Guerlain’s Dames de Table: Perfume Bottle Craftsmanship

“I dress, decorate and embellish the bottles.”

Sylvie Romet, Dame de Table, 2018 (translated from French)

A fine thread winds around the neck of a perfume bottle. Its ends become a soft tassel, while a thin membrane fits closely over the stopper. Apart from composing the fragrance itself, another kind of work brings a bottle of perfume to completion.

Guerlain’s Dames de Table are artisans who fill, seal and decorate exceptional perfume bottles. Their French name means “ladies of the table”. Winding silk thread, tying it and brushing it out: through small, repeated gestures, they turn a bottle containing perfume into a finished object ready to be given to someone.

Here, we look at what happens after the perfumer has completed the fragrance. What is sealed, which threads are arranged, and who passes these skills on? Following the work left on a bottle’s surface reveals specialists in perfume-making whose role differs from that of the person who composes the scent.

Contents

The Dames de Table and the Orphin workshop
Baudruchage: sealing the stopper with a membrane and thread
1. Covering the stopper and securing the membrane
2. How wax seals relate to thread-based sealing
Barbichage: brushing silk thread into a tassel
Adapting knots and ornaments to each bottle
1. The division of work with decorative artisans in Muguet 2026
From a hairdressing qualification to finishing perfume bottles
1. How Sylvie Romet encountered the craft
2. Passing on the small techniques learned at work
References

The Dames de Table and the Orphin workshop

Main work: filling and sealing exceptional perfume bottles, and finishing them with threads and ornaments
Base: Guerlain’s perfume manufacturing site in Orphin, Yvelines, France
Main techniques: baudruchage, barbichage, knotting and wax sealing, among others
Official website: Guerlain

Guerlain continues to present its Orphin workshop as the place where the Dames de Table’s skills are passed down. A factory report published in October 2026 also documented the work at this site, from fragrance manufacture to bottle finishing. Although demonstrations may take place at the historic Paris boutique, the production base and the demonstration venue should be distinguished.

The existence of handcraft does not mean that every product is finished by hand. A 2018 factory report described artisans working on exceptional bottles, limited editions and personalised orders alongside automated lines that bottled and packaged the regular fragrances. The Dames de Table’s techniques cannot be treated as specifications common to all current spray products.

The glass manufacturers who shape bottles and decorate their surfaces also have a different role from those who subsequently fill and seal them. Glass manufacture is discussed in our article on Pochet. From here, we turn to the hands that fill the bottles with perfume and finish them.

Baudruchage: sealing the stopper with a membrane and thread

Covering the stopper and securing the membrane

Baudruchage is a technique in which a thin membrane is placed over the stopper and secured with thread to seal it. Winding thread might sound purely decorative, but here the principal task is to hold the membrane over the stopper and close the bottle tightly.

In LVMH’s official profile, Guerlain artisan Sylvie explains that she covers the stopper and secures the covering with thread to seal it. The membrane and thread are not independent decorations. A covering and the means of holding it in place work together to form the seal.

In the work Sylvie Romet demonstrated on a Bee Bottle in 2018, she first placed a transparent membrane over the stopper, then crossed gold-coloured threads over it. The same report describes her tying a sequence of seven knots on one Shalimar bottle and securing them with a small, round metal seal stamped with Guerlain’s double G. The number of knots and the metal component are examples specific to that bottle at that time.

Knowing this sequence changes how we look at the thread around a bottle’s neck. Its significance lies not only in its colour, but also in where it passes and what it holds in place.

How wax seals relate to thread-based sealing

Cachet de cire means a wax seal. It is often introduced alongside baudruchage, but fixing a membrane with thread and applying a wax seal are different things to describe.

The 2024 Red Edition of the Flacon Tortue makes this distinction visible. Guerlain separately describes the stages in which Baccarat artisans shape, facet and polish the crystal bottle, and those in which the Dames de Table brush the silk threads and finish the neck with a wax seal. Glassworking, thread finishing and wax sealing come together on a single bottle as distinct skills.

