A Life-Long Dedication to Guerlain: Famous Fans

Among perfume brands of historical lineage, Guerlain proudly stands today as it did in the previous century and the one before it, as one of the necessary pilgrimages of every devoted perfume enthusiats. But some of the perfume lovers who have come into contact with the house have ascertained a durable, unstoppable connection which moves and tantalizes with promise at the same time.

Andree Putman was one such Guerlain devotee. Known to most readers for the 2005 renovation of the flagship store in Paris (with the ceremonial "chandelier" of perfumes, which is now substituted by a newer design) and for her own Preparation Parfumee Andree Putman, a niche fragrance of cult appeal, she remained a lifelong Guerlain customer with a penchant for a particular one of their classics (completely antithetical to her own brand name one, please note!). Here is the quote I unearthed, my heart aflutter with the longing of the all powerful allure of the signature scent.

"I am a woman of two perfumes. At 16 my best friend wore Shalimar. The name fascinated me. I was more L'Heure Bleue. Twenty five years later I opened a small flacon of Shalimar and that friendship has emerged out of its scent. It has never left me since. It counts itself among those perfumes which trail long after you have left. Even if one doesn't smell them on them, they express you so powerfully to others that one shouldn't change them. At home, my children know whether I have been in or out by whether there is the trail of Shalimar floating in the staircase. For that reason alone, I'm attached to it for life."

~cited by Veronique Blamont (1998)