Duchaufour on His Trip to Uzbekistan…Bertrand Speaks Out (uncut and unedited)

"You must be, as blogger leader, very careful of what you're divulging because you are the more efficient guarantor of the quality and veracity of any commentaries concerning fragrances and perfumery."-Bertrand Duchaufour, my interview of 8/28/2009
 

When I read this article, in The Independent newspaper from the UK, on Bertrand Duchaufour designing perfumes for Gulnara Karimov, the daughter of Uzbekistan dictator Islam Karimov, I was shocked. Then there was a succession of other emotions; disbelief, sorrow, numbness but once they all receded a bit I was left with the one thing all journalists carry, curiousity. Why would Bertrand Duchaufour involve himself with the repressive regime of Karimov? It took me two weeks to sort through my emotions, and to e-mail Bertrand and ask him for his side of the story, to ask him why. I received a reply in a few hours and in the interest of completing this story I have shown it below in its entirety and in Bertrand's exact language, without  a word altered. It is not the polished English of the newspaper article.  I know Bertrand Duchaufour for six years, so I felt comfortable at last to communicate to him how this personally affected me.My last name was originally Kamenov and my family has first-hand understanding of the brutality of this regime  His quote this article was started with, is one I have always tried to live up to and is that ideal on everything I do here at CaFleureBon. To that end in the interest of fairness and in the interest of  printing his side of what happened, here is Bertrand Duchaufour's response to my e-mail… unedited and in its entirety:

Michelyn hello

I really regret your bad feeling. Far from me the willing of chocking anybody. Indeed I did perfumes for Guli brand… Who was Guli? At the beginning Guli project was a demand from one of my french customers who was himself contacted by an uzbek customer who was supposed to have nothing to do with anybody else… and I was just answering to another customer demand that's all.

I have been a little bit naive and just considered the good part of the project ( money ) and didn't realize what was behind.

Beside this first wrong aspect of this affair, I went overthere invited by the Guli chairman woman, the owner of the brand for presenting the fragrance. I NEVER realize the project was so big for her, and behind her for Miss Karimova… Furthermore I was invited during a huge fashion week event among other thousands of people. I felt just anonymous in such a mess of show-off masquerade but in the same time everything seemed perfectly accorded and organized, like on red carpet. I visited a lot of things in Tachkent, even outside Tachkent : everyone and everything seemed beautiful and harmonious in the most coherent social network we could dream. And really Michelyn, really, I don't know what to think about this people, this country and its politics…I discovered the real background of the story just after. I can't judge even after a four days trip, how right or wrong is this event… Impossible for me to evaluate if my presence should have been positive or negative. People I met, seemed to be so grateful and happy I was here. But which people ? Are they representative of the normal uzbek population ? I won't never know…

Sorry for this bad surprise I reserved you…
Warm regards.


Bertrand

 
As I mentioned this is an answer in the hope for fairness, as blogger posts and forum discussions were devoted to Bertrand Duchaufour's trip to Uzbekhistan based  solely on the article that appeared inThe Independent and there was alot of discussion  and rush to judgement without contacting Bertrand. I think you can take Bertrand's words and decide for yourself. For those wondering what Guli refers to, it is the brand name of Gulnara Karimov's men and women's line of fragrance.
 
–Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief

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28 comments

  • CCC says:

    It is always good to hear the other side of the story…

    The financial aspect is important but he is not a beginner anymore.
    He is so good at what he does and his creations are always appreciated… He can afford being selective. He should not sell his work to everybody. He deserves better.
    Also, he is “somebody ” in our world. Many look up to him. He should know better.

    Well, everybody makes mistakes.

  • Karin says:

    I understand the naivete. I only just heard about the government of Uzbekistan after I’d read the blogs and articles about M. Duchaufour’s creation of the perfume. I knew nothing about Gulnara Karimov. Is it up to a perfumer to vet his clients? And how could he ever dream that a client would be associated with such atrocities?

    He must be very upset by it all…I can’t imagine. It’s not as if he were dealing with Gulnara directly. He didn’t even know. I suppose this is a hard lesson. As someone who is gaining popularity in his field, many are going to come knocking at his door, and many will be “disguised” through layers of people who many not even divulge the name of their client. Should he hire a private investigator? How would he know?

    Which brings me to Gulnara Karimov. I do not know her, so cannot vouch for her character, guilt, or innocence. Is she guilty by association with her father? Or does she have crimes of her own?

    We love you, M. Duchaufour. I hope this association does not harm your career. I also hope that this experience helps you to guard your craft more closely, and to carefully discern each new opportunity.

