Tradition, quality and popularity. Brands that bring all three together are rare in the world of perfume, and the most famous is undoubtedly Guerlain. Guerlain was once known for choosing only members of the Guerlain bloodline as perfumers, and only men at that. For example, Patricia de Nicolaï, a pioneer of niche perfumery who held the honor of being the second perfumer at the Osmothèque perfume museum until a few years ago, was the niece of the fourth in-house perfumer. Yet the role of Guerlain perfumer never came her way. (That point calls for separate consideration.)
And yet the person Guerlain chose as its fifth perfumer was Thierry Wasser, someone with no connection at all to the Guerlain family. Why did Guerlain choose him? I would like to explore that question in this article. (For now, this is an entirely original theory, based on no reference material.)
Guerlain’s Successive Perfumers
Before considering that question, let’s first review the succession of Guerlain perfumers.
- First: Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain, who founded Guerlain in 1828.
- Second: Aimé Guerlain, Pascal’s son, who succeeded him in 1862. Jicky, from 1889, is his best-known creation.
- Third: Jacques Guerlain, Aimé’s nephew, who took the position in 1895. He created masterpieces that live on today, including Après l’Ondée, L’Heure Bleue, Mitsouko, Shalimar and Vol de Nuit. He also founded the perfumery school ISIPCA (in Japanese) in 1970.
- Fourth: Jean-Paul Guerlain, Jacques’s grandson, who took the position in 1962. He composed fragrances such as Habit Rouge, Chamade and Nahéma.
- Fifth: Thierry Wasser, who became the first in-house perfumer from outside the Guerlain bloodline in 2008.
Looking only at this, you might think Jean-Paul Guerlain had no children, leaving nobody to succeed him. His niece Patricia de Nicolaï is still active and able to compose perfumes, and Jean-Paul also has an only son, Stéphane Guerlain. His son is indeed not a perfumer, however, so the explanation that there was no successor is possible.
But I would like to suggest another theory based on four points: ① Thierry Wasser’s emphasis on maintaining the great perfumes of the past; ② the sudden appearance of many other perfumers creating Guerlain fragrances around the 2000s; ③ Guerlain’s secret Guerlinade ceasing to be used from Thierry’s era onward (or so I believe); and ④ Jean-Paul’s words below. My theory is: “Perhaps he did not want to tarnish the family lineage that had created such great perfumes?”
If someone asked me at the end of my career which of my perfumes I considered masterpieces, I would say Vétiver (1961) or Nahéma (1979).
Jean-Paul Guerlain
Guerlain and LVMH
Even the great Michael Edwards declared Nahéma to be Guerlain’s last masterpiece. Why did Jean-Paul say what he did? I wondered whether LVMH’s acquisition might be behind it. Today Guerlain is routinely introduced as part of the LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) group, but it was originally a family-run company.
In 1987, LVMH began acquiring Guerlain, a heavyweight of the perfume industry. LVMH was making numerous acquisitions at the time, and perhaps it wanted to strengthen its cosmetics and fragrance business. The acquisition was completed in 1994.
Jean-Paul, then the in-house perfumer, may have felt that being acquired would deprive Guerlain of its voice and erode the identity and traditions built up by generations of the family. One sign was that there had been no marketing strategy at all for Nahéma (1979), but Samsara (1989) brought a complete reversal, with tens of millions of dollars spent on advertising. Although it was a great success, perhaps this was where Guerlain began to lose something.
Since Thierry Wasser became the in-house perfumer, Guerlinade has (probably) not been used in Guerlain’s new perfumes. Guerlinade is something like a secret seasoning woven together by Aimé Guerlain, and it had been used in Guerlain perfumes. Then it stopped being used. Thierry is certainly not a member of the Guerlain family, but could the following be possible? As soon as Jean-Paul learned of the acquisition by LVMH, perhaps he decided to seal away Guerlinade with himself as its last guardian, pass it only to Thierry, and make preserving the old fragrances Thierry’s overriding mission.
ISIPCA-Trained Perfumers and Guerlain’s Perfumers
Looking further, I noticed something interesting: among the fragrances created from the late 1990s onward for collections such as Aqua Allegoria and L’Art & La Matière by perfumers other than the in-house perfumer, many were the work of ISIPCA alumni. Could Jean-Paul have been watching students from ISIPCA, the school his grandfather founded, testing their abilities as he searched for someone to take over a reborn Guerlain? A perfumer who, even if the old traditions might be lost, could preserve past creations as far as possible while creating a new Guerlain.