Even when grouped under the word “sealing”, a membrane, thread, a small piece of metal and wax should not be treated as though they were one material. Looking at each bottle’s particular construction helps reveal which technique performs which role.

Barbichage: brushing silk thread into a tassel

Barbichage is a technique of brushing silk thread to give it volume. While baudruchage is concerned with sealing, this work shapes the appearance of the thread.

In the work Romet demonstrated in 2018, she used a small brush to comb out a two-coloured silk cord tied around the neck of a bottle containing Shalimar extrait. Tying the cord was not the final stage. Working its fine fibres created a soft fullness at the ends.

The same material looks different where it is tied and where it has been brushed. One part creates a line; the other creates volume. The tassel around the bottle’s neck is made not simply by adding thread, but by loosening and arranging the thread itself by hand.

Calling this work merely “adding a ribbon” makes the handling of the material harder to see. Brushing fine silk fibres, and controlling where they stay together or spread out, is itself part of the skill of finishing a bottle.

Adapting knots and ornaments to each bottle

“I also make many knots to dress them.”

Sylvie, Dame de Table, LVMH official profile (translated from French)

Sylvie mentions bow knots, tie-shaped knots and twisted knots, explaining how bottles are dressed with silk thread, gold thread and ornaments made by artists. Alongside the techniques of sealing are skills for composing a bottle’s appearance.

For Didy, who also appears in Guerlain’s official artisan profiles, the work encompasses different bottles, personalisation according to clients’ wishes and new creations. She describes a job that engages with different combinations of bottles and decorations, rather than repeating a single fixed knot.

The division of work with decorative artisans in Muguet 2026

For Muguet Millésime 2026, Guerlain collaborated with the embroidery workshop Ateliers Vermont. A green silk-taffeta bow and flowers of lace and crystal decorated the Bee Bottle’s neck. Guerlain explains that Ateliers Vermont’s artisans made the ornamentation, while the Dames de Table finished each piece individually by hand.

This division of work matters. It does not mean that the Dames de Table make every beautiful element on a bottle from its raw materials. Receiving decoration made by outside artisans and bringing it into the bottle’s finished appearance is also part of their role.

The Tortue combines red crystal and thread; Muguet brings together green taffeta and flowers. Passing down the same techniques is not about making every bottle look the same. The breadth of the work lies in being able to provide the final finish as materials and collaborators change.

From a hairdressing qualification to finishing perfume bottles

How Sylvie Romet encountered the craft

The path to becoming a Dame de Table did not necessarily begin with specialist training in perfume. Sylvie Romet held a hairdressing qualification and was looking for work when Guerlain moved into the area. She tried the work and immediately liked the skills she encountered. Her own account in 2018 describes a meeting with the actual craft, rather than a career planned from the outset around perfume bottles.

On 8 November 2018, Romet was made a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. The Fragrance Foundation France described her role not only as practising the art of decorating bottles, but also as teaching new Dames de Table barbichage, baudruchage, wax sealing and knotting.

The recognition was not only for the finished bottles. Keeping the hands that finish them at work in the next generation was recognised as part of the artisan’s contribution.

Passing on the small techniques learned at work

“I enjoy passing it on.”

Sylvie Romet, 2018 (translated from French)

At the time, Romet said there was no school in which to learn these skills, and that she wanted to keep the work alive by passing on her small practical techniques. Transmission is not simply a matter of learning names or memorising finished examples. It depends on people who have handled the threads sharing their methods with the next person to do the work.

The craft being handed down is not confined to bottles from the past. Guerlain’s current official account also describes the Orphin artisans passing finishing skills from generation to generation, and its 2026 Muguet presentation shows each piece being finished individually by hand. Historical techniques and production involving new decorations continue within the same craft.

Thread holding a thin membrane, brushed silk tassels, small knots and ornaments attached to a bottle: these bring together judgments and skills different from those involved in composing the fragrance. The next time an exceptional perfume bottle catches your eye, pause over its neck. Before perfume reaches us as a gift, another maker’s work has helped bring it there.