A New Classic Is Born: Serge Lutens La Dompteuse Encagée

Born during the war, on March 14, 1942 in Lille, northern France, Serge Lutens was separated from his mother’s first weeks, his personality will be marked by the feeling of an original abandonment. Constantly torn between two families, he lives at a distance and invents himself. He is a dreamer. At the Montesquieu school, he is said to be ‘in the moon’: he does not follow, even if his teachers recognize him as a storyteller. Today Serge Lutens is seen in the world of perfumery amd make-up as an extraordinary designer, a true artist.

This image is founded on his early career working for the most prestigious fashion magazines, like Vogue, before being commissioned in 1967 by Christian Dior to create their makeup line. He created colors, style ánd images for the Maison. He then signed a collaboration with Shiseido that allowed this Japanese cosmetics group, hitherto unknown on the international scene, to impose a visual identity so powerful that it became one of the world’s market players in the 80s and 90s. He became Artistic Director, developing their international image. In 1992, he launched the perfume Féminité du Bois, the first unisex perfume that revolutionized the field. 

If this first perfume marks the 80s, it is by the creation of ‘Femininity of Wood’ and the boutique of the Palais Royal in 1992 – with its dreamlike décor – that Serge Lutens affirms his first olfactory revolution in the field of perfume. Deeply influenced by the discovery of Morocco and in particular Marrakech (the city in which he acquired in 1974 an old house in the heart of the medina), Serge Lutens has made this country the cradle of his perfumery. Waxes, cedar wood, orange blossoms…, Marrakech inspired his first perfumes: ‘Amber Sultan’, ‘Moorish Leather’, ‘Chergui’ … Having become inescapable, they write a new page in the history of essences. Following logically in 2000, Serge Lutens created the brand that now bears his name and imposes an uncompromising style. Perfumes, blushes, his expressions in this field intersect between a sharp and selective distribution and that more confidential of its network of shops.

After his last launch in November 2020, a Harrods exclusive added to the Serge Lutens Flacons de Table Collection named Tarab, mister Lutens launched a new creation. Under the Collection Noire umbrella, named La Dompteuse Encagée, (The Caged Tamer)

The La Dompteuse Encagée is the new Eau de Parfum from the Black Collection. A floral fragrance, almond, radiant. A muzzled language, shaping a single way of thinking, La Dompteuse Encagée reminds us of the dangers of a society on the lookout for the slightest step aside. Hope, however, remains in the revelation of a frangipani flower that can be enjoyed here… on the skin!

From this cold, white-waxed girl, I owe it to myself to take responsibility for everything. However, from this dreaded snow as envisaged, I sense the avalanche. What has seen the whiteness of the flower does not augur the freshness, the smell of frangipane y pallie. Subtly almond, to be enjoyed on the skin!

Serge Lutens

Serge Lutens La Dompteuse Encagée is offered in the recognizable Collection Noire flacon. The consumer can choose the way of diffusion – by splashing or spraying – and the flacon is easily recyclable.

Serge Lutens La Dompteuse Encagée is available as 100 ml Eau de Parfum at the Serge Lutens Boutique, Palais Royal, Paris, and selected stores worldwide. Come into the beautiful world of Serge Lutens.

Precious Serge Lutens Tarab

The Serge Lutens Flacons de Table collection gets a new limited-edition. It’s named Tareb and is available exclusively at Harrods from November 20 on, announced as ‘a golden lustre to outplay the contrast between light and shadow’.

The character of the Serge Lutens Tarab Eau de Parfum is best explained by discovering the meaning behind its name. In Arabic, ‘Tarab’ refers to a trance-like state in which the body is lost in dance, the senses heightened by music which seems to take flight. This evocative feeling is translated into fragrance form via sensual notes of Turkish rose, Cambodian oud and cypriol.

Tareb represents an interpretation of a 300-year-old perfume from India called ‘Shamama’, as well as Serge Lutens’ version of the combination of agar wood and rose. Woods, resins, smoky notes and the unique scent of candied fruit form this aroma which contains the official notes of oud from Cambodia, Turkish rose and cypriol. The additions of cedar, pine needles and patchouli highlight different silhouettes of roses.

Note the luxurious golden flacon, complete with a curvaceous design and apothecary stopper, which reflects the golden glow that changes with light, and in a wooden box in a North African style.

Serge Lutens Tarab is available as 75ml Eau de Parfum exclusively at Harrods. Come into the beautiful worlds of Serge Lutens and Harrods.

Serge Lutens is enigmatic, talented, exceptionally creative – and helped pioneer ‘niche’ perfumery…

 

The story of Serge Lutens is a very special one, emotional and deep. Loss can lead to extraordinary ways to cope with pain. For Serge Lutens it has created the foundation to become this extraordinary designer and true artist. A visionary of beauty in all its forms, he has led many revolutions in the world of beauty and perfume. For him, ‘perfume is illuminating, affirming, the ultimate final touch’.

Building on his success, in 2000 he created his own brand, Serge Lutens. The brand reflects its authentic, bold creator who conceives his fragrances, designs his flacons and considers every detail of his creations without concession.

To date, he has created around 70 perfumes in timeless collections: the ‘Collection Noire’, ‘Exclusive Bottles’, ‘Section d’Or’, ‘Gratte-Ciel’ and more. His perfumes for men and for women reveal something of the wearer’s character and bring out their true identity. He has also launched a makeup line bringing together beauty essentials, with an expert selection of cosmetics for a high-definition makeup finish.

 

Living at a distance

Serge Lutens was born during the war, on March 14th, 1942 in Lille, in northern France. Separated from his mother when he was just weeks old, his personality was indelibly marked by this original abandonment. Permanently torn between two families, he lived life at a distance and through his imagination. He was a dreamer. At the École Montesquieu, they said he was ‘on the moon’: he paid no attention, although his teachers recognised that he was a gifted storyteller.

 

A style is born

In 1956, at the age of 14, he was given a job against his will – he would have preferred being an actor – in a beauty salon in his native city. Two years later, he had already established the feminine hallmarks that he would make his own: eye shadow, ethereally beautiful skin, short, plastered down hair. He also became known for the colour black, from which he never deviated. He confirmed his tastes and his choices with the female friends of his whom he photographed.

He was 18 when he was called up to serve in the army during the Algerian War. He was remoulded. This was an important break that led him to make his decision: to leave Lille and head for Paris. This was 1962. Helped by a friend, Madeleine Levy, and bearing large prints of his photographs of his friends, Serge Lutens, experiencing his first years in Paris at a time of insecurity and want, contacted Vogue magazine. For him, this magazine represented the essence of beauty: a sort of convent that he mythologised. Three days later, he collaborated on the Christmas issue.

The creator of a vision through make-up, jewellery and extraordinary objets, Serge Lutens quickly became the person to call, and the fashion magazines made no mistake: Elle, Jardin des Modes, Harper’s Bazaar were constantly after him: he worked with the greatest photographers of the time, such as Richard Avedon, Bob Richardson and Irving Penn, all the while pursuing his own photographic work. During these years, his talent was fully acknowledged.

 

The Christian Dior years

In 1967, Christian Dior, who was preparing to launch its make-up line, called upon him. For the Maison Dior he would create colours, style and images. Finally, his vision was unified through photography. In the early 1970s, the famous editor-in-chief of US Vogue, Diana Vreeland, was unstinting in her enthusiasm: ‘Serge Lutens, Revolution of Make-up!’ His success was resounding.

In 1973, Serge Lutens’ series of photographs (inspired by the artists Claude Monet, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani) was shown at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Serge Lutens became the symbol of the freedom created through make-up, for a whole new generation. In 1974, mirroring his taste for films and the legendary actresses in them, he made a short movie, ‘Les Stars’, and in 1976, ‘Suaire’. Both were shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

During this period, he travelled widely, exploring Morocco and later Japan. These two countries, with their rich and yet so different cultures, came together in him and confirmed his way of seeing and feeling.

 

The Shiseido years

He recalled them some years later, in 1980, when he signed on with Shiseido for a collaboration that was to enable the Japanese cosmetics group, until then unknown on the international scene, to establish such a powerful visual identity that it became one of the world’s leading market players in the 1980s and ‘90s.

Shiseido gave Lutens his start in the fragrance industry in 1982, when they commissioned a fragrance from him Nombre Noir. Lutens and Shiseido partnered on another legendary fragrance, 1992’s Feminite du Bois.

Continuing to make fragrances for Shiseido, assisted by the company’s in-house nose Christopher Sheldrake, in 1992 Lutens established Les Salons du Palais Royal – a former bookshop in Paris’s Jardins du Palais Royal, converted into a house of perfume. Originally intended to launch his second Shiseido scent, Féminité du Bois.

Lutens also designed and conceptualized the luxurious perfume house – with its dreamlike décor – for the exclusive marketing of Shiseido and Lutens scents, which stamped Serge Lutens’ first olfactory revolution on the perfume world.

 

Marrakech, the awakening of the senses

Deeply moved by his discovery of Morocco, more specifically Marrakech (where he bought an old house in the heart of the Medina in 1974), this was where Serge Lutens established his perfume business. Waxes, cedarwood, orange blossom…, Marrakech provided the inspiration for his first perfumes: Ambre sultan, Cuir mauresque, Chergui…  He channels his very life experiences into these fragrances (which are in many cases a collaboration with great noses, including Maurice Roucel and Christopher Sheldrake), which are worn by women and men alike.

Now well-established, at the time they wrote a whole new chapter in the history of essences. In 2000, Serge Lutens took the logical step of creating the brand which carries his name and embodies his uncompromising style. Perfumes, make-up… distributed through specialist retail channels and, for the select few, his own network of shops.

 

The Serge Lutens Foundation

In 2007, Serge Lutens received the ‘Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters’ accolade and went on to receive many awards for his multifaceted talent, before he set up the Serge Lutens Foundation in 2014. Based in the house he purchased in 1974, in the historical heart of the Medina in Marrakech, this vast museum-like space of over 3,000 m2 is today a vibrant testimony to an artist who breaks norms and never rests on his laurels.

 

Serge Lutens’ fragrances are available at the Les Salons du Palais Royal and Saint-Honoré Boutiques, on the Serge Lutens’ website, and at selected stores worldwide.

Discover the Serge Lutens universe and be surprised by its unique olfactory creations. Come into the beautiful world of Serge Lutens.

 

 

 

 

Serge Lutens New Fragrance Launches

Serge Lutens is an extraordinary designer, a true artist. A director of beauty in all its forms, he has initiated many revolutions in the field of beauty and perfumery. Serge Lutens collaborated with the most prestigious fashion newspapers before becoming the head of beauty image for Christian Dior, then artistic director of the international image of the Shiseido cosmetics group.

In 1992, he launched ‘Femininity of Wood’, the first female/male fragrance. A revolution! For him, “perfume is an illumination, an affirmation, the point on the I”! Building on this success, he created his own brand, in 2000, ‘Serge Lutens’. A brand in the image of an authentic and daring designer who imagines his fragrances, draws his flacons and thinks every detail of his creations without concessions.

As a perfumer, he is the author to date of about 70 perfumes in collections all more timeless, The Black Collection, table bottles, gold section, skyscrapers, etc. Its perfumes for men and women reveal the character of the wearer and affirm their true identity. Now he launched two new fragrances. Two special creations that I don’t want you to miss. Poetic, eclectic – just as their creator himself.

Serge Lutens Fils de Joie

A laugh awaits a sentence, a word or a situation to proclaim itself. A laugh may burst forth or be stifled by a hand that tries to contain it. But if it is sincere, it cannot be contained. On the skin, its fragrance is Lady-of-the-Night, a paradoxically radiant scent!

Serge Lutens

This nocturnal and sensual fragrance plunges us into the exhilaration of laughter. A rare and intimate, yet significant side of Serge Lutens’ personality. Childhood memories of the surreal atmosphere in a bar in northern France leave a lingering taste of excitement tinted with disillusionment. Loud hoarse voices and ‘making ends meet upstairs’. This mundane yet murky and boisterous life finds its reflection in mesk ellil, or night-blooming jasmine. A profound and haunting fragrance.

Dominant notes
Jasmin – Ylang ylang – Musc
Olfactory impressions
Radiant, intimate, nocturnal

Serge Lutens Fils de Joie is available in 50 and 100ml Eau de Parfum (€120/€180). Small in bulk, easy to carry, it allow two options: for an elegant presentation of the perfume, given by the cap or for ease of use, offered by the vaporizing tip.

Add your initials or a first name to make your bottle unique. All engravings are handmade by Serge Lutens craftsman engraver.

Discover the 2020 limited edition of ‘Fils de Joie’ : a Moorish designed packaging signed by Serge Lutens.

Serge Lutens Périlleusement Vôtre

Despite the risks, we stand at the brink of dizziness on the edge of a cliff weathered by salt water. At this moment, we entrust our fate to what awaits us. Whether we tread on dangerous ground or lose sight of the way, rose stays true to itself and oud overpowers all else!

Serge Lutens

A fragrant psychoanalysis. An uncompromising creation which reflects the need to take great personal and creative risks and to seek the singularity which society perceives as dangerous. The moment to embark on a personal journey. What defines us, our uniqueness, or our destiny? At what moment of the journey does the artist bloom? An intimate and personal olfactory creation which lays its creator bare.

Dominant notes
Oud – rose
Olfactory impressions
Determined, courageous, splendid!

Serge Lutens Gratte-ciel collection – Périlleusement Vôtre, is available as 100ml Eau de Parfum (€290).

Both fragrances are available at the Serge Lutens Palais Royal and Saint-Honoré Boutiques, on Serge Lutens’ website, and at selected stores worldwide.

Discover the Serge Lutens universe and be surprised by its unique olfactory creations. Come into the beautiful world of Serge Lutens.

Dior The Art of Color

In 1949, with the first ‘Rouge Dior’ lipsticks, the House on Avenue Montaigne saw its Beauty hisstory begin, indelibly linked to color. A striking silhouette and scarlet lips were the original, infallible weapons of the New Look and triumphant femininity.

Dior celebrates its passion for color in this book, inviting the major names behind the House Make-up to take inspiration from 12 key shades, illustrated in sumptuous photographs, and to compare them to great works of art.

An exquisite ode to color. This book presents the history of Dior cosmetics placed within contexts of fashion and art. Divided into twelve chapters (White, Silver, Nude, Pink, Red, Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Gold, Gray, and Black) Dior: The Art of Color show- cases not only the sometimes glamorous, sometimes natural cosmetics, but also the aesthetics of color, which was the source of inspiration for so much of Dior’s creations.

The evolution of color through the ages is presented with iconic works from renowned artists and fifty years of Dior makeup and advertising campaigns- including creations from some of the greats in the field, such as Serge Lutens, Tyen, and the current head of Dior Makeup, Peter Philips-captured by master photographers such as Irving Penn, Guy Bourdin, and Richard Burbridge.

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (October 11, 2016)
• Language: English (also availble in French edition)
• ISBN-10: 0847849341
• ISBN-13: 978-0847849345

With a highly engaging text and never-before-seen imagery, this is a book that no student of fashion or art should be without. If you love photography, makeup, Dior, fashion, or color, then this book is a must and sets a high bar for the genre as well as competing brands

Come into the world of rizzolibookstore.com

Serge Lutens Arabia

Serge Lutens hommage to the Arabian dream. Many of the Serge Lutens fragrances were inspired by journeys around Middle East. Arabie was inspired by eastern spice shops; it is an exquisitely warm spicy fragrance, dense and sweet from aromatic resins, temperamental, sunny, yet mysterious like East itself.

 

Serge Lutens Eau de Parfum 60ml, uset with or without spray

Created in 2000 by Christopher Sheldrake, Arabie, is a solar, rich and mysterious woody fragrance where precious notes of cedar and sandal, blend in with sweet notes of candied mandarin, dried fig and date. Nutmeg, cumin and clove at the heart pervade the composition with hot spicy notes. Aromatic bay-leaf, harsh and pleasant, joins the spices, dwelling in dense resin waves of Tonka, Siamese benzoina and myrrh. The final accord of labdanum joins aromatic opulence into a harmonic wholeness. All make make the fragrance soft and silky, almost even medicinal.

 

Olfactive Group: Oriental

• Top Notes: Balsam, cardamom, mandari
• Middle Notes: Fig, myrrh, sandalwood, cedarwood
• Base Notes: Tobacco, tonka bean, dried fruit, caraway, musk

 

Once applied to the skin, the fragrance reveals its sensuality and many rich facets. Serge Lutens Arabie, a beautiful, unique, warm unisex fragrance

Shiseido signed for purchasing Serge Lutens trademark

Born in 1942 in Lille, France. In 1968, Serge Lutens was invited by Christian Dior to work as an art director for makeup product development, a position he then held for over 12 years. In 1980, he signed on with Shiseido for an image development project conducted in line with the Company’s full-scale launch of its European business and continued the collaboration over the next 20 years as Shiseido’s global image and visual identity.

Serge Lutens

Shiseido’s partnership with Mr. Serge Lutens, acknowledged by the high-fashion and cosmetics industry for his unique visual creations, started in 1980. It was largely thanks to this collaboration that the Company was able to successfully break into European markets and accelerated its globalization.
In 2000, confident of his own experience in perfumery and supported by the Shiseido group, Serge Lutens decided to create his own brand: Parfums Beauté Serge Lutens, later renamed as ‘Serge Lutens’.

Shiseido signed for purchasing the trademark of Serge Lutens, a name synonymous with luxury fragrances and cosmetics. This brand was created in collaboration with Mr. Serge Lutens and Shiseido has been in the process of negotiation since March 2015.

The purchase of the trademark rights will enable Shiseido to invest more in the brand such as opening up directly managed boutiques in major cities worldwide, and gradually increase points of contact while keeping its prestigious image. As of 2015, the brand has expanded to around 2000 outlets in 35 countries.

 

Mr. Lutens will keep directing the brand to transmit the spirit and the style.
In order to continue to promote the Serge Lutens brand in the future, Shiseido has concluded that it would be the best way to purchase the brand while maintaining its concept, ‘Rare and Lux’.