Thursday, May 24, 2012

Serge Lutens Une Voix Noire: new fragrance

The upcoming Lutens fragrance which I have been in the lucky position to confirm about before its official announcement is called Une Voix Noire (a black voice) and is reprising a few of the master's favorite themes: darkness in name and mood, homage to mythical personalities, narcotic effects....


Une Voix Noire is Serge's homage to Billie Holiday, the doomed blues singer with the penchant for gardenia which he used to put in her hair (indeed lots of photographs of the singer show her sporting blossoms on her dark hair). And true to form Lutens choose this white flower in all its heavy, ripe glory to represent his idea of darkness against the whiteness of its petals. After his forway into carnation with Vitriol d'Oeillet, the master reprises flowers, giving them his unique touch, hopefully much like he did with Tubéreuse Criminelle and Un Lys.
Following in the footsteps of the discontinued but revered Velvet Gardenia by Tom Ford, with its mouldy, wet, mushroom-like ripe ambience, could the Lutens gardenia Une Voix Noire be the next gardenia perfume to make a dramatic entrance in the cosmos of the perfume cognoscenti?

Une Voix Noire will be presented in Paris on June 1st 2012 at Les Palais du Salon Royal in Paris, France. From then on it will be available commercially in the Paris exclusives line in the bell jars this summer.

20 comments:

  1. Sounds great!

    I just wish it were available sooner (like June 1.) as lucky me, I'll be spending 4 days in Paris next week! :)
    I am so very happy about it (I'm pretty sure it shows). ;)

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  2. Having grown up a southern girl, I do adore a gardenia scent. My grandmother has a spectacular collection of gardenia bushes in her garden; come June, all the brides-to-be in her neighborhood come by to snip a few for their bouquets. I can't wait to see what Uncle Serge has in store for us with this one.

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  3. unpetitfleur11:47

    Wow! Thanks for the news! I have a feeling this is going to be a good one!

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  4. MariaA12:42

    I love Gardenia, I love Serge's creations... this will be great!!! Thank you for the info!!!

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  5. I like the idea of a dark and dangerous gardenia, but as a guy I have my doubts I'll be able to pull it off.

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  6. Exciting! I love a good gardenia.

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  7. Anonymous17:57

    Serge Lutens obviously marches to the beat of his own drummer. While all the other perfumers are frantically trying to shoehorn oud into as many releases as possible, Serge continues to do his own thing. Good for him.

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  8. I love how you get first all the scoops from Serge Lutens. Now a good gardenia is hard to get. A gardenia by Serge Lutens is all the more reason to get excited. Is it going to be a Sheldrake composition?

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  9. Anonymous23:05

    @Anonymous LOL how do you know this won't have oud? Actually, Serge Lutens doesn't have to prove his orientalist credentials (recent releases excluded).

    I look forward to this one, thought De Profundis was great but thought Vitriol was lousy and disjointed. To me a black gardenia could employ the earthy quality found in Borneo, I'll look for patchouli in the base. Gardenia mushroom patchouli. Probably not. Probably it will be a slick blackness and not an earthy one. Regardless, I hope Lutens starts a new winning streak with this new release.

    -Lily

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  10. I,

    hope you have a most lovely time there!! Enjoy!!

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  11. JA,

    the American South is a place steeped in lore to my European ears, especially the states with the lush vegetation like Georgia, South Carolina and Louisiana.
    I bet the gardenias are huge and intensely scented. *swoon*

    I am hopeful as well. Judging by the tuberose...this one sounds like a lovely flower to tackle.

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  12. Petit fleur,

    you're welcome. I'm optimistic!

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  13. Mimi,

    *nodding my head in agreement*

    Psyched!

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  14. M,

    who knows, Tub Criminelle is worn by a few guys, so this might be a comparable "not overtly femme" version?

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  15. Anon,

    I suppose you're right. I got so bored with ouds since about 3 years ago or so, I'm relieved to see someone NOT bringing out something oud-named at least (his next 2 perfumes won't be oud-named either)

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  16. Chris,

    I believe Sheldrake is credited with all scents, since even if not always at the lab with Serge, Serge has an immense archive of things they developed together years ago.

    Maybe that's why there aren't any "ouds" in the SL line. ;-)

    Έχει πλάκα, δεν έχει, να μαθαίνω νέα έτσι στα "μυστικά"? ;-)

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  17. Lily,

    I like your idea on this scent. Perhaps the patchouli has been overused in recent mainstream releases, but a coffee or cocoa note with gardenia might do wonders. Serge did a stupendous patchouli in Borneo, so it's exciting to contemplate.

    As to the lack of ouds, please see my response to comments to Anon and Christos above. I think the explanation is also due to his sorting out things composed years before (with the necessary IFRA twist here and there of course)

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  18. Jarvis,

    good to see you here! How you've been?

    It does sound like just the sort of thing we expected Serge to lay his hands on. (Of course I was rather underwhelmed by his carnation take, much as I was enthused when initially announced)

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  19. I just hope that this time Lutens care to do something really Noire, since his last fragrances, Vitriol and De Profundis, seemed more like marketing faux promisses than real artistic creations.

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  20. Henrique,

    from your mouth to Serge's ears!!

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