Paco Rabanne recently launched FAME, a playful and sensorial feminine fragrance, with a campaign that features American actress Elle Fanning. The new fragrance comes bottled in avant-garde metallic packaging and features a star-studded cast of notes that have never played together in a fragrance. It’s addictive with its delicate scent and notes of succulent mango and pure jasmine. To know about the making of the perfume, we caught up with its lead perfumer Dora Baghriche who takes us through her journey of being a nose behind some of the most sought-after fragrances.
What does FAME remind you of?
Fame does not only remind me of glory and success but also of personal achievements. It makes me think about all the women who have made an impact – from mothers to sisters, sportswomen, artists, and all those who have turned their vulnerability into incredible power.
How is FAME different from all the other fragrances that you have worked on?
In FAME, there is a real Paco Rabanne signature in terms of style, creative ideas and star ingredients. And several avant-garde elements that we cannot find in another fragrance. A notion of inclusiveness too, dear to the Paco Rabanne house ever since the beginning. FAME is about what transcends time – when we speak of famous things, these are things that belong to history, and that will remain.
Your first scent memory?
I grew up in Algiers (the capital city of Algeria), I lived in a bucolic street called “street of the pines”. This street is lined by majestic pine trees. Every day when I came back from school, I observed these huge trees, and I smelled their woody fresh, balsamic, and resinous smells. Their invigorating scents mingled with the solar fragrance of the jasmine flowers in my garden. This beautiful Mediterranean scent is my childhood memory.
What does happiness smell like?
Recently, while working on the last Paco Rabanne fragrance, FAME, I had the chance to go to Grasse, in the south of France, and visit jasmine fields. When I took part in the early morning picking, it was an incredible moment for me. The smell of the flowers, blended with the Mediterranean air which reminded me of my childhood, filled me with peace and joy.
Love smells like?
Almond! In France, we offer sugared almonds (dragée) during weddings. It’s the smell of tenderness. Therefore, I like to associate these delicate tender notes with roses and white flowers.
Your ideal vacation smells like?
My favourite place I’ve visited so far is the Aeolian Archipelago. It’s a group of small volcanic islands in the north of Sicily, barely inhabited. The name of the archipelago comes from the Greek God of wind, Aeolus, due to the warm, salty, and powerful wind which blows there, and carries the smell of grapes, olives, thyme and heliotrope that grows there for centuries.
The scent of your home/ my home smells like…?
I am particularly fond of the white sage purification sticks. Their reassuring fumes surround me, and I feel in a cocoon of serenity.
The smell you relate to when you’re low?
The smell of my library in my parent’s country house, and it smells of books, wood, and ink. I love reading. When I can’t go there, Bois Farine from l’Artisan Parfumeur reminds me of it. It is a true olfactive gem.
The first thing you smell in the morning?
My day starts with a cup of black coffee. Maybe I just smell it more than the average.
The last thing you smell before going to bed?
The smell of my beloved companion.
Ideal future plan smells like?
A beautiful island in Greece: Marine notes blended with aromatic notes, heated by warm woods.
A fragrance that you like that is usually not liked by others?
The note of ambrette (musk mallow) used to be considered as old school, almost forgotten. When I started to work with it, I defied myself, trying to make it popular again. I’m glad it is done with Glossier You.
