Jovanovic was born in Paris, France, in July 1975.
Before leaving for work, Bruno’s mother would always spray Cabochard (Grès, 1959, Bernard Chant) on a fur coat, kiss Bruno and go out.
While my mother was away somewhere, smelling the perfumes hidden in blue velvet on her dressing table made me feel that she was always beside me.
Bruno Jovanovic
Those perfumes also included Calèche (Hermès, Guy Robert) and Rive Gauche (YSL, Jacques Polge), and chypre fragrances had a profound influence on Bruno.
Bruno experiences synesthesia: shapes, colors, music and everything else entered Bruno’s mind as scents, and intellectual scents at that. This also led Bruno to give family members nicknames as a child: Bruno’s father was called Chamomile, mother Violet, and grandmother Rosa, for example.
The desire to become a perfumer arose after discovering the beauty of perfume during a chance visit to a department store with a friend.
I suddenly discovered a world I had never even imagined existed, and I wanted to enter it. Every day, while everyone else was in the cafeteria, I went to the department store. The saleswoman there would ask, “What would you like to try today?” and I would return with my pockets full of samples. My head was filled with discoveries of scents.
Bruno Jovanovic
From then on, Bruno was captivated by perfume, treating a perfume dictionary as a bible and memorizing it in its entirety in less than a year. After passing the baccalaureate, Bruno studied physics and chemistry with the intention of attending ISIPCA.
Finally, Bruno went with a friend to take the ISIPCA entrance examination and passed with the second-highest score among 900 candidates! Bruno’s talent continued to shine at ISIPCA, where Bruno is said to have been Dominique Ropion’s best student.
With such strong academic results, Bruno was welcomed by IFF and began working at the company in Paris and New York in 2002. In New York, Bruno’s desk was next to Sophia Grojsman’s office.
In 2002, Bruno co-created Fierce, the signature fragrance of Abercrombie & Fitch, with Christophe Laudamiel. The original idea for the perfume came from Carlos Benaïm. While many men loved the fragrance, its scent spilled out of stores so strongly that some people protested outside the shops, calling it air pollution.
Bruno’s motto is “Keep it simple; avoid anything superfluous,” reflecting a belief that everything should be simple.
I do not like using many bases, and I prefer a limited number of ingredients. A simple, clear message that is immediately understood: this is the signature of my perfumes.
Bruno Jovanovic
The Kantian proposition that “beauty is that which is represented, without a concept, as the object of universal satisfaction” also has a major influence on Bruno’s thinking. This is said to make Bruno’s work not only artistic but also intellectual.
A particular favorite ingredient is patchouli. Bruno says this is not only because of its earthy aspect, but because its scent, composed of patchoulol and camphor, is a very airy, lightweight accord.
I think Bruno Jovanovic is probably one of the young perfumers with the most impressive technique in this industry. He has the resources to spend a year making our perfumes, still has more ideas, and is good at that too. In other words, he has the ability to run a marathon.
Frédéric Malle