    Thank you, Michelyn, for posting this. XO

  • Musette says:

    Michelyn, thank you for taking the time to respectfully ask Bertrand for an explanation for his choice to helm that fragrance. And thank you, Bertrand, for taking the time to give it.

    My first reaction to this is empathy for M. Duchafour’s situation in this matter, as well as sadness for the shock you must’ve felt upon reading this news. Alas, just because someone is good at one thing (and Bertrand is exceptionally good at perfumery) doesn’t mean they are good at everything (geopolitics, for example). I am chastened to admit that until I read this article I knew nothing about the Karimov family (and I’m assuming, from your response to this event, that the dictator’s daughter is also culpable in her father’s politics). Had my small business been contacted by one of my huge US or EU construction customers to make specialty parts for an Uzbekistan biomass plant (which is what we do) I would’ve, like M. Douchafour, done it without giving it any thought. Not defending here, exactly – I just can see how this can (and does) occur. I hope you accept that I do so with complete respect for the personal pain this has given you.

    I don’t think there was any malice or evil intended here (nor do I think you think so, either, though your sadness and shock is completely understandable). It sounds like this was a many-layered affair, much like what I described for my own business.

    Bertrand’s response is one of the most honest I’ve ever read.

    Michelyn, again let me just say how impressed I am at the level of professionalism and even-handedness you display in this matter. And I’m also impressed at the level of honesty M. Duchafour showed in his response. In this day and age of ‘spin’ and PC responses, it is rare, indeed.

    Thanks for letting me post such a long comment.

    xoxoxA

  • Michelyn Camen says:

    Hi Musette and all
    I have always had the upmost respect for Bertrand, he is one of the most straightforward people I have met which was why I had to stand back from my personal emotions (and assumptions). I didn’t understand what happened based on the Independent article. I also felt he wasn’t given the chance to speak about it and I am glad he chose to answer me so quickly. I appreciate all your comments more than I can say

  • SujaanNY says:

    Thank you, Michelyn, and thank you to Bertrand for his honesty. I completely agree with the comments above, especially Musette’s admission that she too would have thought nothing more of an order from a foreign company. Are we all expected to know everything these days? Jeez, I hope not. Sure, we can google our way through many things, but with the layers of protection people in power have, there is absolutely no way to dig deeply enough to always find the source. This certainly has been an interesting read though.

  • Jewel says:

    When I first read about this on EDITED I didn’t comment because I wished I knew what Mr Duchaufour thought rather than the majority who threatened a boycott of his perfumes
    In all fairness I believed what the gazette wrote and thought Mr Duchaufour was high and mighty and without conscience because of his stature in perfume
    When I read his response a number of things struck me
    He obviously cares what Ms Camen thinks and respects her and his comment how he felt so lost among all the big celebrities there
    Thank you for setting the bar to a better standard in the blogosphere
    And thank you for keeping the article on an even track when no one else did

  • Patty says:

    Michelyn, thank you for following up on this and letting Bertrand speak for himself.

    Like Musette,i understand how it could happen, and the same thing could have happened to me in my business. I – probably unfortunately – don’t follow the news very much anymore, i spent too many years working in it. I had no idea of who these people were, and they could have shown up and may have shown up at our site, and we would have done business with them without another thought.

    When I read about this online for the first time, and given my only third-hand knowledge of Bertrand, it seemed really unlikely that he would knowingly take that kind of job, knowing who he was working for and what their acts and crimes have been.

    Thanks for giving everyone a chance to be heard and for us all to understand a little better the background on the Karimovs and why it was so difficult for you to believe he was working with them.

    xo

  • Len says:

    I knew nothing about this because I don’t have the time to read many blogs
    Based on the Gazette article I could understand how his involvement with the daughter of a tyrant would seem premeditated
    I spent some time googling like most everyone who never heard of Islam Karimov and am glad i read your post because otherwise if I had stumbled on the Gazette article first i would have had been taken aback especially with that bridge between France and Uzbekistan line
    Bertrand Duchaufour is my favorite perfumer and I hope he’s more careful next time about the people he associates with
    He’s also pretty lucky you looked past what was written elsewhere because I take it no one else so far told his side

  • Cynthia says:

    Michelyn, I commend you for being a journalist and looking for the other side of the story. We live in a big, complex world. I consider myself pretty well read in news but this is an area of the world I’m totally ignorant about. It’s easy for me to see how this ould happen. It’s unfortunate for sure, but I’m happy to have heard Bertrand’s version of the story.

  • sherapop says:

    Thank you so much Michelyn for doing what journalists need to do: find out the facts.

