If Hermès Fragrances were a library, The Hermessences by in house perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena would be on the poetry shelf, as they ‘read’ like fragrant Haikus.  So how apropos that M. Ellena was inspired by novelist Jean Giono, a man whose work has been by his side for thirty years and which was instrumental in the creation of Cuir d’Ange, the twelfth fragrance in the Hermessence collection which was introduced in 2004. Cuir d’Ange reveals the most intimate aspect of Jean-Claude Ellena’s imagination. It demonstrates his relationship with to Giono as both are emotionally attached to their native Provence, its smells and landscapes. It all started with an extract from Jean le Bleu, Giono’s autobiographical novel in which the narrator describes his father’s cobbler’s workshop: “I remember my father’s workshop. I cannot walk past a cobbler’s shop without thinking my father is still alive, somewhere beyond this world, sitting at a last with his blue apron, his awl, his stretching pliers and his burnisher, busy making shoes in angel leather for some god with a thousand feet…”

Working leather, initiating its metamorphosis from raw  to softness and elegance,  has been part of The House of Hermès' DNA since its founding in 1837 as a harness shop. How to capture it has been elusive, “Two words, two smells: the smell of angels, the smell of leather, and already the name of a perfume. It would take me ten years to write it as a poem",  M. Ellena explains,"My words are smells, and ten years is nothing when you want to change the way we usually see things, or I should say smell things.” The first notes of Cuir d’Ange resonate, limpid and clear, like the first lines of a poem, and they endure bewitchingly. Leather comes to the fore, silky, delicate, and transformed.  To enhance the complexity is simplicity… a harmony of natural facets of nuances, of leathers that ask only to be caressed. At the first contact comes the suppleness of sandy pink Swift calfskin, paying homage to leather in its most natural state. This resonates with the soft tone used to clothe the stopper and the outside of the saddle-stitched case. Then pale greige goatskin appears, hidden on the inside of the case, a subtle refined detail that appears to have been polished by a craftsman’s deft hands. Lastly, luminous beige with tones of cognac colours the bottle and tints the fragrance with flashes of amber.

Available in September at Hermès Boutiques worldwide

Via Hermès Paris

–Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief