The Bold One
Female Singapore|July 2023
The House Of Hermes Has Always Moved To Its Own Whimsy. Take Its Latest Fragrance, Un Jardin A Cythere, Which Is Part Of The Cult Parfums-jardins Collection. Conceptualised With The Theme Of "Astonishment" In Mind (It's The Big Idea Behind Everything That The Brand Creates This Year), This Delightfully Wild Scent Combines Notes Of Fresh Pistachios, Olive Trees And Sun-toasted Grass To Evoke In-house Perfumer Christine Nagel's Memories Of The Greek Island Kythira. During A Recent Visit To Singapore, The Soulful And Good-humoured Nose Tells Keng Yang Shuen About Its Unusual Beginnings And More Unexpected Ways In Which The French Maison Dreams Up Fragrances.
The Bold One

Un Jardin a Cythere can be said to be a pandemic baby. Tell us more about how you came up with the scent.

“When (Hermes artistic director) Pierre-Alexis Dumas said it was time to create a new fragrance for the Parfums-Jardins series, I retrieved this memory that I had of Greece and wanted to recreate through this perfume a garden on the island of Kythira. I started to organise a trip there (for research), but Covid-19 struck and it became impossible to travel. This left me with two possibilities: I could wait for the pandemic to end or I could create this Greek garden from my memories of Kythira. Like a painter who looks at a landscape and then returns to his studio to paint it, the end result might not be perfect, but that’s okay. I just went about creating Un Jardin a Cythere by trusting my nose and my memories.”

What did – and do – you remember so fondly of Kythira?

“I love to visit islands by sea and my first memory of Kythira when working on Un Jardin a Cythere was of seeing its landscape from a boat … Upon arriving, I visited one of its gardens and I remember encountering several different sensations. The first occurred when I was standing under an olive tree: The sun was shining through and there were crickets buzzing. As I walked, the dry grass – blonde in colour – made a crunchy sound. The second sensation came as the wind blew and filled my nose with the smell of dry herbs. This surprised me, as one usually has to bend down to smell the plants in a garden, but on Kythira, the wind brings the scent to you. This very memory is what I’ve tried to bottle in Un Jardin a Cythere.”

Walk us through the perfume’s key notes then.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 2023 من Female Singapore.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 2023 من Female Singapore.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من FEMALE SINGAPORE مشاهدة الكل
She Calls The Shots
Female Singapore

She Calls The Shots

Since The 2000s, Rihanna Has Been Making Dance Floors Work, Work, Work With Her Infectious Electronic And R&b-inflected Pop Hits. For Another Side To Her "Queen Of The Night" Persona, There's Her Role As The Latest Face Of Dior's J'adore Perfume And Its Accompanying Campaign Film. Shot By Her Long-time Friend Steven Klein, It Features The Barbadian Baddie Striding Through The Gilded Halls Of The Palace Of Versailles Dripping In Gold. Here, She Shares More About How The Famously Feminine Fragrance Embodies Celebration.

time-read
3 mins  |
November 2024
GOOD VIBES
Female Singapore

GOOD VIBES

EVERY YEAR, CHANEL PICKS A PLACE ON THE WORLD MAP NOT ONLY TO INSPIRE, BUT ALSO TO SHOWCASE ITS ANNUAL CRUISE COLLECTION (IT’S A TRADITION THAT’S ROOTED IN THE MAISON’S EARLY YEARS WHEN COCO CHANEL PRESENTED A LINE OUTSIDE OF THE USUAL FASHION CALENDAR TO INCITE WANDERLUST FOR TOASTIER, MORE PICTURE-PERFECT CLIMES DURING THE WINTER MONTHS). THE LATEST DESTINATION: VIBRANT MARSEILLE – THE FRENCH CITY THAT RECEIVES THE MOST SUNSHINE; HOME TO AN ECLECTIC REPERTOIRE OF CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS AND LANDMARKS; AND A MAGNET FOR EMERGING CREATIVES WITH ITS MIX OF GRIT AND GLAMOUR, LAND AND SEA, AND YOUTHFUL BOHEMIAN ENERGY. THE RESULTS? A COLLECTION THAT MAKES US WANT TO LET LOOSE AND DANCE. NOELLE LOH REPORTS FROM THE PHOCAEAN CITY.