    My own view on this matter is that if we are going to start condemning and boycotting every person with any, even tenuous connection to immoral agents, then let’s at least be consistent about it.

    My own government, for example, assassinates without trial suspects whose names are placed on a “hit list” by anonymous intelligence analysts who bribe destitute bounty hunters for information used to identify said suspects. Sound like a moral practice to any of the bloggers who rush to judge and condemn? What about defining as “fair game” for summary execution by Predator drone of every male who happens to live in the vicinity of persons on the hit list and who also happens to fall into a certain age group?

    Are you, gentle reader, perhaps supporting this outrageous practice through paying federal taxes?

  • Flora says:

    Thank you very much for publishing this response. Some things are not what they seem to be at first, and this is one of those instances. He is such a kind and gentle person, it was hard foe me to believe that he really know what he was getting into with those people.

  • RusticDove says:

    I don’t have anything pertinent to add to this conversation as my feelings have already been expressed by Karin and others more concisely and more thoughtfully than I could have written. But I wanted to add my appreciation Michelyn, for reaching out to Bertrand for his side of the story as it was the fair and right thing to do.

  • AubreyZ says:

    Michelyn-

    Wow. What a complex topic. When I originally read about the controversy on a popular perfume forum, I was unsure how to respond and whether or not to boycott his perfumes for other brands– but after reading this, I realize that he’s just a (very talented, humble) human.

    What are YOUR impressions after reading his reply?

  • Masha says:

    So Bertrand admits to being greedy for money, venal, and ignorant of the world. I’m not impressed. He should know better, he’s a grownup.

  • Dante says:

    This’s a bit ridiculus. Man went to country saw with his own eyes, and than reads a story from other man, and believes that the story is true and the facts he saw with his own eyes are lies and masquarade?
    Just one question! Michelyn Camen, have u been in uzbekistan? ever?
    PS. Greedy bastards are BBC and so on, getting paid 4 ruining whole countries reputation. Uzbekistan is VERY beautifull, you should all go and see it.

  • Ines says:

    I am very glad to read Mr. Duchafour’s point of view. It happens often here that journalists publish only one point of view (the accusing one) and then when they are confronted with the truth, that appears someplace where no one can read it.
    I’m sure this letter will help people understand what happened and that we shouldn’t really be so eager to blame people for their choices (not that we won’t, it’s human nature to do it unfortunately).

  • Ken Park says:

    I actually didn’t understand, what the author of this article wanted to say, I mean did he want to get Gulnara guilty or he judges some injustice he had read in The Independett? And by the way, I don’t think that Mr. Duchaufour could understand the uzbek reality for 4 or 5 days, having been there

  • Otaj says:

    I tried the Misterious by Guli and Duchaufour – it’s amazing. He worked, earned money, I don’t think he needed to get into the uzbek politics and so on. So, what’s the problem?

  • Golderry says:

    The Independence is depended. And Duchaufour is independed. The article in UK newspaper is the same, A read before.

  • Elodia says:

    The big number of comments that begins with the words “thank you” surprised me. Thanks for what? For the fact that one person has shown perfumer his subjective view of the situation and embarrassed him with that? Hah! Many western people write here they didn’t have any thoughts about Uzbekistan or either Gulnara Karimova earlier. So what? Have you made it to one post in a blog? Is not it silly?

    The author writes that he was hurted by the Uzbek authorities. Can he be objective after that?

  • Meg says:

    “Through the ‘Mysterieuse’ fragrance I tried to convey the image of Gulnara, her femininity and sensuality”? These are also Mr. Duchaufour’s own words. He knew the identity of the person for whom he was working, that much is very clear. His explanation that the entire commission came about via third party negotiation seems disingenuous and leaves me more skeptical than ever.

  • Mary Evans says:

    I am reading all the comments about this article and appreciate that Ms. Camen asked M Duchaufour for his side on a more personal level
    Clearly the Independent made up his quotes since they are in perfect English which doesn’t jibe at all with his email to Ms Camen
    Personally I found the entire exchange to be redemptive for the author who had family there and for M Duchaufour who was able to speak in his voice
    I am another to say Thank You for being a journalist and presenting a more believable story than the big media

  • Petra says:

    As I have read all the above only today I lack behind a bit.

    Nevertheless, Mr. Duchaufour’s explanation is one of the lamest excuses ever. I find it to be highly annoying in its alleged naivete.

    Couldn’t he at least have stood up to what he did and said “I am sorry”?

    No more of his scents for me, this kind of behaviour only serves as a confirmation of my disappointment.