We started with red wines, and he was updating me on the different projects he has worked on recently.
I met him last year on the World Perfumery Congress, where I asked him for a job. Instead of hiring me as a perfumer, I was more or less his escort for the rest of the exhibition. Although he is quite a bit older than me, we got on really well. He introduced me to the right people, invited me for private parties of the congress and for exchange I would listen to his childhood memories in Eastern Europe. After the congress, we would meet up for a drink, every few months, when he comes from NYC to Grasse for work. I think of him as my mentor, and he thinks of me as a refreshing distraction from those "New York perfumers" or those "old school Grasse perfumers".
When I got to the bar, he was already there waiting for me. I thought his look had changed a lot. He aged a few years in the last few months I haven't seen him. He tells me how he misses Grasse and how he has a huge stress on working on a numerous important briefs on the same time. He nags a bit about good old times of perfumery, when legislation didn't count each drops of Italian Bergamot in the creations and the use of Yugoslavian Oakmoss wasn't banned for good.
After the first bottle of wine, I asked what inspires him to create perfumes. I could see I touched a nerve there. He wouldn't mind sharing wild gossips with me "straight from the White House of Perfumery" or even showing his creations without their appearance for the public, but asking him about inspiration to make perfumes clearly got him uncomfortable. He changed the topic to quickly and I didn't insist. After a few glasses of wine though, he went back to the topic by himself.
His first brief winning perfume was based on the memory of his first girlfriend. The taste of his first kiss is now immortalized as raspberry top notes of one of the 90's bestselling perfumes. And the examples went on and on. He was always a ladies' man, but little did I know about his creations being directly linked with his actual partners.
After the second bottle of wine, he told me about realizing that most of his colleagues are "creating" strictly based on already existing perfume's formulas. He first despised it, but soon, he realized that he is running out of inspirations, in spite of his lifestyle as a playboy. He needed continuous stimulation. He told me how the hunt for inspiration ruined all his relationships. He told me how he went on drugs, from being a social marijuana smoker to a cocaine addict, when women were not fulfilling anymore his desire to experience new flashes.
However, he would often come up with unusual perfume ideas, while being high. He admitted creating some of his famous creations under the effect of drugs.
After years of self destruction, finally his company would oblige him to go to rehab, not long after he talked to the national television about his newest fragrance release with dilated pupils.
I wish he didn't share. I wish I didn't know about that. Is one of the idols of modern perfumery completely lacks inspiration for a over a decade now? His latest creations are clearly flankers of his early works and the frustration blocks his creativity.
I took him home. He tried to kiss me at least 3 times, while I helped him up to the hall of his building. Expected, turned it off with a smile. While I was still in Paris, working my ass of to get enough money for the perfumery school, I did fantasize about him kissing me. The only thing I felt now was sorry. Perfumers are pushed by the business to create olfactory innovations all the time, although the majority of the possible combinations of the present accords have been already played by now.
I needed a cigarette. In front of his fancy house on the Croisette in Cannes, alone in the dark, foggy, wet night, I wondered if being alcoholic is better than being on drugs.
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