surprised or interested you?
Important subjects discussed at the round tables and the attention to architectural details that underline Pitti Fragranze’s creative and scientific aspects
1. What quality do you most admire in other people?
Humanism
2. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Kindness
3. What is your greatest strength?
Pugnacity
4. What do you dislike most about yourself?
Cynicism from the loss of innocence
5. What makes you happiest?
My family
6. What is your greatest fear?
Losing my children
7. Which living person do you most despise?
Extremists
8. What is your greatest extravagance?
Hope
9. When do you lie?
Never
10. Why did you choose to create in the art medium of scent?
It was very clear to me
11. Who are the architect, the musician or group, and the film director whose artistic style and aesthetics most closely resemble yours?
Gaudi, Muse, Tarantino
12. Which scent raw material can you not live without?
Hedione High Cis
13. Which scent raw material do you never use?
Since I never use it, I don’t know !
14. What is your favorite perfume of your own?
The one my husband wears, Replica - Under The Lemon Tree by Maison Margiela
15. What is your favorite perfume not your own?
The one my mother wears: Dune by Dior
16. If you had to choose in another person: bad breath or bad body odor?
I couldn’t choose; both are terrible.
17. Which city or place smells the best?
My house
18. What do you most want that you could get if you had enough money?
Saving children from poverty, from famine
19. What do you most want that money cannot buy?
Time
