Joan of Arc, In Her Own Words

"Each scent should be considered like a painting, a sculpture or a beautiful short story.”

-MASTER PERFUMER, CHRISTOPHE LAUDAMIEL

I felt like the Joan of Arc of scent as I entered the Setai, NYC. It was a bright sunny day when I pushed through the revolving doors, and my daydream armor instantly dissolved into a veil, as my body was confronted, changed, comforted, and inspired by……. air, scented air, scented air that seemed to cut through the space. Beautiful wet rose petals falling against sandalwood dreams, I’d been working hard all day to get outside myself, and in one moment I was transformed.

If there is anyone who challenges us to think about scent and how it can transcend our current state, tap our aspirations, and re-think our everyday world, it is Christophe Laudamiel.

Sign from Phantosmia-all but the smell

As I pushed the same revolving door at the Setai, I was also transported back to the Dillon Gallery in NYC where I caught and wrote about Christophe Laudamiel’s powerful show, Phantosmia-all but the smell, early in 2012. He created a series of scent sculptures that were housed inside tents, each of his different scent stories spoke to the beauty and grandeur, the brute fearlessness and sometimes, the fear and tenderness involved in creating and experiencing scent. His work has stayed on my mind and I think of him affectionately as the defiant one, the defiant master perfumer. One night when I was surfing the world-wide-web, I came across a thought provoking blog interview with Laudamiel and architect/blogger Hugo Oliveira. Laudamiel was asked a series of questions comparing architecture to perfumery; he specifically talked about perfumery as a three dimensional medium that can change the way we feel about a place in time for better or worse. I gather that Christophe Laudamiel wants to wake us up to the power of scent through his company DreamAir where he creates his brand Air Sculptures® for public, retail, hotel, clubs, and private spaces. His intention with AirSculpture® is to ensure that making scent for a space is just as rigorous as making fragrance for the skin; he added that in some ways you can be more intricate when making a scent for a space because people can manage an ambient scent more easily than fragrance on the skin.

Setai NYC Lobby

First Impressions: Daytime Alone

Inside the Setai it was quiet, and the hotel and its eager staff seemed to be waking up from a peaceful nap. Not only does the entrance, lobby and bar area on the ground floor, just plain smell good. This space and its scent speak to expanse, possibility, and comfort that one would one would want from a hotel, and for life.

Abstraction White Rose by Georgia O'Keefe (1927)

The AirSculpture® scents were made especially for the hotel. The first is the aforementioned entrance lobby and bar; the second is in the hallway entrance to the Auriga Spa, and the third is in the Aqua Lounge, a masterful scent of pine and green which is housed inside the Auriga.  

My little impromptu trek to the Setai was turning into an orchestrated self-guided tour as I was told to feel free to check-out the space. I entered the fourth floor spa, and was immediately hit with an invigorating and complex citrus scent. As I approached the welcome desk Jason introduced himself, and it seemed, as if he were waiting for me. Jason should win an award for most knowledgeable and deeply interested person in AirScupture®. He immediately told me to look up and he pointed to vents on the ceiling, he said this is where the scent is coming from, he continued, “they refill the liquid about 2x a week, and it’s done at night, behind the scenes”, so in the morning it is imperceptible to guests—gosh he even knew the closets in the guest rooms were playing the same scent that is in the lobby. I noticed that right before I would get a hit of an incredible scent, I would feel a burst of air. Jason quickly told me that these are “air walls” air walls are a kind of fancy fan that pushes down a stream of air that blocks two smells from mixing, which further supports Laudamiel’s scent sculptures; p.s. the scents are not in treatment rooms, so as not to interfere with therapeutic treatments. The Aqua Lounge scent was completely masterful with its green and pine notes, fully equipped with a hammam, experiential showers, sauna, salts, and clay, fruit and drinks, for $50 anyone who wants to can book a day there, Jason suggests, going in the morning do what you have to do in the city and then come back in the evening. It is co-ed, fyi. BTW, there is a fourth scent in the bar area of Ai Fiori restaurant on the hotel’s second floor, and as hard as I tried I never could smell anything but food on the second floor, and no one working there knew anything about it; Jason quickly told me that the restaurant has the ability to turn the scent on and off. Thanks for clarifying Jason.

 

Bergamotto Cocktail

Second Impression: Nighttime with Friend and Perfumer Eleanor Jane of Tallulah Jane

Eleanor Jane, the Perfumer behind Tallulah Jane, and I went directly to the Ai Fiori bar and since there was no scent playing, we went with the most aromatic drink we could find. The Bergamatto,  to be precise its ingredients are, gin, freshly squeezed bergamot, (Ai Fiori gets them while in-season, squeezes and freezes the juice), Lillet Blanc, Yellow Chartreuse, and a dash of Cream Yvette and grapefruit bitters, topped with a colorful edible pansy. OMG, get me another, we couldn’t smell AirSculpture® on the 2nd floor, but we certainly didn’t care.

Eleanor Jane of Tallulah Jane

We settled downstairs in the lounge, Eleanor’s nose began to get a strong ozonic note coming from the lobby and lounge area… and yes, I started to smell that too, the way that happens when you smell something with someone. I held strong to my rose sandalwood connection, but then I remembered the roses I smelled were wet. Eleanor’s nose caught that. As I began to feel the heaviness of the molecules surrounding me, Eleanor began a riff, talking about fully charged molecules at night, smells of the photocopier, the electrons when the machine blows the air to dry the paper, and what about just before a storm or when someone comes in from the rain, she continued, high voltage ozone in the clouds, lightning and ozone, the electric smell of ozone.

On the way back home in the taxi, I thought about many things, the difference in scale of scenting an entire space compared to scenting the skin, and all the work that this involves. I thought about the perfumer I know through his work only, and the perfumer, who I know as a friend, and as I sat an anointed myself with her latest gorgeous fragrance Aiyana, notes of Rose de Mai, Geranium, Ambrette, and Tonka, a fragrant warmth surrounded me, and as I inhaled the daydreamer in me didn’t want to make sense of anything, just breathe, smell and remember the big and small, the intimacy and the vastness of it all.

–Valerie Vitale of Soliflore Notes, Monthly Contributor