Perfumers Outside the Guerlain Family
| Perfumer | Career | Creations |
|---|---|---|
| Delphine Jelk | GIP → drom → Guerlain | La Petite Robe Noire (2009); many L’Art & La Matière fragrances |
| Francis Kurkdjian | ISIPCA (graduated 1992) → Quest (from 1993) → Takasago → own brand | Rose Barbare (L’Art & La Matière, 2005) |
| Béatrice Piquet | ISIPCA → IFF | L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme (2004) |
| Sonia Constant | ISIPCA → Givaudan | Tiaré Mimosa (Aqua Allegoria, 2009) |
| Christophe Raynaud | ISIPCA → Symrise, drom, Quest, Givaudan | Love Is All (2005); My Insolence (2007) |
| Marie Salamagne | ISIPCA → Firmenich (2001) | Mandarine Basilic (Aqua Allegoria, 2007) |
| Annick Ménardo | ISIPCA → Firmenich → Créations Aromatiques → Symrise | Bois d’Arménie (L’Art & La Matière, 2006) |
| Sophie Labbé | Graduated from ISIPCA (1987) → Givaudan (from 1987) → IFF (from 1992) → Firmenich (from 2019) | Cologne du 68 (2006) |
| Mathilde Laurent | Entered ISIPCA (1992) → Guerlain (1994) → Cartier | Pamplelune (Aqua Allegoria, 1999) |
| Karine Dubreuil-Sereni | Givaudan Perfumery → drom → MANE | Pivoine Magnifica (Aqua Allegoria, 2005) |
| Aurélien Guichard | Givaudan Perfumery → Firmenich, Givaudan | Anisia Bella (Aqua Allegoria, 2004) |
| Thierry Wasser | Givaudan Perfumery School → Givaudan (from 1987) → Firmenich (from 1993) | Iris Ganache (L’Art & La Matière, 2007) |
| Daniela Andrier | Givaudan Perfumery School → Chanel → Givaudan | Angélique Noire (L’Art & La Matière, 2005) |
| Randa Hammami | Symrise | L’Instant Magic (2007); Cruel Gardénia (L’Art & La Matière, 2008) |
| Frank Voelkl | Symrise → Firmenich | Precious Heart (2004) |
| Maurice Roucel | Chanel → self-taught → IFF → Symrise | L’Instant de Guerlain (2003); Grosellina (Aqua Allegoria, 2006) |
| Olivier Polge | Charabot → IFF → Chanel | Cuir Beluga (L’Art & La Matière, 2005) |
| Christine Nagel | Firmenich → Symrise → Quest (1997) → Givaudan → Symrise Fragrance Resources → Hermès | Elixir Charnel (2008) |
| Olivier Cresp | Self-taught → Quest (1980) → Firmenich (1992) | Champs-Élysées (1996) |
| Olivia Giacobetti | Robertet → independent | Petit Guerlain (1994) |
Looking at the perfumers who have created fragrances for Guerlain, we can see that eight of the twenty people in the table attended ISIPCA. And perfumers who do not bear the Guerlain name have been creating fragrances since 1994, the year of the complete acquisition by LVMH.
My Theory
Ultimately, Thierry Wasser was chosen as the fifth in-house perfumer, or perhaps he chose that path himself. With names such as Mathilde Laurent, Marie Salamagne, Sonia Constant, Francis Kurkdjian and Annick Ménardo, all now sought-after perfumers, on the list, why Thierry? Mathilde Laurent is now Cartier’s in-house perfumer and Francis Kurkdjian Dior’s; did Guerlain fail to recognize their talent?
No. I think it was because he alone could preserve Guerlain’s past glory while composing perfumes that had become marketing-led, carrying the weight of the great Guerlain name. In fact, Thierry now seems to spend more time traveling the world to maintain the scents of the great perfumes of the past than composing new ones. As evidence, many recent new releases have been the work of Delphine Jelk.
Perhaps Mathilde Laurent and others could not bridge the gap between their admiration for Guerlain and the reality, and did not want to maintain the great perfumes of the past while producing new, marketing-led fragrances.
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