"French Leather"  (image MC)

Leather and suede are profoundly sensual perfumery notes, imitating hide and flesh, wrapping our skin in the illusion of another. There are echoes too of older industries, that of the gantier, the glovemaker, whose exquisite butter-soft wares would be soaked in an array of scented oils such as cassie, frangipani, violet, orange blossom and ambergris to mask any remaining stench left over from the malodourous tanning procedures.  These essentially urinous, faecal and deeply animalic techniques are still very much a part of traditional tanneries in places like Morocco where the leather workers stand knee deep in vats of vile smelling liquids in order to work with the tenacious raw hides. It sometimes seems a little ironic that so much care and attention is taken to tenderise, deodorise and sweeten our leather goods and yet so many of us search out skanky, dirty leather notes in our perfumes.

Lou Doillon: Actress, model, singer and  daughter of Jane Birkin and French Film Director Jaques Doillon

For years I have loved only one magnificent French leather scent, Kelly Calèche extrait by Hermès, created by in-house nose and master minimalist Jean-Claude Ellena. This was very recently joined by yet another Ellena scent at Hermès Hermessence, Cuir d’Ange, another wondrous, feather light interpretation of sueded leather with immense charm and heart-breaking delicacy. Both of these fragrances to me are quintessentially French in their discreet yet palpable sense of texture and elegant presence. Both have that elusive inside of a expensive bag scent… a mix of spilt perfume, lipstick, powders, rumpled tissues, paper, sweets, ink and leather. Their innate Frenchness lies in their ability to seduce the senses with a genuinely heartfelt mix of animalic signals fire and aloof immaculate code.

Memo Paris French Leather Cuir Nomades Collection

To this duo I must now add French Leather by Memo Paris, a house that my Editor in Chief and I are very passionate about and whose fragrances decorate my skin with luscious difference. This is the third volet in the Cuirs Nomades series, exploring leather in perhaps more physical ways, following the Memo olfactory doctrine of examining the world through scent. The Memo motto is: The Journey is the Destination and this concept of intense emotional and geographical examination is carried out by house co-founder Clara Molloy and her olfactory partner Aliénor Massenet of IFF who has created all of the Memo fragrances. The two women have created a unique travel album of scented snapshots: Manoa, Siwa, Jannat, Paris’s Quartier Latin, Lalibela, Luxor, Grenada to name a few. There is a signature, a creamy underpinning of vanillic luxury, licked by tonka and liatrix. This runs through many of the fragrances like a beautiful genetic code.

Clara Molloy Creative Director of Memo Paris

The first Cuirs Nomades was Irish Leather, an aromatic love letter to Clara’s Irish husband John, an equine homage to worn saddlery and the wild Irish countryside. The second was the sumptuous Italian Leather which floods an ecstatic leather note with a trembling dose of tonka-laced vanilla and a very eerie tomato-leaf facet. Now Memo has added French Leather, which is very different in style, less visceral and carnal but equally as compelling.

Anna Mouglalis image by TSF

There is a lovely piece of text from the Press Release which describes French Leather on Memo’s archetypal Parisienne as ‘a heroine’s modesty..a second skin..a private journal.’ This is pretty accurate actually; there is privacy and hushed modesty in the journey of French Leather from its striking lime essence and baies roses top down through the timeless insouciant rose to the malleable and chic suede accord in the musky soft-lit base. The fresh bite of juniper is a gentle addition early on with clary sage and cedar adding touches of green to a closely guarded rose. There are echoes of Kelly Calèche, it’s hard to avoid comparisons, both fragrances have that whiff of vintage scent stained handbag leather. But whereas the KC has the edgy tang of the Barenia calf extract and seems a little obscene, French Leather is much softer, more dreamy and cautious. More wearable truth be told.

Paris is the city of light and love, romance and clichés, sighs and casual elegance. French Leather feels defiantly urban, a scent of street and metro, worn with casual intent by ladies and gents wanting to leave traces of fine-grained desire as they move through the air.

  Disclosure: I received a press sample of French Leather from Memo Paris

–The Silver Fox, Sr Editor and Editor of The Silver Fox

Thanks to Memo Paris and Clara Malloy we have a carded sample of French Leather to a reader in the USA, Canada or Eu. To be eligible please leave a comment with what you enjoyed about TSF review, your favorite Memo Paris Perfume and where you live by November 23, 2014.

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