Vent Vert de Balmain: Germaine Cellier’s Voyage à Paris

Photo for Vogue Paris Horst P. Horst©

Ah, what a charming thing it is

To abandon a dreary place

For Paris!

Darling Paris

Which, one day – Love simply had to create!

Ah, to abandon a dreary place.

What a charming thing!” ~ Guillaume Apollinaire, 1880-1918, my translation

Apollinaire evokes the very essence of original Vent Vert de Balmain: vehemently verdant, breezy, playful in a sophisticated, original melodic manner. To call Vent Vert a Green Wind is short shrift. It rings hollow in both ear and nostril. Glorious iconoclast Germaine Cellier, La Reine de Surdosage (overdose!) possessed me at first sniff when I was eleven: Vent Vert blew my way and blew me away as well.

Vintage Balmain Vent Vert Ad Rene Gruau 1950s©

To call Vent Vert a Green Wind is short shrift. It rings hollow in both ear and nostril. Glorious iconoclast Germaine Cellier, La Reine de Surdosage (overdose!) possessed me at first sniff when I was eleven: Vent Vert blew my way and blew me away as well.

Jane Fonda Photo Horst P. Horst 1959

With the exception of her 1949 parfum for Balenciaga, the very balanced herbal/floral bouquet La Fuite des Heures (Balenciaga’s second release after 1947 Francis Fabron’s legendary Le Dix), Mme.Cellier’s calling card has been notably that of aromatic overdosage: tuberose in Fracas de Piguet (1948), galbanum in Vent Vert de Balmain, brilliantly mordant floral leather in Piguet Bandit (1944), Nina Ricci’s éblouissant 1946 floral Coeur Joie , my gardenia and orris-laden1953 Jolie Madame (aka Kitten With a Whip and Smoke) and 1956’s lovable floral ashtray Miss Balmain

Germaine Cellier via wikipedia

Each of Cellier’s fragrances is witty and elegant, soigné as the salty fierce woman herself who personified many’s vision of the cool, slim, blue-eyed Parisian blonde (she was born in Bordeaux, however) while possessing a longshoreman’s vocabulary and incessantly smoking cigarettes. She shared those Burgundian appetites well-illustrated by Bordeaux’s other scandalous daughter, the writer Colette. Mme. Cellier was one of the first notable women in the then-male-dominated profession of perfumery; I look to her for inspiration and she never fails.

Greta Garbo (apped) and vintage ad for Vent Vert

A few of my flacons from the 1970s retain the pristine character which immediately conjures my first real New Year’s Eve celebration. A snowy lace crocheted minidress, white tights, an ice cube dropped down its bodice and the gallant who unthinkingly reached down to retrieve it. I was eleven, my babysitting money depleted by a Balmain splurge: Vent Vert bloomed on that wintry night.

Lisa Fonssagrives 1939 by Horst P. Horst

I was enchanted by its insistent verdancy, resinous galbanum streaked with slightly indolic hyacinth (whispers of divine decay lovely as lacy lingerie!). It smelt of youth burgeoning on the cusp of womanhood: filled with hope, an unnameable longing. A stolen kiss. The oakmossy base consumed me; it shared that quality which had made Mitsouko my first love – desire for inky intrigue, the darker sister which awaits in the wings for its destined moment. It was succulently juicy, sap-drenched, crisp and comforting. The exotic (gardenia, jasmine), woven with earthbound bell-like blossoms (hyacinth, lily of the valley), mouthwatering fruit (citrus, peach), glints of silver (iris) and secretive undergrowth which has long compelled me (oakmoss, vetiver). I danced and danced all night long like the green young creature I was, unaware of the appeal which presages imminent coming-of-age and all which that entails: largely innocent, slightly wily, full of dreams and desire.

One drop of Vent Vert, and I am a girl again on the precipice of womanhood, despite the ravages which the mirror reveals.

Ida Meister, Senior Editor

~ Art Direction: Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief


 

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16 comments

  • I have always been intrigued by Vent Vert but decided I wouldn’t try it til I could smell the original.

    I also love this story from Ida – its interesting to look back on those times that were the first steps into adulthood or maturity but can only be seen with hindsight. And not for many years down the track, because I don’t think they can be identified in early adulthood yet either.

    I would love to win, I am in Melbourne Australia 🙂

  • Ida wrote, “Each of Cellier’s fragrances is witty and elegant, soigné as the salty fierce woman herself.” That is very appealing–and very true. I wore Fracas in my twenties; alas, that means I wore vintage Fracas. I loved it. I live in California.

