WHAT WE DO IS SECRET

Dirty Mind

“Je reviens en trois jours, ne te laves pas!”
The name of the classic perfume by the house of Worth (Je Reviens, 1932) was based on a letter sent by Napoleon to Josephine. MORE »

Francis Kurkdjian @NPR

Francis Kurkdjian speaks with Melissa Block, the host of NPR’s All Things Considered, about Chateau de Versailles’ recreation of Marie Antoinette’s scent. (an article on December 22, 2006)

NPR’s story: Straight from Versailles, Marie Antoinette’s Scent

Formulated by scientists…

Hmmm… not a bad idea. I just wish it was done with style.
www.vivaeros.com (warning: you probably don’t want to visit the website.)

Jean-Michel Duriez @Fiac

Villa dall’Ava

Several years ago, when Rem Koolhaas has become one of the most talked about architects, I had the rare opportunity not only to visit one of the houses he designed, but to stay there for a few days while in Paris. The house called Villa dall’Ava, which was completed in 1991, had received worldwide attention in the architecture world.

I had first seen Rem Koolhaas’s work (it was an architecture model) at MOMA in the early ’90s, right around the time the distinguished Japanese architect Tadao Ando had his major exhibition at the museum. Ando back then was considered to be one of the ten most important architects in the word, and Koolhaas was still on the rise. However, although I don’t remember much about Ando’s exhibition at MOMA, I can still clearly visualize the architecture model by Koolhaas in my mind.

Generally, for Japanese, precision craftsmanship means average in skill, and the architecture model I had seen at MOMA was almost sacrilege in that respect. Everything was out of alignment and irregular, hardly anything was straight. I couldn’t understand how someone could make something with such a lack of precision… and had wondered how the actual architecture would look like, especially the details of it.

An architecture model is neither a sculpture nor a painting - it is merely a tool to examine the design and get some degree of understanding of how the actual architecture will look. Much against my expectation, Villa Dall’Ava turned out to be an architectural gem. There was a strange harmony of strength and fragility. To tell the truth, I was disappointed not to find any sign of “sacrilege” there. However there was something convincing and persuasive about the design… the house was whispering in my ear, “Imperfection is beautiful.” The house felt like it has its own life. It was cold but warm, heavy but light, filled with intimate contrasts which I’ve never found in Tadao Ando’s architectures.

This is, of course, not to say imperfection would necessarily add a human touch to a work of art, but after having used my hands to create art for many years, I have finally realized that a work with impeccable finish often lacked the warmth of human ki (qi or 気).

ー１９９９年に、パリ近郊にある、レム・コールハース設計の住宅ヴィラ・ダラヴァに滞在した時の思い出と、MOMAでの建築展で見たコールハースの建築模型の印象。ー

100% LOVE
*****

The video below was added to this post in May, 2008.

Laurent’s Reply: Moving on to Round 4

Katie,

Firstly, I would like to wish you a happy new year, and hopefully your dream fragrance will come true.

I was very happy to see that you enjoyed the last round of mod, and it even sounds like you are not the only one. I just want to take this opportunity to say that our phone conversation was very much a turning point, and that it shows how important it is to communicate and make sure that we are talking the same language.

I have to say that I am very impressed by your knowledge and you are right on target. Mod J is definitaly more balsamic aromatic: It is a combination of different resin like labdanum, peru balsam with geranium, coriander and thyme. Where mod K is more olibanum, musk and woody notes.

So for the next round and maybe the last, I am going to try to combine the best of these two mods and I will keep in mind the comfort of J and its saltyness.

I really enjoyed reading all the comments on the blog,

Talk to you soon,
Laurent.

A new comment on Katie’s review

I will now shut my bad mouth and get back to business. There’s a new comment for Katie’s last review on mods I, J & K. Check it out!

Lanvin, Symrise…

This continues from my previous post and also corresponds to a comment by Octavian (1000fragrances). MORE »

賀春、Greetings for 2007!

Enjoy the New Year Quiz. (This quiz closed on Sunday, January 7th, 2007. Thanks for your participation! » the quiz and answers)