Le Jardin Retrouve and BLOCKI Perfumes are neo vintage perfume houses collage by Michelyn©

What are they and what makes a fragrance neo vintage? Over the next few weeks, we will explore the topic of “Neo-Vintage” fragrances in our Perfumer’s Workshop. Brand owners, perfumers, authors and our own Deputy Editor and Natural Perfumery Editor Ida Meister (who is an evaluator for several fragrance companies) will explore the topic and share their thoughts and expertise. I chose to begin with “legacy brands”… houses with heritage.

Please welcome two brand owners  with “family ties”: Michel Gutsatz his wife Clara Feder of Le Jardin Retrouve (which was founded in 1975) and Tammy and Tyler Kraemer of Blocki Perfumes (which was established in 1865).

 

Michel Gutsatz and Clara Feder of Le Jardin Retrouve photo courtesy of Michel©

Perfumer Yuri Gutsatz was regarded by many as the pioneer of niche perfume and a co-founder of The Osmothèque Le Jardin Retrouvé,  (roughly translated the garden refound) the first maison de niche was founded in 1975 (a year before Jean Laporte’s L’Artisan Parfumeur). Le Jardin Retrouve has a storied past steeped in  fragrance history and was reawakened in 2016, eleven years after its founder, perfumer Yuri Gutsatz passed away by his younger son, Michel Gutsatz and his wife Clara Feder. They adapted Yuri Gutsatz’s vision to the twenty first century, bringing back ten of the 30 original perfumes, (modified slightly).

 

Tyler and Tammy Kraemer of BLOCKI Perfumes courtesy of Blocki©

In 2015, Tyler and Tammy Kraemer continued the legacy of pioneer American Perfumer, John Blocki (1845-1934); Tyler’s family is descended from John Blocki and both Tammy and Tyler are committed to bringing the BLOCKI heritage into the 21st century, using both vintage and contemporary sensibilities. –Michelyn Camen Editor-in-Chief

 MIchelyn Camen: As a true legacy brand founded in 1975 do you use original formulas?

 

Yuri Gutsatz writing formulas for fragrances© via Michel Gutsatz

Michel Gutsatz and Clara Feder of Le Jardin Retrouve: Clara and I have decided from the very start in 2016 to use only Yuri’s original formulas (and as much as possible source our ingredients from some of the suppliers he used to work with – for instance we still work with an Indian supplier for our Mysore Sandalwood essence, our Jasmine absolute, our Tuberose absolute amongst others). When Maxence Moutte started analyzing Yuri’s formulas to make them IFRA compliant, he was astonished to see that he only had to change 3 ingredients out of the 115 that were necessary for the 7 Heritage Collection fragrances we initially relaunched!

John Blocki, founder of the first American Perfume house

Tyler and Tammy Kraemer of Blocki: So far, we haven’t been inclined to directly copy old formulas. We think John Blocki would want us to be inspired by them and then move forward. He was an innovator, so he would prefer that we modernize and add to what he had done. Tyler comes from seven generations of entrepreneurs and there is a strong independent streak on that side. We pay homage to the past through specific ingredients or fragrance styles. Violet was a must since John created almost two dozen different violet fragrances for his own brand and as the perfumer for other brands. One of Blocki’s first businesses was importing vanilla beans from Central America, so we like to use vanilla. We take a layered approach to the fragrances as well as the packaging that brings in both vintage and modern elements.

Blocki Perfume found off the coast of Puguet Sound

Do your perfumer/perfumers have good knowledge of vintage perfumes?

Tyler and Tammy: Not all but for our initial launch, we created with Kevin Verspoor for his extensive knowledge of vintage perfumes. Our customers really love the vintage/modern balance he found with For Walks, a violet soliflore, and This Grand Affair, a classic ambery fragrance. He moved us into more modern territory with Sanrovia, a non-oakmoss chypre. The more recent launches are still built on a classic structure but are more modern. Lionel Nesbitt, the perfumer for Saharet and Esprit d’Amour, worked on the Piesse and Lubin fragrance from the shipwreck Mary Celestia. Ironically, we too have an unopened recovered sunken bottle found 100+ feet deep off the coast of Puget Sound but the diver who found it won’t part with it yet. I can’t blame her; it contains a perfectly preserved narcissus

Maxence Moutte perfumer

Why did you choose Maxence Moutte to reinterpret Yuri’s perfumes?

