THIS is the time of year when the greatest number of new perfumes are launched on the market and one of the first onto the market is the house of Givenchy's latest fragrance, called Organza. One of the floral based scents now returning strongly to favour Organza is due to make its debut both in Ireland and a number of other European countries in a week's time. The plan is that the perfume will then gradually be released around the rest of the world over the next 12 months. Perfume acts as a financial cornerstone for many fashion houses and the creation and introduction of a new line is accordingly very carefully handled.
It has been six years since Givenchy last produced a new scent - Amarige - and another six before that since the same company's Ysatis first appeared. There's nothing deliberate about this regular interval between fragrances, says Jean Courtiere chief of Parfums Givenchy SA in Paris. He does admit, however, that such a substantial amount of time was needed to develop not only the perfume but, just as important, its accompanying imagery.
Organza provides an excellent example of how perfumes are now created and sold. The six year cycle may be an accident but it's an advantageous one because no fragrance should be released too close to its predecessor lest the latter's own sales are damaged. While the association with Givenchy is clearly important, Organza will have to succeed on its own merits and these need to be well signalled to the consumer. "Everything takes time," acknowledges Monsieur Courtiere. "First, we had to come up with an overall idea or concept to work on, like with a novel or a film. Bearing in mind what we'd already done with Amarige and Ysatis, we had to tell another story of seduction for another types of woman."
The Courtiere description of this imaginary woman is rather more florid than English speakers are accustomed to offering. "She is mysterious," he proposes. "She is rich in the centuries of inheritance and even so is ultra modern." To be fair, all discussions of perfume have a weakness for extravagant metaphor but there is also a more practical aspect to product development Organza the fragrance took the best part of two years to develop once the storyline had been agreed. The scent went through more than 255 modifications before the eventual result devised by Sophie Labbe, the 'nose' employed by Givenchy for the job, won acceptance. "Right from the beginning," she says, "it was floral woody and spicy. But from there, we went in different ways until we got it correct."
Then there was the choice of name for which, once again, extensive research was carried out. Many potential titles were considered: only one was finally chosen. Despite organza being an expensive fabric according to Jean Courtiere, "only a minority of the people we asked thought of couture." More commonly, he says, the word organza evoked ideas of luxury, fluidity festivities and femininity. Just as critically, "we had to find a name which would be comprehensible and pronounceable in all cultures - and not being used by someone else."
Simultaneously, work was proceeding on the design of Organza's bottle and its packaging. "Right from the beginning," Monsieur Courtiere explains, "we worked on a sculpture based around the idea of a woman. The designer is a sculptor, Serge Monsau. We designed a bottle among ourselves in house and one of his first images was almost exactly what we'd done here." The columnar shape and especially the gilt capital top evoke the classical world, while the curve of the bottle quite evidently indicates for whom the contents are intended.
Just in case that wasn't already apparent, the fragrance itself has a densely feminine aroma based on top notes of sap and green honeysuckle beneath which are discovered gardenia, ylang ylang and tuberose. The woodiness is provided by the likes of cedar and sandalwood, while the spiciness comes from vanilla, amber, nutmeg and mace. "It's a new kind of perfume," argues Organza's creator Sophie Guillem. "It's a velvet floral, one that's warm but not oriental. I think women still want sensuality in their scent but not too
NO ONE at Givenchy is revealing how much will be spent on launching their latest perfume ("that would be bad manners," remarks Monsieur Courtiere in a tone suggesting that there is no point in arguing otherwise). However, since this is the house's first new scent in half a dozen years and a substantial advertising campaign across a whole range of media in a number of different countries has been arranged the cost won't be cheap. One of the most famous (and famously disastrous) perfume launches of recent times was Christian Lacroix's C'est La Vie at the start of the decade which had a budget rumoured to run to close to £20 million.
There are now several hundred new scents produced every year but only a handful of these have a long term future while the others rapidly disappear when they fail to capture and hold their market.
Givenchy, of course, is no newcomer to this area of the business and belongs to France's giant LVMH group which also owns a number of other fashion and cosmetics houses. But the amount of time and effort put into preparing Organza for the market indicates that not even companies with strongly established reputations can afford to be complacent. On the other hand, Jean Courtiere is very happy with the blind testings which have been conducted with the new scent. "The reaction was tremendous," he comments. "People read the perfume really well, some of them even went so far as to describe the television advertisements we've already shot - we were frightened."