time-read
3 mins  |
November 2024
THE PARTY EDIT
Female Singapore

THE PARTY EDIT

Club-appropriate hits from the Resort 2025 collections

time-read
1 min  |
November 2024
THE VIPS
Female Singapore

THE VIPS

SOME OF THE 17 PEOPLE SPOTLIGHTED ACROSS THE NEXT 26 PAGES HAVE BEEN IN THE NIGHTLIFE BUSINESS WAY BEFORE THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC DECADES EVEN. OTHERS LESS, BUT HAVE BEEN FOR MUCH OF THEIR LIVES DEEP INTO MUSIC, VIBING IT OUT ON DANCE FLOORS AND MAKING SURE EVERYONE AROUND HAS A HELLUVA GOOD TIME. THEIR ENDEAVOURS RANGE FROM A MODEST NEIGHBOURHOOD BAR TO CONGLOMERATE-BACKED, MULTI-CONCEPT SPACES AND A MULTIFARIOUS NETWORK OF POP-UP PARTIES, ALL OF WHICH HAVE BEEN MAKING AN EXTRA-LOUD SPLASH IN THE PAST YEAR. WHAT ELSE THEY ALL HAVE IN COMMON: THEY'RE RETHINKING AND RESHAPING PARTY CULTURE FOR THE FUTURE - OR, TO PARAPHRASE CHARLI XCX, THEY'RE BUMPIN' IT. KENG YANG SHUEN AND NOELLE LOH PUT THE CAMERA FLASH ON.

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2024
THE NIGHTS
Female Singapore

THE NIGHTS

ROUGHLY TWO YEARS ON SINCE THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, FOLKS FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE ARE STILL TAKING IT UPON THEMSELVES TO THROW THEIR OWN INDEPENDENT PARTIES WITH MORE EXPERIMENTAL SOUNDS, AND MORE INTENTIONAL AND INCLUSIVE EXPERIENCES THAT INJECT A ROUSING UNDERGROUND ENERGY TO SINGAPORE NIGHTLIFE. KENG YANG SHUEN TURNS THE SPOTLIGHT ON FOUR OF THE NEWEST ORGANISERS ON THE SCENE AND TELLS YOU WHY YOU SHOULD HIT THEIR PARTIES.

time-read
4 mins  |
November 2024
THE SOUNDS
Female Singapore

THE SOUNDS

THEY'RE ALL UNDER 30, MOSTLY SELF-TAUGHT AND EMERGED PROFESSIONALLY ONLY AFTER THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. MOST DON'T EVEN HAVE A REGULAR GIG (YOU'D HAVE TO CHECK THEIR INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS TO FIND OUT WHEN NEXT THEY'LL BE PERFORMING), BUT DON'T YOU DARE CALL THEM BEDROOM DJS. KENG YANG SHUEN SPOTLIGHTS SEVEN EMERGING SINGAPORE-BASED MUSIC SELECTORS AND MIX MASTERS WHO'VE BEEN TEARING UP DANCE FLOORS IN THE PAST YEAR AND SHOULD BE TAKEN VERY SERIOUSLY.

time-read
6 mins  |
November 2024
A Not So Common Scent
Female Singapore

A Not So Common Scent

For the first time, the singular house of Hermes has launched a chypre perfume fragrance type known for its complexity and dualistic nature a that comes in a first-of-its-kind bottle, no less. Keng Yang Shuen finds out more about Barenia, Hermes's latest scent that hit stores recently, from the brand's in-house perfumer Christine Nagel.

time-read
5 mins  |
October 2024
Strange Love
Female Singapore

Strange Love

The six names in this story create wildly different works that tend to blur the boundaries among disparate disciplines. All have little in common except one thing: a certain wondrousness and sense of curiosity that inspire audiences to look at familiar things anew. Keng Yang Shuen reports.

time-read
6 mins  |
October 2024
The artist
Female Singapore

The artist

Johnny Depp is certainly far from the conventional leading man: the iconically quirky on-screen roles, the rock musician persona (he was a guitarist before becoming an actor), the unexpected neoexpressionist portraits in 2022 (these paintings of cultural heroes ranging from AI Pacino to Elizabeth Taylor sold out in a day), and of course the title of being Dior's long-standing poster boy for its wilderness-inspired flagship men's perfume Sauvage for nine years and counting.

time-read
5 mins  |
October 2024
spirited away
Female Singapore

spirited away

Collaborations with the art world have become a trusted way of injecting novelty into fashion.

time-read
4 mins  |
October 2024