 Michel Gutsatz and Clara Feder: Our story with Maxence is worth sharing! Some two years before we had decided to relaunch the brand, we were invited to a friend’s wedding and I started talking with a young guy who told me: “Michel Gutsatz? Would you by any chance be related to Yuri Gutsatz?” and then shared with me a very emotional story. When he was a student at ISIPCA, training as a perfumer, he admired very much Yuri and wanted to meet with him and get inspiration from him. He went to our family home and a lady opened the door to him. He asked if he could talk with Yuri. The lady (my mother!) told him that Yuri was not feeling well and that he could not, unfortunately, meet with him. Maxence who had been looking forward to this (impromptu) meeting left downcast… and never was to meet Yuri as he passed away a few months later. This story was so emotional that Clara and myself were convinced that there was somehow a bond between this young Givaudan perfumer and Yuri. Therefore, when we decided to relaunch the brand we asked Maxence if he would work with us and be the Le Jardin Retrouvé Perfumer. You can readily imagine his enthusiastic reply.

 

Blocki For Walks

How close do you stay to the original bottles and  packaging? 

Tyler and Tammy: We sprinkle in original elements instead of copying verbatim a past style. The floral pattern on our cap is  inspired by the floral design on Blocki cosmetic tins and each element is symbolic. For example, the scroll is for the windy city, Chicago, where we were founded in 1865, the peacock feather is from the Blocki family crest, and the flower is a violet for our first fragrance. The logo designs for Sanrovia and Esprit d’Amour are the original trademarks from 1911 and 1916. The 1907 flower-in-the-bottle patent is our favorite image, and it is on the 50ml cartons. Our 50ml glass bottles are individually sandblasted with the original U.S.Am. 1865 design that appears in a lot of the early Blocki packaging. We use the original JBS monogram logo. The grey speckled frame around the collage cards we create for each fragrance was taken from a photo of John Blocki. It’s like a treasure hunt finding all the vintage references.

Citron Boboli Le Jardin Retrouve

Michel and Clara: Since 2016, Clara and I have decided to keep the original fragrances (and have Maxence create new ones – one is forthcoming in the fall ‘Mousse Arashiyama’ an eau de parfum that he has already encapsulated in our scented candles and our Scented Stem diffusers) and modernize the brand. This is why we have worked last year with one of our investors, centdegres, a branding agency, to redefine our brand identity: a new logo, new proprietary bottles (forthcoming in October), new packaging… There is a direct link between the original 70’s look of Yuri and Arlette’s vision of the brand (for whom the fragrance was central) and the brand as it stands today and will be disclosed later this year in its new identity (already visible on the home fragrances).

Yuri Gutsatz of Jardin Retrouve with Arlette and Michel Gutsatz

How do you get around IFRA regulations?

Michel and Clara: There is a fundamental element of the brand we are focusing on this year: Yuri and Arlette wanted it to be as close as possible to nature and as protective of the planet as possible. Maxence has therefore done a huge work on the original formulas to discard a few ingredients that were not acceptable in 2021 (way beyond IFRA regulations) while keeping the olfactive profile of each fragrance and using organic alcohol. As a consequence, our fragrances are now 92 to 96% natural ingredients… and still smell the same!

Vintage John Blocki & Son Empress Rose Toilet Water circa 1900

Tyler and Tammy: Since Blocki started on the ingredient import side of things, we’ve worked with an American fragrance house. They appreciate the Blocki legacy and have been generous with time and ingredients despite our small production. So, our formulas go through their regulatory department and are IFRA compliant. We use a lot of natural materials that give our perfumes richness and depth. Each ingredient is fine-tuned, and we use a more complex layered structure to build that vintage vibe. Perfumers have always had to adapt, in John Blocki’s day animal ingredients were phased out and there were issues with supply shortages. If you took cerulean blue out of a painter’s palette, they would find another way to paint the sky.

Thanks to the generosity of Le Jardin Retrouvé we  are offering full Le Nécessaire set of your choice Citron Boboli, Rose Trocadéro or Verveine d’Eté to a registered reader anywhere in the world. 

For our US readers you have a choice of  50 ml This Grand Affair or Blocki Perfumes Saharet.

You must register here or your comment will not count. To be eligible, please comment upon you learned about neo vintage perfumes, found fascinating about Le Jardin Retrouvea nd  Blocki Perfumes from this article, which you would like to win (you can enter for as many as you qualify for, but will win only one) and where you live. Draw close 9/8/2021

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