  • I learned so much from this review of vent vert about Germaine Cellier and it was so artfully written tying in the writers experience as an 11 yr old. I love fracas and would love to win this sample. I must say the photos of Horst P Horst are stunning and just fit the writing beautifully. The photo at the top and of Garbo especially
    I live in the EU

  • Wonderful post, Ida! I love that you were saving for Perfume when you were eleven. I was raiding my mother’s dressing table at the same age. Your description of Vent Vert brings back so many memories. Balmain will always be one of my favorite houses. No need to enter me in this drawing. I just wanted to comment.

  • Ida, what a wonderfully written review! Very ‘noire’ — love your impressions and usage of language. Any perfume that could be considered the haunting younger cousin of Misouko intrigues me. If I could get my hands on it, vintage 1953 Jolie Madame sounds like my thing. I live in Canada ✨

  • I have always wanted to smell vintage Vent Vert because I am drawn to green fragrances. This description says it all: “I was enchanted by its intense, insistent verdancy, the resinous galbanum streaked with slightly indolic hyacinth (whispers of divine decay lovely as lacy lingerie!).”

  • Oh my, the places this post took me are youthful, mysterious and so full of undergrowth. Ida, thanks for the journey of experienceing Vent Vert and yet not… You sparked an unretrievable interest in the juices at the heart of the creations of Germaine Celliervia. I also look forward to a deeper olfactory education from a woman who blazed a trail for those to follow.

  • As a huge vintage perfume aficionado I knew a lot about Vent Vert, the galbanum overdose and the multiple bases making it a stellar example of Germaine Cellier’s craftsmanship. Anything created by Mme Cellier has become a legend (my favorite is Miss Balmain, Jolie Madame being a runner-up).
    I haven’t had the chance to try VV before but always wanted to, besides, Ida said something about youth on the verge of melting into womanhood, and that grabbed my attention. I’d be delighted to try a vintage version of Vent Vert.

    I live in Russia.

  • Hi Michelyn,
    I do not need to be entered in the draw but am announcing I moved to “Sunny” California! I do admit the jasmine smells divine blooming in our garden right now, and I smell divine in my Vent Vert (Vintage of course)
    . Love Ida’s story and fragrant words as usual x

  • I would love to try this vintage scent. After reading Ida’s words I am dreaming about Vent Vert. Thank you for the chance. I live in the US.

  • NiceVULady says:

    Ah Ida, your prose is so beautiful and so evocative of that sinuous sensual moment in youth. As soon as I read the opening paragraph, I knew it was you who had written it. Bravo! I love Jolie Madam. I’d love to sniff this. Thanks for the draw. I’m in the USA

  • I love that Ida was saving her babysitting money at such a young age for quality products. I was sadly purchasing Avon at that young age. I am not familiar with this line. I don’t have many “green” fragrances, they require more effort to find something I like than a gourmande or oriental. The hyacinth in this interests me, maybe because mine is blooming in the yard right now. Thanks for the chance to try this. USA.

  • What a vivid and evocative piece! The only perfume I’ve tried on my skin from Germaine Cellier’s exquisite portfolio is the current formula of Bandit, so that would have to be my favorite by default. I love galbanum and Vent Vert sounds like a must-try. I live in the UK.

  • Anna Egeria says:

    Gorgeous review! I am intrigued by a fragrance that Ida loved at age eleven. I was wearing vintage Ma Griffe at the same age! I love green perfumes especially with hyacinth. Fracas is my favorite Cellier creation. Thank you for this drawing and I’m in the US.

  • Oh, those fragrant moments that imprint upon who we will become! I first encountered Vent Vert in a Paris department store on that rite-of-passage trip to Paris with my mother, aged a very tender 14. I didn’t buy it then – it was too fierce (to my nose, all of Germaine Cellier’s oeuvre contain more than a little ferocity, that beats like a pulse underneath) for me, or too fierce for the girl I was then. That changed a few years later, after the Mohawk, the no. 19, and that fatal coup de foudre with chypres, and greens, and all things … ferocious! 😉 Thank you, Ida, for that emerald spot of beauty to my day.

  • Christopher Warren says:

    I loved Vent Vert many years ago!
    I would love to find this again it’s original form.
    Does anyone know of something similar?
    Missing this beautiful classic.