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11/02/2021
MinoTaurus
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MinoTaurus
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LVMH takeover
So in the mid-90s, LVMH was now wearing the pants at Guerlain, and in addition to the cash injection for the revival of great fragrance classics, there were still strict instructions from the new masters: Guerlain was to become younger, more pleasing, more suitable for the masses and more colorful. With a - for Guerlain - new olfactory concept, LVMH wanted to attract completely different customers.
The instruction to Guerlain was this: Make us a fragrance that breaks with the stylistic gimmicks of the classics. LVMH didn't want any more guerlinade in this new fragrance!
( For those who don't know, the guerlinade was embedded in all the fragrances except the eaux, including the men's. A round composition of vanilla, bergamot, jasmine, rose and iris. The Guerlinade was the signature of all Guerlain fragrances ).
The name "Paris" was taken, but "Champs Elysées" knows the world.
Guerlain complied and created Champs Elysees without Guerlinade: An opulent, floral fragrance with a light lilac note - and the fragrance was a flop! To the old customers it didn't smell like "Guerlain", and to the young new customers it also didn't smell like "Guerlain" in the way they might have known it from their parents and grandparents.
In the end, sales figures argued for listening to Jean-Paul Guerlain's objections again after all, and LVMH let him reformulate the fragrance. The Guerlinade was added, and since then Champs Elysées is a permanent fixture in the Guerlain fragrance world with many loyal fans.
The fresh, floral opening gains a comforting warmth after a while, depending on your skin type, a slightly biting almond note can pierce through, and at the end you are left with the soft, slightly cool vanilla-sandalwood note. A typical "Guerlain".
By the way, for a few years now, LVMH has been tampering with the Guerlinade again: it is now told at training courses and events that the Guerlinade is always included as soon as one of the five fragrance essences is part of a perfume: if vanilla is in the fragrance, one speaks of Guerlinade. Is there a dash of iris? Well, then it is also the Guerlinade.......and the advertising department can be sure that there will be fewer and fewer people who can remember that the Guerlinade had always consisted of five essences, and had been part of every Guerlain fragrance as an independent fragrance composition.
The instruction to Guerlain was this: Make us a fragrance that breaks with the stylistic gimmicks of the classics. LVMH didn't want any more guerlinade in this new fragrance!
( For those who don't know, the guerlinade was embedded in all the fragrances except the eaux, including the men's. A round composition of vanilla, bergamot, jasmine, rose and iris. The Guerlinade was the signature of all Guerlain fragrances ).
The name "Paris" was taken, but "Champs Elysées" knows the world.
Guerlain complied and created Champs Elysees without Guerlinade: An opulent, floral fragrance with a light lilac note - and the fragrance was a flop! To the old customers it didn't smell like "Guerlain", and to the young new customers it also didn't smell like "Guerlain" in the way they might have known it from their parents and grandparents.
In the end, sales figures argued for listening to Jean-Paul Guerlain's objections again after all, and LVMH let him reformulate the fragrance. The Guerlinade was added, and since then Champs Elysées is a permanent fixture in the Guerlain fragrance world with many loyal fans.
The fresh, floral opening gains a comforting warmth after a while, depending on your skin type, a slightly biting almond note can pierce through, and at the end you are left with the soft, slightly cool vanilla-sandalwood note. A typical "Guerlain".
By the way, for a few years now, LVMH has been tampering with the Guerlinade again: it is now told at training courses and events that the Guerlinade is always included as soon as one of the five fragrance essences is part of a perfume: if vanilla is in the fragrance, one speaks of Guerlinade. Is there a dash of iris? Well, then it is also the Guerlinade.......and the advertising department can be sure that there will be fewer and fewer people who can remember that the Guerlinade had always consisted of five essences, and had been part of every Guerlain fragrance as an independent fragrance composition.
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